It’s a Jungle Out There

I made it!  Finally!  My number one spot that I had to see before I left San Francisco. I managed to squeeze it in literally hours before I left back to Toronto. This street may look like any ordinary one, which many people would not understand why it’s so significant to my life. In grade 6 I met one of my best friends, and he introduced me to the show Monk. Well this spot is repeated at the end of  the theme song “It’s a Jungle Out There” and I swore if I ever got to San Fran I would cross the street just like he does. I finally did, and it was every bit as exciting as I hoped it would be!

Last day with Molly in the park. It was a sad day but we had fun!

I miss my little model.

Granted the lines were way too long to actually ride a cable car, but I did get to experience and do everything I really wanted to. Had an absolutely marvelous trip and met some spectacular people who I will always remember.  A huge thank you to MJ and Kurt who not only gave me this opportunity but taught me valuable life lessons and showed me the true heart of this beautiful city. Finally, as I was leaving the apartment, Michelle Pfeiffer who also lives there said good-morning to me! Great way to end off my trip!

Landed safely and back home. As Mark Twain said: “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” Well I can’t agree that it was the coldest winter, but it was definitely the coldest summer. Will miss you San Francisco, until next time!

Tacko and Honeydew

 

Alex and I went out for lunch on our last day together and went to a place called Tacko on Filmore St which has terrific tacos and burritos at very low prices! We collected an assortment of hot sauces and on each bite we alternated them. It was fun and made the food even better! We also got Honeydew juice which was by far the best juice I have ever tasted.

Little bit of Canada on the walls.

Melbourne 7871 Miles… See you soon Aunty! But actually… I will be in Australia in not too long where I will start up my next adventure!

At night, we headed over to A16 where we met up with Kurt and MJ and had a really nice dinner. I tried squid ink pasta for the first time and it was actually really good. I must say, San Francisco food is amazing!

Welcome to Alcatraz

Yesterday I finally ventured towards Azkaban… I mean Alcatraz. Kurt and I started out in Fisherman’s Wharf which is a huge tourist area… And I don’t really understand why. It’s not that exciting, just crowded.

Bay bridge.

We took the ferry across the bay towards Alcatraz. And as we were getting closer, the view was phenomenal. I really lucked out because there was not a cloud in the sky. It was absolutely perfect weather. I can image it can get quite cold when the fog rolls in.

Welcome to Alcatraz. Better hope you don’t have a one-way ticket.

The rooms were tiny. Here is a replica of what an occupied room would look like. Also if you look in the back you can see how some of the prisoners tried to escape. They say three managed. No one knows if they ever lived to tell the tale. My theory… They swam to the near by island – Angle Island – and still lived a imprisoned life as they couldn’t reintegrate with society.

San Francisco shoreline.

During the tour you’re allowed to enter a cell and try it out. Well when I walked in Kurt thought it would be funny to rattle the door as if he was closing it. It scared me so bad I literally jumped and spun around. I bolted out of the cell as fast I could.

The courtyard. I think the worst part for these prisoners would be the fact that they had the beautiful view of San Francisco and freedom as a view. That alone is torture.

Once we finished our tour and where back on solid land. We walked along the pier towards the sea lions. Yes. There are actually wild sea lions that hang out on the pier and sun bathe. They have lived here for years. They don’t bother anyone and no one bothers them. Pretty cool. Although I didn’t meet Sirius Black, it was still a cool adventure to the prison.

Toronto Reunion in Frisco

On Tuesday my aunt, uncle and two cousins who were visiting from Toronto were able to meet up in SF during their time in California. I got to spend the day with my cousins and we had a lovely day.

We started out at BetelNut and then headed over to the beach to walk and catch up. On our way back from the beach, we witnessed this truck trying to do a U-Turn. I don’t really understand how he could have possibly thought that he was going to fit with that black car right in the way. But this sort of sums up California drivers in a nut shell.

After the beach, we headed over to the Palace of Fine Arts. It really is so peaceful and beautiful there.

Duckies!

Finally, as we headed over to the apartment, we had to climb this  monstrous hill, which put us all out breath. This picture does not do it justice, but trust me it was steep and there were three of them to get to the top!

The grass is really brighter on the other side. We were at the top of one of the hills and it was cool looking on all the sides around us. Finally we headed to the apartment where we met up with my aunt and uncle and Kurt and MJ and had such a nice dinner. It was nice having everyone together and kinda cool catching up with them in a different city. Brought home a little closer.

Friday Night Live

I’ve heard of the Cheesecake Factory, but I’ve never actually been until yesterday. Alex and I decided we needed a girls day and headed over to the factory before heading out and hitting the stores.

We mainly only browsed, hitting up Channel, Macy’s and Nordstrom. However we did check out Forever 21, where I spotted Carly Rae Jepsen standing behind me in line. She’s playing in Toronto the same day I am returning … wonder if I can catch her concert.

Check it out!

Beautiful San Francisco.  Even in it’s brutally cold! People where actually wearing winter clothes in August. I swear it’s hotter in Toronto than here… who’d thought?

We continued our girls-day-out by going to a little Italian restaurant called “Franchino”, which was super cute and the staff were so warming and Italian. It was great!

Molly got herself a beau. His name is Simba. I’ve never seen two dogs play as much as they had!  It was so cute!

The end to a great day occurred when MJ took me out the the comedy club and we saw three performers, including Jay Pharoah from Saturday Night Live. It was so much fun, we had some good laughs. And it was pretty cool being that close to an SNL star.

Giants vs Mets

Went to the Giants game, and they were playing the NY Mets, which was kinda cool since I always wanted to see them play after hearing it always mentioned in Friends.

We had really good tickets and seats thanks to Jerry Garcia’s family. This particular game was dedicated in honor of him.

His pals from the Grateful Dead led the “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” song live which was sweet. His daughter Keelin even threw the first pitch.

It was actually a pretty life-threatening game since I’m pretty sure there was over 20 foul balls flying around near my head. I was afraid the ball from Jays game I saw back in Toronto was coming to haunt me since it barely missed my head then. I seriously mean barely. I am destined to be hit by a baseball…

I found it really amusing how the high-up tickets that are called “Nose-Bleeds” in most stadiums, are called “The Views” in this stadium since it has such amazing views of San Fran and the bay. Check out that full moon. Hard to catch it on the camera, but it seemed so close to the ground, and you could see all the craters.

San Fran at night.

Chicken Pot Pie

MJ took me to this awesome bar/restaurant called “The Big 4 Restaurant” and I had their chicken pot pie, which by the way, is the best I have ever had! 5-stars for sure!

It very much had an English Man’s Club feeling with the leather seats and the way the bar was designed. Very nice place, with live piano music.

Look at him – what a cutie. Sneaking in a smile for my picture.

I really recommend this place to anyone, and the chicken pot pie is a must! After we had dinner, we went into the Mark Hopkins Hotel which is right beside the restaurant and went up to the top floor to see the view of San Francisco which was spectacular. We met a waiter there who tried to convince us to stay, and after a few minutes of talking to him, MJ realizes he is Dutch and out of the blue she busts out talking in Dutch. The boy was so startled he answered in English. It was a really nice night.

Flowers in my hair

MJ took me to the Beach  Blanket Babylon, which is sort of a comedy-musical production. It was so much fun, held in a medium-sized venue, which was so cute, with a very friendly environment. It was cool how they used recent events from the news and from celebrity tabloids such as Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise drama, Justin Bieber jokes and Obama vs. Romney drama. I totally recommend it for anyone who is visiting San Fran because it is so much fun!

After the show, we met one of their friends who happens to be a writer, editor and publisher from London for dinner. He was a riot, and gave me a lot of advice for my own writing! We headed to this restaurant called “Capp’s Italian Dinner” and it had great pasta and awesome pictures on the walls!

The next day I ran into a model, Erin Axtell, and she complemented the way I did my nails! Epic!

Will that be VISA?

So I finally truly hit the  downtown of San Francisco which surprising is only 4 blocks away from where I’m staying. But realistically, it isn’t 4 normal blocks… more like mountain hiking up and down the hill.  Hit some cool stores, but the best part wasn’t the clothes or the shoes – which don’t get me wrong, they are pretty awesome – but the architecture of the buildings and even inside the stores. I mean am I entering Forever21 or a museum?

Check out that ceiling!

BCBG. Love the colours!

Again, blown away that this isn’t in Europe. Side note – this does remind me of Gringotts from Harry Potter.

 Overall, I did enjoy myself downtown. It was a really a nice day, the sun was out – no fog, shocker – and I even made a friend. I was trying clothes on, and I asked this nice girl working there for her opinion, and we started talking and became friends. Turns out she’s here working for the summer from Ireland until school starts back up in September, so we added each other on Facebook in hopes to hang out one day, and she wants to introduce me to all her other Irish friends! I think that would be exciting!

The downtown plaza, which reminds me of many Hollywood movie scenes.

End of the day shenanigans in the park. Dog-owners reunion starts at 5.

Somebody that I almost knew

Had two celebrity sightings yesterday! At least two I recognized, I feel like overall I have seen more. The first one was Goyte, we walked by each other as he was coming out of a book store. I did the whole double-look-stop-and-stare scenario, but honestly, it was a little hard recognizing him with clothes on! Check out his video if you don’t know what I mean: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY

The other sighting was Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs on Discovery Channel, who actually lives in Marina/Cow Hollow, not far from where I am staying.

As for the picture above, it has no significance, only that I thought it looked cool as I was playing with my camera settings.