We woke up super early on Wednesday for a 7 am flight, so naturally neither of us was in a great mood. That quickly changed though because as we were in the unbelievably slow security line, I turned around and saw one of my favorite musicians, in the flesh, checking his bags and his ukulele. Tyler Joseph from Twenty One Pilots was only 20 feet from me. I shouldn't have been surprised, he's from Columbus but I get star-struck very easily. Mira and I said a quick and hopefully not too annoying hello and he went to the front of security.
Two flights later, we arrived in San Francisco just around lunchtime. The plan was for Mira's sister-in-law, Heather, to pick us up from the airport. I had never met Heather or her husband (Mira's brother) before so I was a little nervous. But she pulled up to the curb we were standing at in her little black slug bug blasting hip-hop music and I knew it would be alright.
We didn't waste a minute on this vacation. We went to Japantown directly from the airport. We had some delicious food and then wandered around into the surrounding shops. Mira and Heather were pretty consumed by Pokemon, anime, and manga, so a lot of this outing for me was just enjoying the ride and watching them nerd out a bit. After some shopping we went and got crepes which were delicious and adorable. Yes, adorable; they had faces! Then we did some sight-seeing and hit up the classics: The Golden Gate Bridge and that huge hill that you drive up and when you look back you can see half the city? Then when you drive down you're terrified and feel like the car will tip over? That was cool. That night I also met Mira's brother, Jason and his and Heather's dog, Jinro. I had my first ever In-N-Out Burger and I have to say that I think it's pretty overrated. It was good but there's so much hype over it and I'm not sure why. But it was still a great first day in the city!
The next morning we did some more sight-seeing. California is so beautiful. Heather, Mira, and I drove around and went to the top of a hill where we could look down and see a bunch of houses surrounded by water and on the other side trees and hills and mountains. We did a little bit of "hiking" or what I like to call walking, and then hit up the Golden Gate Park Japanese Tea Garden. It wasn't very large, but everywhere you looked it was stunning. That night we went to Fisherman's Wharf. We ate dinner at a place that made bread in the shape of tons of different animals. I seriously wonder how people come up with things like this. The wharf also had an arcade that had a ton of old games, so we spent some quarters in there and walked around with all the other tourists. Each weeknight when we got home we spent hanging out with Jason. He had to work during the week so we had to make the most of the times we saw him at night. The four of us talked and played video games and played with Jinro and just enjoyed each other's company. I really liked spending time with Heather and Jason and Mira. I hope that happens more in the future.
Friday rolled around and the weather was beautiful. I felt so lucky to be enjoying 60 degree weather when my friends and family where suffering with inches of snow back home. Ironically, Heather, Mira and I went to the beach that day. It was obviously too cold to swim or anything but Rodeo Beach is beautiful, so we just walked around, people-watched, and enjoyed the view. After we left the beach we went to the Walt Disney museum. It was basically a tour of his life and successes. My favorite part was seeing all the old sketches of characters like Mickey Mouse and Snow White. Then we headed over to Union Square, the apparent tourist hub. It was packed with tourists and I know I could have happily spent hours there but since we could go to those stores back home, we didn't stay very long. That night the four of us went to a sports bar for dinner and hung out around the apartment the rest of the night.
Saturday morning we slept in a bit since Jason didn't have to go into work. When we got around to lunch, Heather made a Korean soup that I love and we pretty much devoured it. We were okay with a light lunch though because for dinner we had reservations at a fancy restaurant at 4. Heather and Jason had a $150 gift card from Mira's parents so we were going to eat like kings later. That day we spent touring Jason's work and hiking at Muir Woods. I love the feeling you get when you immerse yourself in that sort of environment. I'm not really in shape and I'm not athletic in the slightest but hiking with beautiful nature around you is going to be enjoyable even if your feet and legs hurt. We stayed for a few hours and then had to get going for our early dinner reservation. We went to a place called Buckeye Roadhouse, where all of us got filet mignon. Delicious. We also splurged and got creme brulee. That night when we got home and watched Bridesmaids which I think Jason reluctantly agreed to see, but I'm pretty sure he liked it. How can you not like Bridesmaids?
The next day was our last. Sunday, we got ready and piled in the car for an hour and a half drive to Mountain View, California. Jason has a friend who works at Google and I really wanted a tour. Ever since I saw the movie The Internship, I thought Google would be a really fun place to work. I had also seen a documentary which showed all the benefits of working at Google, so I was naturally curious, considering I will be job hunting in a few months. We weren't allowed to see certain parts of the campus, but it was really cool seeing the Google bikes everywhere and people taking a work break by playing beach volleyball. Those people are living the dream. We spent a few hours in Mountain View and once we finally got back home we went to a Mexican restaurant just a few minutes from Jason and Heather's place. We fell asleep not too long after we got home from dinner; we had to rest up for an early day of travelling.
I couldn't have dreamed up a better trip to California. First of all, plane tickets were actually cheap and we didn't have to pay for a hotel. Second, Heather took us to so many cool places that Mira and I would have never known about. But mainly, it wasn't just a tourist vacation, it was a chance for me to meet and spend time with Mira's brother and sister-in-law who are both really great people.
This was quite a lengthy first blog post, but I figured I may as well write about something personal for the first post. Hope you liked it!
