Day 32 – Day Off: San Francisco!

This morning was back to “Normal”. Up at 7am, but this time I hit the “free” breakfast at the hotel. I was eager to get a jump on my tasks at hand and was planning to meet Eron today and see some sights and catch. I filled my bowl, plate and hands and carried my food  back up to my room to get started. Crank some tunes, eat the breakfast and get start dismantling Frankie!

The time started to fly by. I made sure to more correctly bag things together, tie up the loose ends and ensure that there was a snug fit in the box and that nothing would get lost or broken.

Before I knew it Eron was close by so I cleaned up and headed out!

We immediately headed for San Fran to the farmer’s market which was ending shortly but provided a great starting point. We grabbed some lunch at a neat place on the water and then wandered around the piers and the market. As we arrived so “late” and had lunch first the market was closing down as we wound through it, but there were millions of things going on nearby. We crossed the street away from the water and landed in a crafts and niche goods market if you will and wandered around there checking out the wares for a while.

Once we reached the end of this cool little market we decided to head into China town. One of the things I wanted to see while I was in San Fran was China town. I’ve heard that it is the largest in the world, and being in Toronto’s all day I thought it would be neat to see how things stack up and are different.

It was neat, to say the least. We wound through the typical tourist traps of china town with the cheap wares, and knock off items but did manage to snake through some local festivities and restaurants and really got lost in the craziness that can be china town. Maybe based on the time of day we arrived or the weekend, there really wasn’t too much to do/see beyond the tourist trap so we headed for a neighbourhood that Eron described as being “Queen West”. Interested to see what he spoke of, we walked back to his car and headed to Haight-Ashbury. This ended up being a really neat area, and maybe a little closer to what I envisioned when I thought about what San Fran would feel like. There are some hills, but not too steep and there is door after door of unique shop, pub, restaurant and tattoo shop. The vibe coming from the area though was much more energetic and invigorated, people seemed more calm and relaxed.

The sun started to disappear on the horizon and it started to cool off so we headed back to the car and return to the hotel to hang out for a few minutes while we decided what to do for dinner. We caught the last 40 minutes or so of the Longest Yard which was entertaining to say the least and then we headed out on foot to “El Super Burrito”.

The name of this place was awfully misleading. It seemed like it was going to be some cheap tex-mex hole in the wall. I won’t even try to explain that it is anything but tex-mex but it was deliciously infused with some proper Mexican stylings and spices which turned it into a rather fantastic meal. It was at this restaurant while waiting for food that I saw some of the most entertaining soccer I have seen in years. Turns out Mexico and the U.S.A were battling for the gold medal/cup for the CONCAFF Gold Cup. We entered and the game was 1-1 I believe.  Anyways there were some crazy goals, some highlight reel plays and the game ended a 4-2 win for Mexico and we figured out it was the Gold Cup when the broadcast continued on beyond the last whistle to medal and cup awards!

By this point however we’d finished our delicious meals and walked back to the hotel. It was starting to get fairly late so Eron and I said goodbye and he headed back to Mountainview and I further worked on the bike packing/cleaning to get everything ready for my departure from this fair city.

A mildly early night ensued.

Goodnight San Fran, it’s been a blast, but it’s time to get back to the working world.