Oakland/Berkeley/San Francisco

I've been asked before "How do you travel so much? It seems like as soon as you're back from one trip, you're planning another one."

The answer is prioritization.

Traveling and exploring are high on my priority list, right up there next to breathing, eating and loving people.

That's how I ended up in the Bay Area.

I had a few very important things before I began planning this trip

Marcos, whose extra bed I slept on.

1. A jar of money
2. An offer from a friend (to sleep on his floor "If you ever make it out to the bay area")
3. A desire to travel to the northwest

and, well, the rest is history.

I found myself at the Oakland Airport one morning at the end of June, and spent the following days exploring the Bay Area.


Oakland

I think, for the most part, Oakland has a bad rap. It's really not as terrifying as everyone thinks it is. I mean, we did accidentally drive through east Oakland on the way from the airport to the house, but we survived. It was fine.

My favorite part of Oakland was the people. It was my home base for the five (six?) days I stayed there. Much of what I did in the Bay Area, I did alone, but I got to spend a few evenings with Marcos, Adam, Jess and Chris and they were spectacular. These times were spent outside, with fire and pipe tobacco and craft beers, which, in my opinion, is the best way to spend time with people. Not to mention Jess picked me up from the airport when I arrived and took me to the train station when I left.

Adam, Chris, Jess. Sweet people.

The walkability (which I also found in Berkeley) of Oakland was pretty sweet, too. It was an easy jaunt from the house to Telegraph, where I was shown a really cool store (East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse) that sells pretty much any and every odd, end or craft supply you will ever want or need. I bought a box of old photographs, a Beanie Baby trading card (Nannook is my homie) as well as an ancient DC Talk and more recent Jack Jonhnson CD. The grand total was less than $2. Easily the coolest store I have ever seen.

Other things I enjoyed about Oakland:

• Hidden alleys with coffee shops and succulents (I'm looking at you, Temescal Alley)
• Organic ice cream in flavors like geranium, allspice and rooibos (Tara's is taaaasty)
• AC Transit! I got to use a public transit bus system for the third time in my life

Berkeley

The Berk was cool. I had a really difficult time not calling it "Beserkeley" in keeping with The Princess Diaries. The first day I ventured into Berkeley, I took AC Transit from Oakland (read: North Oakland) and underestimated how long it would take to get to my stop. Once at my stop, I didn't know how to request for the bus to stop. So I ended up waiting two more stops and then had to walk half a mile or so to the UC Berkeley Art Museum.

The museum architecture is stellar.

No matter, though! I got to wade through crowds of (what were presumably) incoming freshmen and prospective students walking around with their parents! I laughed inwardly at the young'uns who have no idea what college is about to be, and pushed on toward the museum.

Once I arrived, I sat, wrote, read a book outside, sketched and then finally went inside.

Nothing about this trip was rushed, which I enjoyed. I got to sit and do whatever the heck I wanted.

Inside, there were a few really sweet gallery exhibits. Long story short, one was about color (intriguing. Very intriguing. Made my eyes happy) and the other was by a Texan artist named Forrest Bess. His art was very surreal, his story was very...strange. Look him up.

My second jaunt into Berkeley was a little more well organized. One of Marcos' co-workers drove us in so we could get lunch before he had to go in to work, and we hit up a delicious Mexican restaurant. It definitely wasn't street food, it was heavy-cheesy-bean-and-corn Mexican food, but man. I had the chilaquiles and they were good. Afterwards, we went to Savers and I got two shirts that walked out of the '80s or early, early '90s. They look really good on me (IMHO), but I still have to cut the shoulder pads out. My mom is going to hate them.

Post-Savers, we walked the mile-or-so to Artís Coffee, which is in the swanky part of Berkeley. (Right? Who knew Berkeley had a swanky side? It's like Scottsdale, but really close to water!) Marcos went to work behind the bar (he does coffee things. I think it's cool.) and I went to virtual work behind my laptop for a few hours for my internship. After that, I tackled the AC Transit system and took a bus home.

San Francisco

I didn't know it when I booked my ticket to go to the Bay Area, but I was visiting during Pride. Which was cool and all, but I don't. like. crowds.

That made enjoying San Francisco a little difficult.

I like the acoustics of stations.

Taking the BART from Oakland to San Francisco was also a little difficult. I overshot the BART station by a few blocks (which is a lot on foot) because Google Maps told me to turn left on 39th street, when in reality it was 40th street. Whatever, Google Maps. Whatever.

When I finally got into the city, I got to do a few cool things. I visited Four Barrel Coffee and had the La Cabaña pourover (the slow bar barista couldn't talk about anything else--I guess that's called passion?) and sat and wrote, read, and shot photos for a while. I actually had someone approach me and ask if she could take my photo because "Photographers rarely have their photo taken."

I was pretty stoked about that. Of course I said yes.

Afterwards, I stopped by a little empanada shop I passed on my way to Four Barrel and ate (an empanada, duh) and watched the World Cup. Because why not. It was delicious, too.

That same day, I went down to the Embarcadero and saw the piers. I read somewhere online (Yelp, maybe) that Pier 14 was a beautiful place to see the city from. While I found Pier 13 and Pier 15, I didn't exactly find Pier 14. I did find the Exploritorium and a really sweet view from where Pier 14 should be, though, so I'm calling it good. Ultimately, I would have liked to see the view at night, but I didn't really like the walk from the BART station to the house, so I tried to keep my exploring to daylight hours.

Cue that Journey song. Lights.

My second trip into San Francisco was on very short notice. It was Sunday, when Pride was in full swing, but I had two really sweet (free) tickets to see La Traviata at the San Francisco Opera (thank you, Alex, you're amazing). The catch was that I wouldn't know if I had the tickets until one hour before the show started. Adam (Marcos' friend) and I, clothed in more fabric than the majority of San Francisco (Pride dresses you down. We were dressed up.), braved the massive crowds and made it to the opera in time to be seated during the first intermission. That's right, it took us an hour and a half (give or take a little while) to get from Oakland to the opera.

The opera itself was rather wonderful, and I'm happy to say I've now witnessed San Francisco Pride. But I honestly never want to witness it again.

The best part of that second trip into San Fran was probably taking the BART back into Oakland and getting dinner with Alex and Adam. We ate some sort of amazing ethnic food. I'm not sure what it was but I've never been so excited to eat with my hands before in my life.

I want to eat this again.

I know, I probably don't sound too enthusiastic about San Francisco. I'll give the city another shot. Next time I visit, it will NOT be during Pride. I will also have a bike with me, and a better idea of how to ride the BART. Let's just say these two days in the city were a trial run. There will be another trip there.

Other Cool Things

I spent a lot of my time writing and reading. A LOT. It was really nice to kick back and be introspective for a while. I finished reading Prodigal God by Timothy Keller and started reading A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. When I started reading it, I had no idea AHWOSG was set in the areas I was exploring, so it added an ethereal sense to the novel. It was like I was able to understand the setting in the novel in a brand-new way. Rather than imagining the mountains north of Berkeley, I was able to picture them as they were.

I walked. A lot. I have been walking a lot in Portland, too. I really enjoy walking as a means of transportation, and truly wish I could walk more in Phoenix, but it's just too dang hot outside.

I also did a nifty little photojournalism project. I shot a photo of everyone I met on my way to/in/leaving the Bay Area. Adventuring on my own made me more susceptible (disregard any negative connotations that word may have, I was perfectly safe the whole time) to talking to strangers, and I actually did stop and talk to quite a few. At the end of our conversation (starting with the man at Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport [which I am never flying out of, ever again]) I requested to take a photo of everyone I spoke to. And so I did. I'm really excited to get that roll of film developed. Update: Photos available here!

In summary, I really enjoyed the Bay Area portion of my trip because it was a little difficult and a little lonely. As an extrovert who is also an only child, I really enjoy actively being around people, but I also really like doing things on my own, by myself, for myself, and that's pretty much what this portion of the trip was all about. It was great!

And now... I am in Portland, enjoying my time here.

Click here to read about Portland.