San Francisco: Part 2

April 12, 2014:
I woke around 7am the next morning, meaning I had only slept for 4 or 5 hours. Even in a different time zone, my mind knew what time it was. I laid completely still and tried to go back to sleep because A.S. doesn't like getting up early on the weekends unless he has to and if you know anything about SF apartments, you know the walls are paper thin. I have proof of this because I know when his neighbor upstairs is urinating. I managed to go back to sleep for a couple more hours, but I'm pretty sure I woke myself up with my own snoring. Oops....

Eventually (around 10am or so), I hear A.S. get up and move about the apartment. I then get up as well. Today we are going to the Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival in Japantown. This is the reason I came on this mini vacation/weekend trip. We get ready and then head to Japantown. It's not that far, 12 blocks, I think. Walking the city is great, once you get used to the uphill battles you will face. Haha...of course, if you know someone who knows the city, then they will sometimes try to find the downhill streets if they can for you. So, after we get there, I just kind of stand there and soak the city in and the people gathering for the festival. I eventually decide to get some yakisoba for lunch at one of the food stands. I meet a lovely shiba inu named Saiya while in line.

After I eat, we decide to walk around. I peruse all the vendors and eventually find some stuff I want to buy for K.F. and A.W. I look in the festival book and decide we should go look at the Ikebana exhibition. These are just a couple of my favorites. These are done by different schools of Ikebana. Each school has it's own style. We also came back later for an ikebana demonstration in the auditorium.

After the ikebana exhibition, we go see a washi ningo exhibition (Japanese paper doll art).

After that, we go to the next room and they are doing shishu (traditional Japanese embroidery). I even get the courage to ask one of the embroiderers a question. I'm usually very quiet and like to observe people doing their art.

 There are actually ten different levels of shishu. It was the question I asked him. He is on level 9. He said once he is done with the piece in the photo that he is working on, that it will be the work that gets him to level 10/master status. I wish I could see the finished piece because I knew it would look better than the photo beside him. After that, we went to the origami display.

Then, we watched a tea ceremony. Usually tea ceremonies last for hours, but they do a shortened version for the festival. A.S. thought it would be good for me to get to participate in an actual tea ceremony, so we went down the block to another place that let you be a part of the ceremony and learn what you were supposed to do during the ceremony. It was really interesting and fun. I felt silly though because I kept feeling like I was doing something wrong and disgracing the Japanese culture. It was my first "tea ceremony", give me a break. Hahaha...After that, we went to the Peace Plaza stage and watched some of the performances. Taiko drummers, a dojo doing some sword demonstrations, and KANA.

After all the fun and interesting festival activities, we had to walk home and get ready for dinner with my cousin, aunt, and a bunch of other people for M.T. (my cousin) and A.M.'s birthday. We had reservations at Palamino and the view was great.

After dinner, we (9 of us) got a limo and went to a club called Slide after we found out that the club (Ruby Skye) my cousin wanted to go to was a $30 cover. The bouncer at Slide let us in for free, even though cover was normally $10. Slide has a slide in it and that's why it's called that. We drank, we danced, and had a fun time. I drank a bit much because somehow my cousin always coerces me into drinking hard liquor (I normally drink beer) and poor A.S. had to coddle me a bit until we got back home and I could lay down on "my couch". I even complained about the water tasting like tequila when I wanted to drink some before bed. The next morning, I woke up with cotton mouth, but was overall fine. I had to be at the airport around noon, so eventually A.S. went to go get the zipcar and he took me to the airport, hugged me goodbye and I did all the airport stuff and got on my plane and went home.

I'm always sad when I leave San Francisco. I love that place like its my second home.

San Francisco: Part 1

So, I meant to blog about my mini trip to San Francisco this year, but never made the time to, plus I had a ton of stuff to do for my photography class once I got back.

I'll post a recap of everything in this blog. Along with some photos for your viewing pleasure.

3AM, April 11th, 2014:
I woke up this early because I had to drive myself to O'hare that morning. I had showered and dropped my dog off at my mother's the previous night, so I threw on some make up, checked my carry on again and got in the car for the 2 1/2 hour drive (Google maps says it's just a little over 2 hours, but I accounted for Friday morning traffic and having to stop at tolls).

I arrived at the airport at 6:20am and parked in the E-lot. Got on the tram and rode that to terminal 3. Once there, I found the Virgin America counters and used the self check in computers. When it printed the boarding pass, I had to ask them if that was it because it looked so different from boarding passes I'm used to getting.

 
After confirming I was okay to go through security, I found the shortest security line and played around on my phone while I waited. Security was a breeze luckily and I got to the gate and waited for boarding. Once on the flight, I did do an in flight blog, which I posted before this one. 

When I arrived in San Francisco, I texted A.S. to tell him I had landed. He thought I had brought my big luggage and told me to text him when I got my luggage, he was parked in the cell phone lot with the car he rented for the day. I told him I had only brought my carry on and so he immediately apologized for not being at the arrival terminal and told me he'd be right there.

Once he got there, he got out, greeted me and took my carry on and put it in the back seat of the Audi rental car. After getting on the freeway to go into the city, we chatted a little and he asked if we should go home to drop my things off before going to explore and have lunch. I agreed, as I didn't really want my stuff in the car all afternoon.

He decided that we would explore the Mission District that afternoon and so we found a parking spot and walked over to Delores Park first.

After hanging out in the park for a while, we decided to walk the streets and went into various shops. I had mentioned that I had a headache, so A.S. suggested getting some caffeine. We went to Ritual Coffee Roasters and got some caffeine in our systems. :) After that, we stopped in shops and A.S. bought a CD of some local band. We also stopped in Dog Eared Books and browsed the shelves. A.S. found a book he wanted and bought it. Immediately turning around and handing it to me as a gift and explaining that he liked to find the particular author and give away the books.

Since he noticed that I was really interested in the graffiti and murals in this particular district, we ended up walking down an alley that had murals down both sides. This resulted in us jaywalking in front of the Mission District police station, where I stated that if I got in trouble, he was to take all the blame.

Eventually, we went back to the car, as we were only allowed to park for 2 hours, and went to go find lunch. We ended up at Samovar Tea Lounge on Page St.

After lunch, we decided to go over by the bay. Here I took a really great photo of the bay bridge (which I will not post here) and one of A.S. with the bridge.

Afterwards, we had planned to go to Crissy Field, but ended up at Marina Green. I took some photos there and then, we went home to grab a bottle of sake to take with us before our dinner reservation at Ino Sushi.
The sushi was some of the best sushi I've ever had. We had the omakase, which translates to "I'll leave it to you". It's where the sushi chef makes you what he wants and you usually get to try a few things that are not on the menu. We got to try some that we had never tried before and it was all very tasty. One of my favorites was the Monk fish liver (ankimo nigiri) and the weirdest was the last piece, which I believe was Anago. I only say it was weird because I'd never had sushi like that. Everything was delicious and Yelp reviews are a hit and miss with this little sushi bar because I think some people just feel intimidated by Ino-San (the sushi chef and owner). When you don't understand a culture, it's hard to understand their mannerisms.

After dinner, we went to Land's End because I had wanted to get sunset photos, but it didn't turn out how I wanted because mother nature was not playing along with me. So, after taking a few shots, we headed back home and a couple of A.S.'s friends came by and we played some table top games (which I really didn't want to play, but they made me because and I quote, "you're here") and then after A.S., J.T. and I went to a bar for a beer. When A.S. and I got home, we watched the "Jiro: Dreams of Sushi" documentary, but because I had been up for pretty much 24 hours by this time, I fell asleep on my make shift bed aka the couch and so, A.S. quietly shut it off and told me it was time for sleep.

End day 1.