San Francisco and Northern California

After long delay I finally have found the time and energy to give San Fran and Northern Cali a proper post. First things first. I flew in or Virgin America airlines, which was the best experience I've ever had on an airplane, hands down, and not just because the flight only lasted an hour. I really wished I could have flown on one of the Virgin America planes on at least one of the two 14 hour flights from Japan, but such is life. The planes were equipped with these lovely touch screen monitors that had a few gigs of music to listen to, movies from several countries, TV shows from several countries, a Google map of where the plane was and what was around it and other things. Since it was such a short flight many of the features were disabled, but apparently on longer flights, this computer is how you get your food and drinks for the flight. In addition to that, the seats were comfortable, provided a bit more leg room than the average coach seats, and there were little electric outlets and USB ports to charge your gadgets mid-flight. Very nice. Surprisingly the ticket price wasn't bad either, it was the cheapest one Orbitz pulled up for me at the time of the flight anyway, but if I ever fly a long distance anytime soon, it might be worth it to throw in another $50 or so just for this airline, especially if the flight is longer than 6 hours.
After landing in San Francisco, I was greeted at the airport by my friend Emma a native of these parts. I met Emma in Tokyo, we both attended the same school while abroad, and she was kind enough to let me stay with her and her family in Novato, a town north of San Francisco. The first time driving through the city from the airport to Novato was an exercise in contrast. I had just left L.A. where I was sweating buckets under a cloudless sky dominated by a merciless sun, and in San Francisco it couldn't have been more different. I was happy to have brought long sleeves, since it was a bit chilly, and the fog was so thick I barely noticed when we drove over the Golden Gate bridge.
I spent the next day in Novato, generally relaxing while Emma went to work. After she returned we visited a farmers market in Novato and went out to eat. The farmers market must be fairly popular in California, since this wasn't the first one I had seen. I suppose the farmers market is a pretty cool concept. People selling locally grown organic fruits and veggies to regular people, eliminating the middleman.
I spent the next two days in San Francisco, exploring and what not. The pictures will tell the best story here, but I did some touristy things as well as some cool, not so touristy things. I rode the ferry from Larkspur, which was a neat experience, especially seeing the commuters who use the ferry everyday to get to work. My first day in the city I walked along the piers all the way to Pier 39. For Chicagoans, think Navy Pier, but larger, and still a very active port, and you have somewhat of an idea of what Pier 39 is like. I visited the Fisherman's Wharf, a haven of seafood and other nautical goodness, and the Ghiradelli chocolate factory/restaurant. After eating myself silly at both places, I decided to walk it off on Alcatraz island. This was a cool experience, but the pictures speak louder and clearer than my words can, so look at those (they're at the end). At the end of the day I met Emma, her sister Mary and her boyfriend for some Chinese food and a walk through China town. To get to that area I rode one of the street cars, the old timey ones, where you can hang off the side. That was fun, but my already sunburned face became windburned. Oh well, it was worth it.
The next day I was planning on meeting up with my cousin Peter who lives in San Francisco. Pete lives a block from the (in)famous Haight /Ashbury district. But before I was to meet him for dinner, I had a day to occupy. Like the previous day, I took the Ferry into the city. I then took the bus from the east side of the city to the west coast of it. I was planning to walk up the coast along the beach until I reached the Golden Gate Bridge. On the map this looked like a nice walk, but it was much longer than I had anticipated. The coast of San Francisco is quite beautiful; long beaches, cliffs and rock formations guide a pedestrian along the coast. I stopped for lunch at a cozy little cliffside diner and had some clam chowder (the red) and some sourdough bread (they take pride in that stuff lemme tell ya). After that I proceeded to the Golden Gate bridge. I went through some neighborhoods and then through various wilderness preserves until I arrived to the bridge. The whole walk would have been 9 miles straight through, but probably close to 10 with my stumbling around and unintentional detours. The Golden Gate bridge was impressive, to say the least. I walked about halfway out and turned around, but the view of San Fran was great and the bridge it self is a marvel to look at. Although the walk up to the bridge was scenic and enjoyable, I was wiped out, so I took the bus to Golden Gate Park. There I visited a few places, because it would probably take a whole day to see the whole park. I visited the botanical garden and the tea garden, and I relaxed for about and hour at each place. After some tea and a few short naps in the park, I headed towards the Haight / Ashbury area near where my cousin lived. There is a really huge and cool record shop on Haight street called Amoeba, so I checked that out. Wow, I've never been in such a huge record shop. They had everything I could think of, some CDs that I've never actually seen in person because they are rare, imports or what have you. It was pretty insane. On my way down Haight street I got a call from Peter saying that he got off of work early, so I headed to his place. We had some choice middle eastern food for dinner, and hung out at his place catching up and such. It was good to see him, since I so rarely see him anymore.
The next day I sort of slept in, and that evening Emma and I went out to Wine country for dinner. We ate at a little French place in Sonoma called "the girl and the fig" which was just amazing. Everything we ate was flavorful and awesome; I can't even think of good words to describe it, just awesome. I had some chicken and Emma had these chickpea cake things. See the pictures. It was nice to get out of the city for a night, and the countryside is very pretty with all the vineyards and such.
Saturday, my last full day in California was also birthday of Emma's boyfriend Wes. Emma and I woke up early and I helped her make him breakfast. We had the most elaborate French toast ever, but it was pretty good. We spent the rest of the day in the city, going to various places until we got to Japan-town for dinner. We ate at Benihanas which was pretty cool. After dinner we went to Purikura, something that I had done a few times in Japan. Purikura is like those photo booths at the mall, but much more elaborate. There's the booth which can fit 4 or 5 people in it, and you take several pictures. After that they are sent to a pair of computers where you can write on them and edit them. It was pretty cool and nostalgic.
All in all this leg of the trip was very cool, and I'll eventually put up another post of all my rants about California as a whole, but for now I'm tired of writing.
Enjoy the pictures:
Album 1
Album 2