San Fransico

Taken from on top of Fort Point

After leaving Marina, I made my way up California 1 to San Francisco. I made a stop along the way at Half Moon Bay.

The beach went on like this for miles.

I reached San Francisco around 3pm; just enough time to check in and relax a little bit before exploring for dinner. I go to check in at the Orange Village Hostel, where I had my reservations for the week. One problem, when I made my reservations, the date changed to the following week somehow (likely opening and closing the app). This meant that I had no where to sleep for the next 4 days!

Ok, no reason to panic, I will just stay somewhere else. Well, with such short notice everything was booked. I go back to the app that got me in trouble in the first place and find somewhere that says they have a room. Leary of trying the app again, I call them directly. They say they are full. I refresh the app and it still says they have a spot. I decide to book through the app again, this time triple checking the dates and getting "trip insurance" for $5.

I showed up to the hostel, they say that they actually were overbooked, but I had a place to stay for the next two nights. After that they would either move me to a private room, or just a block down the street to their other location. Victorious, I collapse in my bed for the next hour.

Taken in Union Square, the closest park I could find. There was live music that night!

I wasn't really sure what to do in a city as big as San Francisco. I walked around for a little bit admiring the size of everything. Outside of Dublin, I think this is the most densely populated city I have ever been to. Hungry, I decided to look for someplace to eat. I was astounded by the prices of food! $20 for a sandwich! I searched around and was able to find a bakery that had a huge meal for $7. It was a little bit away from the square, but I could take it to go and eat it there. I guess it all depends on where you look.

I woke up early the next day to make it to TwilioCon. My cousin, Rachael, works there and invited me to the conference while I was in town. I met a lot of really interesting people and got excited for some project ideas I had on the road. I participated in the "Hacker Olympics" and won a Portal 2 science kit and potato, and got to see Jonathan Coulton perform at the end of the conference! It was my first tech conference ever and it was absolutely fantastic.

Our team completed the most challenges over the course of the event!

Fantastic show! Really fun to see live.

After the 2 days at the conference stuffing my face, I decided it would be a good idea to get some exercise. I woke up, swapped backpacks for my light bag (a big mistake, more on this later), and set out to explore San Francisco. The first stop was the San Francisco Maritime National History Park. This was a pretty small museum, but had historic ships anchored in the marina. 

A nice view of Alcatraz Island from the Marina.

That long bridge in the picture was closed because of the "America's Cup". I had never heard about this before, but it was going on while I was there. There were these cool, miniature, remote-control sailboats that you could learn to sail in the visitor area. It had me remembering everything from the sailing classes that I took when I was younger. I got to see part of the race that day, but without a radio I couldn't really tell what was going on.

My next stop was Fort Point, right under the Golden Gate Bridge. It was an awesome step back in history. 

Old Spanish cannon which was a spoil of war.

The original design for the Golden gate bridge called for the removal of the fort. I am glad the designer was able to alter the plans to save it.

From Fort Point, I made my way to Lands End park. The trail I took wound down along the coast through Baker Beach. The cliffs were really amazing. When the fog cleared out, I got a great view of the bridge.

After this point, I decided I should start making my way back to the hostel if I was going to meet up with Rachael. I had walked a lot that day, topping out at 24.4 miles (thanks to Fitbit for keeping that data well after the 7 day retention period!). I decided I would stop by my car and get my clothes ready for my last day, since I didn't think we would be back before the parking deck closed for the night. I was met by the pictures below.

Someone had decided to break into my car and steal my backpack. They hit the window hard, because there was glass throughout the car. In my backpack I had some clothes, my laptop, my retainer, things I got from TwilioCon, some of my camping stuff, and some other misc. items. Anger, frustration, sadness, hate, sorrow, helplessness. Yea, not the best end to an otherwise great day.

I called my insurance and they were able to setup a glass shop to fix my car the next day. It is a lucky thing too, because it would rain every day for the next seven days of my trip. As for the stuff, we are still working on that.

On the last day, I ran my car to the shop as early as I could. This allowed them to see me right away and fix it. After dropping it off I went to Sidewalk Juice for a smoothie based on a suggestion from Tim Ferris. I walked back to Rachael's place so we could go grab some breakfast and talk. It was really good to chat with her. We have had opposite schedules for about 4-5 years, so even around the holidays we got to see each other for a few hours at best. Everything considered, the trip was worth it just because we got to hang out.

San Francisco Pictures