If You're Going to San Francisco....go in October!!

View from window of the plane - sunset over Rockies.

Today makes a week I've been in San Francisco - and what a difference a couple months make!  Last time I was here it was August and was cold, foggy, and damp.  This time, every day has seen a cloudless blue sky, brilliant sun, and mid-day temps in the 70s (or, like last weekend, low 80s!). 

When I arrived last Friday night, my friend Erika from L.A. flew in about the same time as I did.  She planned to stay the weekend with us in San Fran before flying home.  My cousin Erin and her wife Kerri picked us up from the airport and drove us to a quaint Italian restaurant near their house in the Castro district.  We had yummy dinner and caught up on each others' lives.  I was pretty tired since my body thought it was 3 hours later than it was here, but I had gotten a couple hours sleep on the plane, so that helped. 

Erin, Erika, Lauren at Twin Peaks overlook.

The next morning, Erika and I got up before 8 and went running.  Erika is a much more accomplished runner than I am, but let me just say, running in San Fran is hard!  We were both heaving about 50% of the time.  Hills + runners = God laughing.  Anyway, we ran to this little park that had big rocks on top of a hill and from the top, you could see almost all of SF and beyond the bay to Berkeley, Oakland and other areas.  After we finished our run, we returned to Erin's and took showers before going on a driving tour of SF w/Erin and Kerri. 

Lauren and Erika at the Palace of Fine Arts.

They drove us through different areas of SF and pointed out houses they loved (all of which would cost millions of dollars despite being smaller than the average house in Charlotte) and then took us to a beach very near the Golden Gate Bridge.  We were so lucky to find parking right off the bat along the shoreline, and though we didn't stay long, it was fun to watch all the people and see the bridge without a shroud of fog.  From there we drove to another beach on the opposite side of the bridge which was prettier in my opinion and less touristy. On the drive there, we saw a whole group of roller-bladers and all of them were wearing butt-less costumes.  Some had the butt cut out of their pants, some had cut off the back of their skirts - it was so bizarre.  Welcome to San Francisco!  Everyone seemed to be out and about as it was in the low 80s - unusual for SF and on the second beach, Erika and I took off our shoes and ran around the sand and waded a little bit in the frigid water.  There were a couple people actually in the water, but they were clearly insane. ;) 

Erin, Lauren, Erika with bridge.

After that, we drove through the Presidio (an old military base that is now a huge park) and went to Nob Hill to see Grace Cathedral.  The Cathedral is a decedent of Grace Church which was built there in 1849.  The present church renovation was completed in 1964 with Ghiberti doors made in Italy that are replicas of the doors on the Florence Baptistery (part of the Duomo).  As soon as I saw them I was like "Whoa, those look like the same doors" and after looking it up on Wikipedia, found out they were replicas made when the doors were removed during WWII and kept in underground storage for fear of bombing.  During that time, several replicas were made - this being one of them. 

Bridge!

After seeing the church, which was very reminiscent of European cathedrals, we went to Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 where all the sea-lions sun bathe on the docks.  We bought a few little things and looked around in several of the shops on the pier.  From there we walked toward a pier that proffered a wonderful view of the Bay Bridge directly to our right with the sun setting on it, and the Golden Gate far to the left, with some fog rolling in under it.  I got some great photos of both. 

We tried to go to a Spanish restaurant for dinner after that, but it was a 2 hour wait and we were starving.  Instead, we went to a sushi place and I got fried shrimp since I don't do raw fish. 

The next morning we left a little after 9 and drove to Muir Woods, a National Monument (like a National park but smaller) that was across the Golden Gate.  It has redwoods there, so we went to do some tree-hugging.  I was excited because I got us all in for free with my National Park pass! :)  The woods were incredibly mystical and full of magic.  We kept expecting to see nymphs, gnomes and fairies pop out at any moment.  The trees were definitely big and tall, though not as large as the ones I saw in the far northern part of CA during my road trip.

The best beach!

After a good hike through the woods, we drove to Saulsalito for lunch.  Saulsalito is a little town right on the bay that overlooks San Francisco with tons of unique little shops and seafood restaurants.  We ate at one right on the water and then shopped around.  In one of the shops I bought a perfume bottle made in Italy with beautiful blown-glass for only $20.  Erika got one too.  We also watched as some random guy built rock formations on the wave breakers, finding small rocks and medium sized rocks and making them balance on each other in ways that looked impossible. 

Grace Cathedral.

The Florence doors.

From there, we drove back to SF and went to Alamo Square where the beginning of Full House was filmed.  While on the hill overlooking the Painted Ladies (the colorful row houses), some guy started playing the Full House theme song on a boom box and some random girls started crying she was so happy.  I guess I can't say anything though...I was practically in tears when I went to all the Dawson's Creek places in Wilmington last summer.   After that we were totally pooped and came back to the house to watch an episode of Grey's Anatomy before taking Erika to the airport to fly home. 

On Monday while Erin and Kerri were at work, I worked from their apartment until Erin got home.  When she did, we changed clothes and went to the House of Air.  This place was so cool!  It was a giant warehouse full of trampolines where you could jump yourself out!  We purchased an hour of jumping and after 15 minutes were already exhausted.  It was so much fun to play on trampolines again, since Mom sold ours a few years ago.  I practiced my front handspring and flip, and the next day, boy was I sore!  I wish we had something like that in Charlotte - what fun we had!

View of Golden Gate from Bay Bridge area.

Pier 39 - Fisherman's Wharf.

On Tuesday I did some work and then walked down to the downtown Castro district to buy a pair of sunglasses and some earphones (I left mine at home and the ones from the airplane were not very good).  I was then listening to Mocking Jay on this little recorded device I borrowed from the library and I just kept walking down Market Street.  Next thing I know, I'm in downtown SF - three miles from Erin's place.  Apparently, the president was in a hotel right near where I was giving a speech and I didn't even know it! It would've been cool to see him.  I watched some street tap dancer perform and had lunch at a burger place that was new and gave me free fries with the burger.  I was too tired to walk all the way back (uphill), so I took the subway to downtown Castro and then walked the last half mile or so back to Erin's.  A little later I walked to the Circus Center, about a mile and half from Erin's, and took a silk aerial class.  I learned a couple new moves, which was fun, and inside the gym where the class was held, other people were practicing trapeze, rope aerial, trampoline and other such circus acts.  It was slightly overwhelming to the senses, but interesting.  However, I like the classes I take in Charlotte better.  We have more silks to work with, more people, and we move a bit faster I think.  The teacher here was very nice though.  When she asked me about the moves I knew, I started telling her and realized that we spoke a different language - the moves I know are called by different names in NC than in CA, so I had to describe/show her many of them and she was like "ohhh, interesting, I can see why it's called that!" 

Bay Bridge by sunset.

Erin picked me up from the class and we came home where Kerri was making shrimp scampi for dinner and it was delicious!  I then packed a bag and Erin dove me to the train station (called BART) so I could take a train (actually more like a subway) to Berkeley where Mike was going to pick me up.  I've known Mike for about five or so years now, having been his first salsa teacher when I was teaching with Rodrigo in college.  I'd come home every other weekend to teach with Rodrigo and Mike had come in to take a class with his girlfriend at the time.  We kept running into each other thereafter, and have established a friendship over the years.  He recently started his MBA at Berkeley so I went to stay with him for a couple nights to give Erin and Kerri a break and catch up with Mike. 

Kerri, Lauren and Erin hugging redwoods.

After he picked me up, he drove me back to the humongous house he shares with five other MBA students.  It was built in 1901 and is gigantic and kind of spooky with many hidden doors and secret closets.  Mike definitely got the best spot in the house - the entire attic is his and is so large with so much storage it actually fit his entire 3 bedroom apartment from Charlotte.  He has a great view off his balcony and the angles of the roof and the redwood walls/ceilings are so lovely.  The house has so much character - I want to live in a house like that one day.  Much more interesting than the cookie-cutter houses new developers make. 

pretty

The next morning Mike had class at 9 so I worked from his place for a little while, then walked the 20 minutes to the Berkeley campus.  It is really a beautiful campus and I LOVED the library - it was so great with old sofas and chair and oriental rugs and chandeliers.  I spent some time there reading and then met Mike when he finished his class at 12:50.  We walked back to his place and ordered pizzas for pickup from a local joint. Before his 4 o'clock class, Mike tried to get some homework done and I worked on some grad school apps.  While he was in class until 6, I ordered my GRE scores to be sent to the schools I'm applying to and edited my writing samples.  When he got home, we made pasta for dinner and relaxed some until it was time to go salsa dancing. 

Hanging out with a tree.

The place we went to dance reminded me so much of Morehead Street Tavern in Charlotte where we used to salsa dance on Wednesday nights in Charlotte. I met some of Mike's grad school friends there and we had a fabulous time dancing.  Though when I wasn't dancing with Mike or his friend Will, I was not entirely happy with the creepy guys there.  As soon as a dance ended, I'd step one toe off the floor and another guy would be like "Bailar??" (dance??).  Finally, by 12:30 when my feet were killing me, I was like "sorry, I'm done." haha  The atmosphere of meeting his friends and hanging out with everyone there made me really miss school so much.  I'm getting more excited about the prospect of grad school.  I almost wish there were any top MFA programs out here.  It really is a different world and kind of magical in its own way.  Unfortunately, the only top programs not on the East coast are in Boulder, CO (Univ of Colorado); Austin, TX (UT) and St. Louis, MO (Washington Univ), and I'm applying to all of them as it were.  I'm also applying to Univ of FL, UNC-G, UNC-W, Brown, Johns Hopkins, Hollins University, and UVA. 

At the top of our hike.

That night, I woke up a few minutes past 5:30 a.m. thinking that Mike was shaking me awake.  I woke up scared because I thought maybe there was a fire or something, but when I opened my eyes, there was no one there.  Mike was on the couch and I was in his bed, which was rocking forward and back, forward and back.  It was then that I realized - I was experiencing my first earthquake and it was completely surreal.

The next day I told Mike about it - he hadn't woken up - though he's a much sounder sleeper than I am.  I told him to look it up online because Erin said all earthquakes are recorded in a list online.  Well, as soon as he typed in Berkeley earthquake, it came up as an actual news article.  "3.9 Earthquake Shakes Berkeley."  hahaha  He was bummed that he missed it.  I'm sure being the attic also helped with feeling it, though 3.9 is fairly strong and Kerri even felt it in SF, despite the epicenter being in Berkeley. 

Erika and me in Saulsalito.

Rock statues with SF in background.

After we got up on Thursday, we went to a nearby coffee shop for breakfast and worked on our applications - his for fellowships and mine for grad school.  At 1:30 we left and went to lunch at this kosher place called Holy Land where we each had pitas stuffed with meat, tomatoes and lettuce.  As we walked back to Mike's house, we passed the most famous ice cream place in Berkeley and since Mike doesn't eat ice cream, I of course had to get one and try it.  It was, admittedly, amazing.  I even got Mike to try a bite.  Back at the house, we watched Revenge which he'd kindly recorded for me.  It made me really happy how closely he listened to my whole recap of the show this far and really paid attention and when watching the show, would pause it and ask me questions.  So many people would've been like "whatever." 

With the Painted Ladies.

After the show, we walked to the park that is directly across the street and played some Frisbee then just lay on a picnic blanket enjoying the warm sun.  It was a gorgeous day, warmer than the day before, and it was just the perfect ending to the day.  That evening, Mike drove me to the train station and Erin & Kerri picked me up on the other side and took me with them to the oldest bar in San Francisco where one of their friends was playing live music.  We had a yummy dinner and their friend was very good - though the world series postponed his set quite a bit and as it was, he had to start before it was over since they went into so much overtime.  I must say though, it was getting fairly exciting when they went into their 10th and then 11th inning.  I can't believe St. Louis ended up winning after being down most of the game. 

Kerri and Erin looking at the Painted Ladies.

Today I went running and went to the top of Buena Vista park from which you can see the Golden Gate, then I went to the same spot with the rocks on the hill where Erika and I had run.  I sat there for a while looking out over the city and listening to a podcast on my iPod. 

Now I'm back at Erin's working and waiting for her to get home so we can either walk or bike across the bridge.  Tomorrow she and Kerri are driving Kerri's mom to Sanoma for her birthday, so in the morning I'm going back to Mike's until my flight leaves on Sunday night.  We're also going to a Halloween Party on Saturday night which I'm looking forward to!