Part Two- San Francisco

It’s about 5:45 am, Monday morning, and I’m seated in the Reno/Tahoe Airport. Since I’m leaving Reno in about 30 minutes I thought this was the perfect opportunity to write about the 2nd half of my trip. Firstly, San Francisco never really gets above the mid 70’s, or so I am told. But while we were there it was a definite exception. It was up to 104 at times. Despite the weather we had a lot of fun. All the public transportation systems were completely free as a way to pay back everyone for using it, some kind of “Save the Air” Campaign. The subway, buses, trolleys and cable cars were all entirely free. The friends we were staying with (The Edgrens) Live in Danville, about 35 minutes from San Francisco. Since the whole free transportation was in play the day we were visiting, we rode BART in to San Francisco from Danville. BART is like MARTA, for all of you from Atlanta. I was trying to think of an acronym for BART, but no such luck yet, let me know if you have an epiphanies. BART took us right to Embarcadero (The closest stop to the piers) we walked the mile stroll down all the piers until we got to the famous Pier 39. I never knew how athletic San Francisco was. The joggers outnumbered everything else on the sidewalk. Pier 39 was swarming with people, as usual, and probably even more so because of all the freebies. We never made our reservations to see Alcatraz so we waited in a line no longer then 30 minutes, just to be told that tickets were sold out and that the next available tour was the following day at noon. We quickly scratched that idea and jumped on a hop-on-hop-off trolley tour around the city. We saw Lombard Street (the really crooked street), Chinatown, Union Square, Fisherman’s Wharf, (some other places, obviously not too exciting) and then we were back to Pier 39. Nothing was shown or observed in real depth, so I guess someday I’ll have to be making another trip out to that city. We ate lunch in Union Square on the top of Macy’s at the Cheesecake Factory. It was fabulous as usual. FYI Cheesecake Factory now ships their cheesecakes around the US, (http://www.cheesecakefactory.com/) for any of you cheesecake lovers. After lunch we took a walk down to Chinatown. Let’s just say if you’ve been to Calgary’s Chinatown, or just Calgary for that matter, then you’re good to go. I kept on wondering if there was another street that we were missing or maybe there was a Japanesetown close by, because I really wasn’t impressed with the size. I wasn’t at all disappointed, just not impressed. The Golden Gate Bridge was too much for Laramee at the end of the day so we just headed back to Danville. Danville is nice, it’s in California, so of course it’s nice. Early Friday morning we left Danville for Pajaro Dunes. The Edgren’s have a beach house down there and we were going down just a few hours ahead of them. Laramee and I stopped in Santa Cruz at a Costco to grab a hot dog. While in Santa Cruz we went to the rides and attractions out on the pier (The same rides seen on Full House). After having been to Six Flags, we refrained from buying tickets to the junkie rides. It was about 63 out, and wasn’t much warmer when we got to Pajaro Dunes. We visited the local Target for entertainment until the Edgren’s arrived. When we discovered that the weather would be just as crumby on Saturday too, Laramee was veering towards driving the 1 ½ back to Danville so we could leave from there early the next morning. That was exactly what we did. I fell asleep, and as the navigator let the driver down. We ended up getting lost for about 45 minutes somewhere between Oakland and Danville; eventually getting back to Danville around 12:30am. Driving back to Reno the next morning was rather enjoyable, I slept the entire time. After we arrived back in Reno and finally had enough energy to move we went to IN-N-OUT, followed by riding the Ultimate Rush, at the Hilton. I highly recommend doing both of those activities, just in the opposite order. IN-N-OUT was just as enjoyable as usual, but the Ultimate Rush was something I had never experienced. It truly was THE ULTIMATE RUSH. Both of us were geared up in harnesses and then hoisted about 200 feet into the air. I guess me being the braver of the two was given the opportunity to pull the cord, which practically feels like committing suicide and murder at the same time*. The instructor yelled “1-2-3 FLY!” and on the “FLY” I was suppose to pull the cord. I guess I did it around the 3 but either way the rush felt the same. We swung back and forth like a tether ball and when we finally stopped asked him if we could go again. “$10.00 each for a second run” he told us. Without detaching any carabineers we were once again hoisted into the air. “1-2-3 FLY!” was yelled once again, this time instead of being early I froze and he yelled out the catch phrase again, “1-2-3 FLY!” I finally pulled it and we headed down again, IT WAS AWESOME! The IN-N-OUT fortunately stayed down, but I really wouldn’t have mind going back to get some more. Reno was awesome, San Francisco was great, and all the random places in-between have been fabulous. Now I’m heading to Seattle to meet up with my roommate, Emily Harris. She and I went to EFY about 3 years ago when I attended a session at BYU. She actually is in Bruce and Lori Salmon’s Stake. I might just have to stop by their house for a minute or so. Who knows when I’ll be in Sammamish again… The two of us will be in Washington till Wednesday, until we depart on our 11 hour drive to Rexburg, our future home. I’m sitting on the airplane now and we just passed Mt. Rainer, we’re preparing to descend into the Seattle area so I’m preparing myself for a colder Georgia, with high humidity and a lot of Starbucks. As soon as I get some internet access I’ll post this, probably with a lot of pictures too. Enjoy!

*The feelings described in the above document have never been previously felt.

On the way to BART

Trying to act Asian in Chinatown


STILL trying to be Asian in Chinatown

Chinatown

Lomard St.-The Crookedest Street in San Francisco

The Hairiest Female Armpit in San Francisco

Santa Cruz Beach

Weather in Reno, NV (115)

( I just posted this because I'm vain and prideful) (and honest)

I was trying to make some of you jealous with this one...
IN-N-OUTTHE ULTIMATE RUSH