Day 7 - San Fransisco part deux

I arrived in SF in the afternoon and went straight to the airport to ditch my rental car. Diana (another GSV alum) graciously picked me up and took me to her family home in the Mission District and then played tour guide extraordinaire - in the rain, no less!

We started by taking the bus to Haight-Ashbury to walk around. There weren't too many people around because it was cold and drizzly but there was some interesting stuff. And check it out - the buses run on electric lines. Crazy! I was also surprised by how frequently the buses were running - very cool.

We walked through the Golden Gate Park (which was beautiful) and then tucked into the art museum, even though it was closing in about 15 minutes, just to warm up a bit. We walked through a few exhibits (for free!) before taking another bus to the actual bridge. I'll admit, I wish I had looked at a map of the city before arriving - I was so disoriented.

real red woods! ah!

 Even in the crappy weather (I hear this is common there?) the bridge was really an amazing sight. It was so huge, the scale in pictures is misleading. The bright orange against the drizzle was also really striking. The national park at the base of the bridge was pretty interesting, highlighting the bridge's history and engineering, and there were lots of interactive displays for the kids at heart like me. Diana said it was all pretty new.

surfers!

We were getting hungry so we met up with Diana's boy to get some dinner in Japan town. I had never even heard of a Japan town before, and it looks just like how I imagine Japan to look. The street signs were in Japanese and everything.

After eating we went to a pirate themed bar. Luckily the rain was over because we had to wait outside for a while just to get in. It was crowded but not that crazy, but it was nice that they kept it from getting overfull. I was told that there's always a line, no matter what day or time it is. Every square inch of the place was decorated. It's known for its fancy cocktails - mine was delicious and had a flower in it, so you already know I was happy.

Feelin' good, we walked downtown for a few minutes to see city hall lit up and to go to an observation deck/bar at a hotel. Unfortunately there was no where to sit and we felt weird lingering so close to people eating, so we just took a few pictures of the panorama and ditched. My pictures didn't come out, really, but here you have them:

Now I'm pooped so we're calling it a night. Not a bad start, San Fran!