93. [DIEC] San Francisco: Strolling through Beer Gardens and Museums
This is my first installation of my Diary In Every City [DIEC] series. I am very glad. I actually have been to a lot of different cities, but I really haven't spent an entire day being a tourist and admiring the sights and attractions in it.
The series, “Diary In Every City”, consists of my own subjective analysis of the ephemeral moments, invisible images, and spontaneous situations in the urban setting. Each block of texts relates to a specific location and specific time, but, in fact, I think they can relate to any location and any time. Some details are very specific, but every moment in every is a trace of the strangers that walk its very paths.
I have been to San Francisco many many times in my life, but I never really had a chance to write an in-depth post about it.
Right in the heart of Northern California, a lot of people just think that San Francisco is just a start-up hub, a technological mecca. Silicon Valley traditionally referred to the area between Palo Alto and San Jose. In the past decade, the big companies have moved north to San Francisco. Startups don’t need as much space to launch a minimum viable product, and most don’t need as many employees to build a big company. Even though you can feel the pulse of the tech industry as you stroll through SoMa (South of Market) and Mission District, it's a bit more than that.
SF embraces its quirkiness and charm with open arms. It's a complex and hilly place and I absolutely appreciate it. I remember talking to a very dear friend of mine, who told me that she wanted to move to San Francisco and live in the south side, looking over the north bay. San Francisco has very pretty natural surroundings. The rolling hills provide glorious views of the water, the parks, and the buildings. In my opinion, the beauty is juxtaposed with extremes of entrepreneurship and homelessness. The entrepreneurs are freakishly ambitious, with bold visions for the future and an ecosystem of investors to finance their risky pursuits. The optimism is contrasted with the angriest homeless people of anywhere I know... I remember one time while on the BART, I saw a poor guy trying to claw at the doors of the train while shouting at everyone who tried to walk past him.
Public transportation is no problem in SF, but most people drive around in these streets. I visited the city a bunch of times and have taken both MUNI and BART (SF’s public transit systems). I've spoken to a couple of people and they actually have never taken any of the public transport systems. I thought it was kinda funny. In New York, that would be unthinkable. Almost all my friends who live in NYC take the subway every week. As a result, New York has much more cross-pollination between neighborhoods. Almost everybody in New York can point out Hell’s Kitchen, Williamsburg, or Greenwich Village on a map. Beyond that, almost everybody who lives in Manhattan has been to all these neighborhoods. In contrast, people in San Francisco are more likely to skip public transit and Uber around the city. Subways and street cars are sparse, so most of the people I know in San Francisco stay in a select number of neighborhoods.
[10AM-11AM:] I started the day off at a Peet's Coffee shop right across the San Francisco Bay. I was in a shopping centre right across the bridge into SF. I spent the morning working and reading by the window and warmed up next to the sunshine. I ordered a matcha latte and stared out the window. A friend was going to accompany me today (for the purposes of the post, I think I have to reference my de jure ex-bf as just a friend, even though in a previous post, where I mentioned him in my one week long relationship lol.).
We walked along the Shoreline Park and took in the scenery before exploring the city. There's a trail that goes into the Emeryville Marina Park where you can see many birds, the sea, and San Francisco from far away. I took my camera and snapped a couple of photos of the boats and the fauna. I still haven't really processed any of the photos juts yet, and I got something in the lens... so I really have to edit the little specks out. I'm a little miffed about cleaning my camera now, haha.
I continued to walk alongside the road, chatting about Olivia Rodrigo and different types of music genres. It says on the website that there's accessible bathrooms all around, but I couldn't really find one. We snuck into the Hong Kong East Ocean Seafood Restaurant (bathroom is on the right side right after the entrance...)
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[12PM-2PM:] One of my favorite places to go around Emeryville/Berkeley is this amazing game board cafe called Victory Point Cafe. I've been here with many friends in the past and we'd order a beer and a pizza together. I played a lot of in-person Dungeons and Dragons here as well. I remember spending a couple of hours with my friends doing one-shots here!
On this day, I got a sandwich and a cup of Earl Grey tea. We also tried to play a really fun game called Beer & Bread. I have played this game once before, but I haven't touched it since. To be honest, I completely blanked out on the rules and didn't know how to play the game properly, so it was a lousy attempt on my end to try to teach it. It was no matter though, I had a lot of fun anyway.
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[3PM-4PM:] We rolled into the city full from our lunch. We only stayed in the board game cafe for a little less than 2 hours, but we were kinda gamed out and needed to stretch our legs again. We actually passed by the Twitter HQ as we were navigating through the city. Crazy. There were a couple of parking garages very close by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and we made our way over to the museum.
I was incredibly impressed with their exhibits this month and saw a lot of original paintings from many of my favorite artists. Here are a couple of the exhibits I really enjoyed: Kinship: Photography and Connection and Sea Change: Photographs from the Collection
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[5PM-6PM:] After the museum, We had a bit of a stroll around SF. We walked around the street and then headed over to the high-rise park. Yerba Buena Gardens is the name for two blocks of public parks located between Third and Fourth, Mission and Folsom Streets. There was a beer garden in there so we stopped for a couple of drinks, while relaxing in the little green hideaway in the heart of San Francisco.
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[7PM-8PM:] Had dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant on 3rd Street. It was a really nice atmosphere. We actually split a chicken skewer meal and got a couple of beers. The food was only alright, nothing spectacular. We walked around the city a little bit more and stopped at Union Square and took a look around. We were kinda idling by, walking along the concrete paths. Around 9PM, we headed over to the airport, where I had to say farewell!
Places I Visited:
- Peet's Coffee (5959 Shellmound St Suite 85, Emeryville, CA)
- Ordered a Matcha Latte and Black Tie coffee
- Not really good scones... It's fine. Scones are not what you go for at Peet's.
- Emeryville Marina Park (3310 Powell St, Emeryville, CA)
- Emeryville Marina Sport Fishing Dock
- Hong Kong East Ocean Seafood Restaurant (3199 Powell St, Emeryville, CA)
- used their bathroom there. I couldn't find an immediate bathroom anywhere so I snuck in... I'll probably sample the dim sum later.
- Victory Point Cafe (1797 Shattuck Ave. Ste A, Berkeley, CA)
- Ordered a Caprese sandwich and a King of the North sandwich with a London Fog tea.
- Played Beer & Bread. Great game. 10/10 recommend.
- Yerba Buena Gardens (750 Howard St, San Francisco, CA)
- Ordered their only pale ale at the beer garden, which was called Anchor Brewing Co. Brewers Pale Ale. The little beer garden should be located right at the middle of the gardens if you walk right through it. It was a beautiful seating area, very spacious and green in the urban concrete centre.
- Oren's Hummus (71 3rd St, San Francisco, CA)
- Ordered a chicken skewer with a GoldStar Lager. I didn't really like the beer and the chicken skewer was too small of a portion.
- Union Square
- St. Mary's Square (651 California St, San Francisco)
~ your san francisco kay,
<3
K