San Francisco (Part 2)

Next day, after a good frapuccino Chai (yeap, I dig chai) we went to the Golden Gate, which was sooooo foggy we couldn't see it (bad luck) and after that we headed to the Japanese Gardens at the Golden Gardens. It's -like all good Japanese gardens- really beautiful, flawless and pretty peaceful. However, Malia promised I would see big, big fishes in the ponds... you know, those with huge eyes... ask me how many of them did I see! NONE... I wanted my money back! hahaha, no, just kidding...but yeah, no fish at all...maybe they went mating as or with the sea lions...I don't know. I'm starting to think there was a complot against me, hehe.

Anyway, we drove (well, she drives, my job is to distract her) to Hashbury, where it used to be like the Hippies' neighborhood. It has really cool shops...it's kinda cool just to walk there.


Anyway, we had to leave 'cause we were going to see a show called "Beach Blanket Babylon", which is a satire of all contemporary events like government personalities, politics, tv and sport stars, etc, etc etc... it's hilarious! Really, if you once go to SF, you HAVE to go and check it out. It's only showed in San Francisco, so it's pretty much the only place you can find it... well, not pretty much, it's THE only place.

After that we went to have dinner to "the steps of Rome" in North Beach (Italian hood)...apparently, waiters sometimes offer girls to go downstairs to check their wine collection...well, let's say they probably DON'T have one, anyway, we can't confirm that rumor, hehe. After a couple of drinks, we were kinda ditched away so we went to another bar and then to another... yeah, we were kinda wasted so after leaving the 3rd bar we went to eat pizza, haha. Then, we just waited for the alcohol to evaporate a little bit more from our veins. It was a really cool night. We met a bunch of guys, whos names I don't remember...or faces either...anyway.

Next day, Shannon's (M's friend since childhood) grad party at "El Dorado Hills"... I kinda like how they keep mixing spanish names with English, it's funny. Anyway, it was a calm reunion in a really really nice place. It's near Sacramento (I didn't know it was Calif's capital), so it's 2 hours and 3 minutes (according to the MapQuest) drive from SF. I loved there, cool people; really good friends she has there. After that, we drove back (again, my job is not driving, just distracting her with really bad jokes) and stopped in an "IN-n-OUT" fast food restaurant. Really, good hamburguers...I was surprised, they actually had tomato, real tomato inside and lettuce! Hahaha, good choice.

Next day, we went with her mom to adopt a new family member: a mix of Chihuahua with "something" dog (what was it again?). Really cute dog, he hasn't a name yet. Since it's half Chihuahua they were considering maybe names like Pancho, Pepe, Pablo and stuff like that...I'm really looking forward to know how they named it at last.

Later, we just went to the shore to get tanned a little bit. We took books and magazines to read while we were over there... asked me how much of my book did I really read??? Nothing!!! We just talked talked talked. We saw 3 couples of chineese people who just got married and they went to the beach to take their "newlywed pictures"... well, I have 2 words for that: too hilarious! They were taking pictures like looking into each other's eyes... husband carrying the wife, the 2 of them just staring at the sunset...walking by the shore... oh no, it was too good to be true!!! Even they all wore white... and women wore high heels!!! In the sand??? C'mon!!! Anyway, after that we went to eat Ethiopian food to Oakland... REALLY GOOD!


You can't ask for more, good food, great company, cool place... everything was just "parfait"! Don't ask me what did we order to eat... I just can say it was chicken, lamb and beef... with spicy things, hahaha... but it was delicious! They give you some kind of bread...well, more likely to be like a crepe which you cut with the had and with that you take the food and eat it... I like that technique, 'cause you won't have to wash as much as if you would use forks and stuff, hehe.

Monday... oh lala...that Monday. We had an appointmen with Esteban a.k.a Cancan -my friend of middle school who is now the Assistan Food and Beverages Manager of the Four Seasons- to have some drinks. We started really decent with one mojito for Mal and one Vodka Tonic (yeah, my trademark) for me. Then, the waiter brought us another cocktail... don't know the name or ingredients...it was just really good! after that, we went (th 3 of us) to do some shopping. After than, Cancan took us to another hotel in which a friend of him was the manager of the bar... yeah! Alcohol for free! So we had another 2 drinks there. After that, Cancan said goodbye and Mal and me went to have dinner in a hip hindu restaurant where Bill Clinton used to go. Our waiter was something out of this world. A funny and curious guy... after a lots of guesses about his nationality, he told us he was half Philippine, half Spanish...yeah, working as a waiter in a Hindu restaurant in San Francisco, haha. Anyway, we had a beer there and then this guy brought us a drink we named "Fuzzy Joe's Punjaby Delight"... again, we don't know the ingredients, but it was really good. We were kinda "happy" by that hour. His shift was over and he insisted us to take us to the top of the Hilton to watch San Francisco from above. It was closed, so then we left to the BART (kinda subway).

There, I don't remember exactly, but we were just making stupid jokes. I remember people staring funny at us and stuff. Malia started even talking to people there until a friend of her mom came to us. We started to behave and talk serious. After he left, Malia said...and I quote "damn, he killed my boost!" hahaha. Oh, before I forget... Have you ever heard about the Asian Glow? Well, apparently some asians can't process alcohol like other people do, so when they drink a lot of alcohol they turn kinda reddish... here's the evidence!

Next day, last day... first of all we went to Circuit City to change my camera... I bought a Pentax digital camera there. 6MP, 3x, small and big screen...shitty resolution, though!!! So I changed it for a Canon A530... reeeeeeeaally nice, hehe. After that, we went to a typical american dinner and had sandwiches. After that, to San Francisco's MOMA... the permanent collection they have includes lots of photography and quite a lot of contemporary artists (yeah, dumbass, it's the MODERN ART museum, hahaha). You can find Miro's, Picasso's, Rivera's and even Kahlo's there... I loved it. Plus, they had like a temporary exhibition of a guy, whose name I don't remember aymore, but which art was quite bizarre but interesting... like Malia said once we got in: "yuck!...I mean, mmhhm interesting"....hahahha I LOVED THAT!!! Anyway, we where there about 3 hours and then we bought a delicious Strawberry Smoothie at Jamba's Juice (it's a MUST) and just went to sit to Union Square's place and made funny stories about all people passing by.

Then, we just walked aroung before leaving to he airport...

You know? Even we live like thousands of miles away from each other, we always get to meet kinda pretty often! 2 times in one year it's not enough, but fair. I hope to see you around next year once you're living in Japan!!! San Francisco is definetely one of my favorite cities in the world. It's cosmopolitan, big but not crowded, near the water (I loooove water), surrounded by nice small towns, in constant developement and open to everything and everyone... really, you can find EVERYTHING there! Even Phillipine/Spanic waiters in a super hindu restaurant offering you free drinks. I just loooved it.