San Francisco Day 3

Yesterday was a very long day. I started off walking from the hotel to the Pacific Heights neighborhood. This is a very upper-class neighborhood, with huge mansions, manicured lawns, and expensive cars. This is at the top of a hill, and there is a great view of the Marina district here. From there, I walked to a park with a nice view of the Golden Gate bridge.

One of the mansions in the Pacific Heights neighborhood

Alcatraz and the Marina district as seen from Pacific Heights

After taking a break there, I walked east through the Marina district. I came to the Fisherman’s Wharf, ate and In-N-Out Burger, and then make the long trek back to my hotel. The Fisherman’s Wharf seemed rather hokey, which is why I left it so quickly.

I think I walked about 10-12 miles yesterday. I came back to the hotel and took a 2.5-hour nap. Last night, I decided to go to the Rogue Pub in North Beach. The pub is really great – they have dozens of their own beers, almost all award-winning.

I came in, got a burger and a beer, and talked a little with the waitress. After finishing my burger, I moved to the bar for my next beer. At the bar, I met a guy (using fake names here) named Charley. Charley and I talked for a bit, and he explained a lot about the different neighborhoods in San Francisco.

He told me he was meeting his friend at the bar, so I was expecting a woman to walk through the door at any time and say hi to Charley. But, instead, he was actually meeting the waitress, Melissa (again, fake name). She sat down between us and the three of us talked for a while. Then, Xavier came in and joined us. He is a bartender at Rogue’s. They invited me to go to another bar with them, so after a little while, we left.

As we walked towards the next bar, Xavier saw some friends in the street – Zoey and Rhonda. They joined us, and we happened upon three older guys that were rocking out in the back of a pickup truck, playing old rock favorites, just for the hell of it, it appeared. We watched them and cheered them on for a few minutes, and finally found our way to the bar.

There was a great band at that bar, and Xavier was nice enough to buy me a beer. Melissa and I watched the band for a few songs, and then she walked off to go talk to Charley. I watched the band for a couple more songs, then turned around to try to meet back up with everyone. I had a brief moment of horror when I didn’t see anyone that I had come with. I walked outside, rather dejected, to see Melissa and Charley talking. They were ready to call it a night, but we are going to get back together later, maybe Tuesday or Wednesday. I then joined Xavier, Zoey, and Rhonda in the next bar over. There was a very loud punk band playing there, and we yelled to each other to get to know each other a bit. After the band was done, we talked at the bar until last call.

Well, we were having a great time, and weren’t quite ready to call it a night, so Xavier invited all of us back to his place, which was just a few blocks away. We sat there until about 4:30am just shooting the shit. I think I am going to get back together with them as well before going back to MD. I got back to the hotel at about 5am, and slept for about four hours.

Today, I went to an apartment showing, along with about a dozen other people, but the shower never arrived. So now I am probably going to nap for a couple of hours and then head to Golden Gate park to check out the neighborhoods there and also check out “Hippie Hill” as Charley called it. Tonight, I think I am going to go to Club Six for drum and bass with Asian vocals!

• Enjoy your drum and bass. Nice that you’ve found some people that you like. Do you think that during the day there are any basketball courts you’ve seen? Once again, good luck on that interview and try to find some others. I like your web muchly. ;>} Sammy turned one yesterday the 26th of August and I talked to Kim. Sammy has the same word for her father as one of the dogs and a word for the other dog, but not one for Kim. Stay in touch. I miss you.