Visit to San Francisco… Because why not, right?

Saturday and Sunday, 04 & 05 Feb, 2017

Sometimes, you have to just get out of town. Especially when “town” is defined as “a frozen wasteland full of ice and snow and cold and ice”. Sarah and I needed to get out of town. Hood River had gotten old, and the constant snow storms were getting a bit ridiculous.

Where to go, though? We didn’t want to pay a lot for a flight, or have a long flight to sit through. And we didn’t want to have to plan something big and in-depth out. San Francisco ticked all of those boxes – doubly so, since we’d been talking about going for ages.

We booked tickets, booked a few days at doggy camp for Ollie, and drove to the airport.

One night, two days. Flying out of Portland on a Saturday morning, and flying home on a Sunday evening. Staying at a random hotel that my Mom recommended… mostly because it was easy to book, but definitely also because it was cheap.

Plans? Meh. No real plans. Hang out with my cousin and her newborn baby. Eat at a cool restaurant that Sarah’s family loves. Aside from that… nothing, except for enjoy the weather and lay low for a weekend.

And we ticked off all our goals!

Saturday, we landed, dropped our bags at the hotel, and immediately started walking. Lunch was imperative, and Sarah hadn’t ever been to Kiki’s, so we started our adventures there. Fuel is important, don’t you know.

Walks, the De Young museum, and Golden Gate Park were a good follow up for us… It’s strange, but I’ve been to the observation tower at the De Young a few times, but I’d never been inside before. I think fate was having me save that experience for a time I could go with Sarah, because having her with me made the whole experience so much better than it ever would have been if I was alone…

It’s something I’ve learned, but I just miss like 70% of the content of an art gallery. Nothing against me, it’s just that I’ve never made art like that, so I don’t know to look for certain things. Sarah points them out to me, and the context generally sheds a whole new dimension to the piece in question. And at a museum like the De Young, that’s a huge component!

So we walked. I enjoyed, and Sarah explained. I learned, and asked questions that made her question more, which gave us an even cooler understanding of the space and pieces. It was awesome.

Visiting Emma and Matt can be described pretty handily as “Meeting the baby!”… but we did get more time with them than I’d expected, which was really awesome. I always want more time though, and we didn’t get to spend nearly as much time catching up with them and my Mom as we could have. But it just means Sarah and I will have to fly back to Boston again soon, so we can spend some more time hanging out and chatting, right?

And I’ll be honest – meeting the Baby was really cool. His stare… I’ve never (as far as I remember) played with a baby as young as he was, so I don’t really have anything to compare it to. But the stare was draining! I loved playing and making him laugh, but I felt so intensely tired afterward, it was really surprising.

What else… not that much, really. We visited. Caught up, Emma and Matt met Sarah. Sarah met Emma and Matt. We ate tacos. Drank wine. Had to leave far too early. But that wasn’t a bad thing, because I think we were passed out within 20min of getting back to the hotel.

I mean, we did go to a dessert place first though. We’re not barbarians.

Sunday was our food day. I mean, the whole trip would probably have been categorized as a food trip by anyone listening to our conversations… Thinking about it, I know exactly why our dog is food focused. It’s because we’re food focused, and basically plan our whole lives around what we’re going to eat. You think we climb Mt. Hood to summit? No way… we climb it so that our dinner tastes that much better.

Anyways, we walked. We walked to a place called Henry’s Hunan – a restaurant that Sarah had grown up eating at, and that was called “the best Chinese in the world” by some guy back a really long time ago. At least according to the menu.

I’d agree with that menu; it was delicious. I can totally see why it was so imperative that we go there (and it wasn’t easy… we had to walk 3.5 miles, then an extra .6 miles when the one we were aiming for was closed). Everything was solid, and the food was just spicy enough that you could notice it.

Then more walking, this time toward Pier 39, mini donuts, and (unexpectedly) a new engineering notebook, when we stopped into a random Moleskin shop. We did look at jewelry for a little bit too (Valentine’s day, remember, is coming up!), but didn’t find anything that caught Sarah’s eye enough to shell out San Francisco prices for it.

What else… really, not that much. Our Sunday was spent walking, chatting, and enjoying the architecture of the city. It was extremely nice – Just Sarah and myself, no goals, no real timetables, and nothing pulling at our minds. A good mini vacation.