I didn’t get a chance to blog too much while in San Francisco, but I did take notes, so here’s what happened on Friday, December 28.

I spent Thursday night in King City at James’s house, but didn’t sleep much. I got there around 1am, and we talked for a while, so I went to bed around 2 I think. We needed to be up by 4:30am, and I didn’t really sleep, because I was worried I’d sleep through the alarm.

The airport was surprisingly crowded at 5:30 in the morning. It was also chaotic. There were United Airlines people trying to direct passengers around, but they did it kind of half-heartedly, and there weren’t enough check-in people for the number of passengers. We barely made it to our gate in time after making it through all the security and processing. I really felt like a cow going to slaughter.

Everything went smoothly from that point though. The flight seemed long, and I was jammed in a middle seat, so I didn’t sleep on the plane either. It was a relief to be in San Francisco though. James’s brother Alex picked us up at the airport and dropped us off at his house, where he lives with his girlfriend Diamond and their two dogs, Berlioz (Bear) and Patrone. We found a dingy taqueria down the street and got gigantic burritos for lunch.

img_0096.JPG

Mine was filled with pollo verde, which is chicken cooked in a mild green sauce. None of the burrito places I’ve tried in Canada can even approach the deliciousness of Mexican food in California.

After having consumed these burritos, we felt the need to walk. We decided to try to find water. Being that San Francisco is surrounded on three sides by the ocean, we figured it wouldn’t be too tough.

Along the way, we passed a gathering of police officers. They were attending the funeral of a cop who had been killed in the line of action. Gathering might be too small a word. It seemed like there were thousands of them milling around the cathedral. There was a huge flag hoisted up between the ladders of a couple of fire engines. I dared James to steal one of the police cars, but he wouldn’t do it.

img_0097.JPG

Sure enough, after a few hours of walking, we found a ferry terminal, and some piers. We walked from Pier 1 to Pier 39, and saw lots of crazy stuff along the way. You’ll see some of it in the video I posted earlier. Here’s a place we stopped for some beer mid-way through our journey.

img_0115.JPG
img_0119.JPG

By the time we got to the end of the piers, we were pretty tired. I got a look at Alcatraz.

img_0126.JPG
img_0142.JPG

It seemed like a good time to head back. We posed as guests at the Radisson and got directions from the concierge how to get back to Alex’s place on the bus. I must say I’m pretty impressed with the San Francisco MUNI transit system. It’s $1.50 for a ticket, which lets you ride pretty much anywhere the bus takes you for about 3 hours. You’re only supposed to get 90 minutes, but most drivers seem to give transfers that last several hours.

We chilled out for the evening, and then crashed pretty early, I think.