Days 3 and 4 – Museums, Parks, and Sunsets

On Day 3 I woke up early, as per the usual, and headed off toward Golden Gate Park (which is actually no where near the Golden Gate Bridge).  Within a couple blocks I chanced upon a couple of transvestite prostitutes getting ready to duke it out, and about a block past that was just a regular prostitute looking for guys on the way to the office with a few minutes and a few bucks to spare.  Gotta love liberal San Fran…. Anyway, along the way to the park I walked through Japanese Town and past the Peace Pagoda.

After a pit stop in Starbucks, it was on to the park, which was apparently designed by the same guy who helped designed Central Park.  It was gorgeous.  I stopped by the Japanese Tea Garden….

…before heading over to free Wednesday at the California Academy of Science.  It was a cute museum complete with planetarium and rainforest enclosure, but I’m glad I didn’t have to pay $30 to experience it.  I had planned on going to the Botanical garden after lunch, thinking that it was also free, but when I saw that the admission price was $8, I decided to pass.  I wandered around the rest of the park slowly before coming to Ocean Beach a couple of hours before sunset.

It was windy and chilly, but sunny, and my whole day had been structured around wanting to see the sun set on the ocean.  I’ve only ever been to the Atlantic, so I’ve only ever seen sunrises, and I knew I’d regret it if I let this opportunity pass me by.  I was near the Coastal Trail again, so I retraced my steps for a while before heading back to the beach to look for sand dollars, eat dinner, and kill time.  Finally, about 15 minutes later than it was supposed to, the sun set.  There was a thin line of clouds on the horizon so I didn’t get to see it dip into the water, which was slightly disappointing, but it was gorgeous and worth it none-the-less.

The next morning I hiked one last time to the Boudin factory on Fisherman’s Wharf, had some sour dough bread and a peanut butter cookie for breakfast (I’d had a craving for peanut butter the whole time and that cookie did not disappoint), and walked down to see the sea lions again before heading back to the hostel to collect my things.  I still had time to kill, so I walked a couple blocks over to the cable car museum.  It was small, but interesting, and the fire alarm which went off in the middle of my visit served to waste just the right amount of time.

With nothing else to do and a heavy bag on my shoulder, I headed for the airport an hour or two earlier than necessary, had a photo finish connection in Denver, and was back at home by 10:30 central time, just in time to go to bed and get up for work the next day  I miss California already….. is it time for my November 2012 trip to Japan yet? lol

Day 2- Of Downtown and Prison

Day 2 was my “City” Day.  I woke early and schlepped back up to Fisherman’s Wharf to visit the Boudin sour bread factory (apparently sour bread is one of the things San Francisco is “known for,” though I wasn’t aware of it until I arrived).  The bread was almost too cute to eat….almost

After breakfast I took the cable car down to the metro station and headed off for a brief jaunt over to UC Berkeley to check out the gorgeous campus.

Then it was back to downtown to check out the largest Chinatown in the US.  The entrance gate was rather unimposing compared to other cities I’ve visited.  I guess when you can claim to be the largest in the country you don’t need to stand behind a large, elaborate calling card.  I popped into a cafe for  some delicious green tea bubble tea and ended up being a witness to a screaming and pushing fight between some random lady and a beggar. The chinese owners and I did the usual “bury your head in the sand and pretend like nothing’s happening” routine, but some “good samaritans” came to the lady’s aid and helped shove the guy out of the shop.  I wanted to shake my head and say “so some mentally ill homeless guy called you a sl*t and a c*nt, so what?  Get over it and ignore him, you shouldn’t have engaged and egged him on in the first place” but of course I said nothing, just grabbed my tea and left.  That woman would not survive in NYC with such a thin skin…

Anyway, after that excitement I wandered around Chinatown some more before making my way through the neighboring financial district and over to the Embarcado, which is another area filled with piers and street markets.  I ran across an “Occupy San Francisco” protest complete with unwashed hippies and some guy whipping a girl before making my way to a restaurant called “The Melt.”  I’d read about the shop a couple months ago– it’s business plan involves selling only grilled cheese and soup.  I got the classic combo (chedder cheese and tomato soup) to see what all the fuss was about.  It was good, but not $9 good.

After lunch I wandered through the city up to Pier 33, where I was due to catch the boat to Alcatraz.  The weather was a little chilly and fog obscured what would have otherwise been a spectacular view of the city skyline and Golden Gate Bridge, but I was just glad the weather had been amazing the day before (and would be amazing the next day, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves).  The 45 minute audio tour of the prison was actually very interesting and informative.  Apparently at any one time Alcatraz never had over 300 inmates, no one was executed there, and the average term was 7-10 years.  Oh, and there was a riot that lasted about 3 days, left 8 guards dead, and caused the US Army to drop grenades through holes in the roof.

After Alcatraz came souvenir shopping on Fisherman’s Wharf, a quick dinner, and an even quicker retreat to the warmth of the hostel for the night.

Day 1- Take Me to My City by the Bay

Let me just start off by saying that San Francisco is not a vacation for the lazy, unfit, or easily tired (unless, of course, you plan on spending an exorbitant amount of money taking public transportation everywhere— not recommended since the buses are filled with crazy people…much like NY…).  It shouldn’t be called the “City by the Bay,” it should be called the “City of OMG how is that big and steep of a hill even possible in an urban environment?”

I went to the airport straight from work on Sunday evening and caught a 6:45 flight with a connection in Denver.  The connection ended up delayed by about 20 minutes, which was just enough time to ensure that I missed the last metro train from SFO into the City by literally 5 minutes, though I did give it the old college try of running through the airport and hoping against hope.  Defeated, I hung my head, schlepped back through the airport, and found a shared ride van service in which seven or eight of us piled into a van and paid an overpriced fare (though still less than half what a taxi would cost) to get downtown.  The guy who was directing the vans seemed like he would be more at home as an extra on Boardwalk Empire than on the laid back California coast.  He had the 1920s gangster style hat and everything.  I really wanted to snap a picture, but unfortunately the service was too quick for that. I arrived at the hostel around 12:30am, fell into bed, and for some inexplicable reason, was awake and ready to go by 5am.  Needless to say, I made myself chill until 6:30ish.

Shortly after 7 I hopped on a bus which took me over to the Coastal Trail and gave me my first ever look at the Pacific Ocean.  It looks just like the Atlantic…. Happy as a clam (yes, EK, I really did just use that expression), I hiked on the trail for a good couple of hours, climbing up and down cliffs, getting my first views of the Golden Gate, and enjoying the sight and sound of the ocean with very few other people around.

The mood was dampened slightly when the trail diverted into a richy-rich neighborhood with homes which looked like they belonged in 1920s Hollywood, but I soon reached the Golden Gate and the charm returned.  It sounds presumptuous to say the Golden Gate is nothing spectacular (and the number of photographs I have on it would belie any claim that I wasn’t taken in), but being familiar with the imposing spectacle of the Brooklyn Bridge, the Golden Gate seemed very…simple.  If it wasn’t for the fact that it was red and iconic, it probably wouldn’t have merited more than a second or third look.  But red and iconic it was, and of course I couldn’t visit San Francisco without walking across.

After I grabbed lunch, I headed to Ghiradelli Square for one of the best hot fudge brownie sundaes I’ve ever had.  It was the kind that you know is going to make you feel sick for hours afterwards, but it tastes so good at the time that you can’t bring yourself to care.  I strolled along Fisherman’s Wharf (one of the main tourist attractions) while I chowed down.  I did some window shopping, strolled down piers to look at old ships and sea lions, visited an old arcade game museum, and got my very first look at a cable car.

It was only 4:30 or so, but I’d walked at least 20 miles (no, I’m not exaggerating) on less than 4.5 hours of sleep, so I was pretty much done.  I headed to the hostel, took a shower, ate some dinner, ventured out briefly to check out the nearby Union Square (which is much like NYC’s Union Square), and then headed to bed.

(PS: Did you know that nudism is allowed on San Francisco beaches?  I was not aware, and was therefore caught somewhat off guard when an old guy in a shirt, with the rest of himself hanging free, came up and offered to take my picture in front of the Golden Gate.  Thank goodness NYC helped develop my poker face because I just kept my eyes level, gave a small smile, and answered “thanks, but I got it” lol)

Chicago Day 2

After a less than restful night at the hostel (I swear the room I was in had the creakiest door, and of course girls were going in and out until after midnight and the one sleeping in the bunk above me woke me up a couple times with her snoring….) I got an early start on my second (and final) day in Chicago.

I started by exploring a bit more of Lincoln Park while eating breakfast on the go.  There’s just something very relaxing about walking in the sand and feeling the (cold!) water on your toes.  Afterwards I headed to Millenium Park to chill with some Starbucks before going down to the Museum area just south of Grant Park. I originally wasn’t planning on going into the Field Museum or Shedd aquarium, but then I realized that I actually really wanted to….and since I had no idea when/if I’d be back in Chicago, I’d probably regret it if I didn’t.  But before I did that, I had a couple other stops to make.

I don’t have any pictures from the first, because I thought I might get mugged if I took out my camera…..  See, I was in the south side of Chicago, which is notoriously ghetto.  Now before you get all riled up and yell at me, EK, let me explain.  I want to get my MBA from the University of Chicago, so I figured I should check their campus out.  The campus just happens to be in south Chicago.  I had two options for getting there: 1) take the subway and walk through Washington Park; or 2) Take the train and arrive on the other side of campus.  Since I had the unlimited card for the subway, I chose option 1.  Apparently that’s the more ghetto route….. But I survived the walk there and back, and that’s the most important thing, right? lol  The campus itself was gorgeous and I still want to go there, but it’s certainly useful to have first hand experience with the area surrounding it.

After escaping the ghetto, I wound up in Chicago’s Chinatown.  It was….well, just like most other Chinatown’s I’ve been too, if a bit smaller.  I tried my first green tea bubble tea there and it was pretty bleh.  I mean, it wasn’t bad per se, but it’s not something I would seek out again.  Maybe I just need to try a different flavor, because the green tea part of the green tea freeze was practically non-existent.  I might as well have been drinking crushed ice.

After lunch in Chinatown it was on to the Field Museum.  It’s a natural history museum, just like the ANHM in NY, but it’s even larger and the layout is much more creative.  Not that there’s anything wrong with the ANHM, but the Field Museum’s exhibits just flowed together better and the displays were amazing.  It was definitely worth the $22 entry fee — especially since this was the first and probably only time I’ll ever go.

Next up was the Shedd Aquarium.  It was alright, but nothing too spectacular.  As was the case with the Art Institute, I’ve simply been to too many zoos and aquariums for them to have anything I haven’t seen before.  I did catch a glimpse of a dolphin and beluga whale show, so there were some interesting points, but it was smaller than I imagined and was just barely worth the $29 ticket — and only because it was another of my first and only visits.

By the time I finished walking around the Shedd Aquarium, I was pretty much all Chicago-d out.  I’d seen everything I wanted to see and was sore and tired from walking the better part of 12 + hours two days in a row on minimal sleep both nights.  But I still had some time to kill, so I went to see Wrigley Field, which is where the Chicago Cubs play.  It was….quaint, to put it nicely

After that it was time to head to the airport to grab some dinner before my flight, which was scheduled to leave at 9pm.  It got delayed until 10 (figures this would be the delayed flight, not the one I was 5 minutes away from missing on the way up….) but the 6:50pm flight had been delayed until 8:55 and I managed to get on that one, so it was like nothing changed for me.  I was talking to EK for so long that I didn’t hear them call my name for standby (I’m still not convinced he did, because I was loitering around the gate the entire time I was on the phone) and I almost missed that flight too, but luckily everything worked out in the end and I got home just in time to go to bed and wake up early for work today

Chicago Day 1

It’d been a while (December, in fact) since I’d gone on a trip.  So I randomly decided to go to Chicago on my “weekend,” for two very simple reasons: 1) I was born and raised in IL, and yet I’d only been to Chicago once when I was about 8 or 9 (I don’t count my marathon day of driving when I had an interview up there because I saw nothing other than the building my interview was in); and 2) If all goes as planned, I’m going to go to grad school at U of Chicago, and I thought I should probably check out the campus first.

 

The day got off to a…. less than auspicious beginning.  My flight was scheduled for the hellishly early hour of 6am, so I set my alarm for the even more hellishly early hour of 3:50.  Guess who apparently slept through her alarm and just happened to wake by complete chance at 4:45?  Yep, me!  4:45 was when I planned on arriving at the airport….not climbing out of bed.  It’s amazing what a little adrenaline can do, and I was out of the house in ten minutes and at the airport by 5:11.  Because of stupid airport public transit, I didn’t get to the terminal until 5:28.  I was then confronted with a much-longer-than-it-should-have-been-at-5:30-in-the-morning security line.  I hadn’t yet resigned myself to missing my flight (though I was silently trying to figure out how to talk myself onto standby on the next one without a price increase) and I managed to make it through security and dash onto my plane with minutes to spare.  I was the third to last one on the flight and literally within six minutes of sitting down, we were taxi-ing down the runway.

 

The rest of my day passed without trouble (thank goodness), and here’s a little taste of the major things I did the first day:

I started the day downtown (aka The Loop) and wandered around for a while until I got to Buckingham Fountain in Grant’s Park.

 

I wandered through Grant Park up through Millenium Park, where I came upon the famed Bean.  I’d read about this sculpture and thought it was over-rated until I saw it.  There’s just something totally awesome about it that I can’t put my finger on….

After some more meandering around downtown and checking out the huge public library and some of the architecture along the Chicago River, I checked into my hostel (yes, EK, I stayed in a hostel.  Don’t look so shocked, it’s totally to be expected from me lol).

It was free admission day to the Art Institute of Chicago, so of course I had to check it out.  I was mildly disappointed.  They didn’t have anything I hadn’t seen before in some variation.  But considering I’ve frequented the Met, the MoMa, the Hermitage, and the Brooklyn Museum of Art, that’s hardly their fault, and it’s certainly worth a visit all the same.

 

I then walked along the Magnificent Mile before heading to one of my favorite parts of the city: Lincoln Park.  The highlight of this park (aside from the view) is the fact that it has an actually sandy beach.  If you didn’t know you were in the Midwest, you’d think you were on the coast.  Lake Michigan has the wave effect and endless horizons and everything.

I ended the day by eating a horribly unhealthy scoop of Ben & Jerry’s while walking along Navy Pier, which is like the Chicago attempt at Coney Island, though much smaller and less…..odd.

 

Wanderlust

Amid all the post-earthquake/tsunami coverage of Japan, I happened across a blog by amblerangel titled “Hey from Japan- Notes on Moving.” Her husband got a job in Japan and she and their two kids moved halfway across the world with him this past September.  Her blog is a collection of funny stories, cultural lessons, and interesting touristy stuff.  I love her style, but reading her posts has made the wanderlust within me rise again.

For one thing, I’m reconsidering learning Japanese.  I tried once and gave up because it was frankly too hard, and I’m sure if I started again I would find the same problem, but I’m still so tempted…..  Also, now I really, really want to visit Japan (although doing so in the near future is probably not recommended).  While in my Japanese phase I planned on studying abroad there, but that interest sort of faded around the same time as my interest in the language.  Japan was still on my top 10 list of places I wanted to go, but it was closer to the bottom than at the very top.  Now, it’s back in contention.

But it’s not just Japan that I want to visit.  I want to go everywhere.  I want to travel and work abroad and just experience as much as I can.  Even before I found amblerangel, I was considering joining the Peace Corps in Ukraine.  I’d get to learn Russian and Ukrainian while teaching English to people who could really benefit from it.  Only two things stopped me: You only get a living stipend, not a salary, and I have private student loans to pay back, and you need three letters of recommendation.  At the time, it was busy season at LJB, my former bosses at K12 had been scattered to the winds among the change in ownership, and my friends were busy with college. But….maybe after I pay back my loans….

Boston

I took a day trip to Boston on Saturday and it was sooooooo much fun.  I wasn’t expecting much after the blah trip to Philly a few weeks ago, but Boston is great.  I’m a sucker for history (which is why I was surprised I wasn’t thrilled by Philly), so my favorite part was the Freedom Trail.  It’s this red brick trail that runs through the city and supposedly traces Paul Revere’s ride.  I think what enchanted me the most is that the buildings around the Trail have all been maintained to look just like they did in the 16 and 1700s.  In Philly it was a mix of old and modern, in Boston it was all about authenticity.  I climbed the Bunker Hill Monument, saw the graves of many famous revolutionaries, including Revere, and stopped off at all the historical points along the Trail.

Most of my time was spent just walking around enjoying the sights.  Boston Common park (the oldest park in America) was nice, but it’s no Central or Prospect Park.  Downtown Boston was nice and the Chinatown was cute, but it looked almost like NYC, and that wasn’t what I took a 4 hour bus ride to see., so I didn’t spend much time there.

One thing that is def not like NY is the subway.  Boston’s subway is so…..ghetto.  There are lines that are more like underground trolley’s than trains and everything just looks so old.  No wonder Bostonians never use it……

Philly

I meant to write about this sooner, but I took a day trip to Philly back on November 20th.  It was really spur of the moment, which is not like me at all.  I literally decided at 9:30pm Friday night that I was going to take the 7am bus to Philly.  I don’t know why I wanted to go; I’ve just been restless lately.  I’m going to Boston next Saturday and thought about moving the trip up, but decided I’d rather go to Boston during the Christmas season.  I’m a sucker for Christmas decorations

Philly wasn’t bad. The weather was nice and the people were friendly, but there wasn’t that much to do.  I saw the Liberty Bell and some other famous sites nearby relating to the founding of this country, then walked around Old Philly for a while.  I loved the colonial style houses.  My favorite place was Elfreth’s Alley–the oldest residential street in the country (pictured above).  It was just so quaint and pretty.

I also walked around the South Street area, had an authentic Philly cheesesteak for lunch, then went up one of the main roads to this French-inspired square where I saw the Ghostbusters, then walked up to the park around the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  This was my second favorite spot.  The outside of the museum and the park around it were absolutely gorgeous.  I ended the trip with a stroll around Chinatown before heading back to the bus station.  Overall, I’m glad I went, but it’s not somewhere I need to go again.

It’s been a while….

Wow, I haven’t blogged in forever. However, it’s not just my blog I’m neglecting: I’ve scaled back the Russian to only about 30 minutes a day and the job search has pretty much not been happening for the past couple weeks. It’s not because I’m lazy, but because I’m feeling very overwhelmed right now.  Well, maybe overwhelmed isn’t the right word……I don’t have too much work, but I have just enough to keep me busy all day long.  It’s midterms time, after all, plus I have a huge group project in one of my classes that I need to get moving on.  I’ve been working on it steadily, but we’ve only known about it for a couple weeks and it’s a lot of work.  Our group set a deadline of having the outline done this weekend and most of the final product by next weekend, so it’s pretty much consuming my free time right now.

However, even with all this going on, I did manage to get away for Columbus Day weekend.  I went up to Portland, Maine, and it was pretty nice.  Now, I’m sure you’re all thinking “why in the world would you go to Portland, Maine of all places?”  My answer is “why not?”  I wanted to get away from the City and go somewhere different, which is why I didn’t just pick Boston or D.C. or something.  And Portland was supposed to be pretty, so I figured I had nothing to lose.

It was pretty, especially the lighthouses and colonial buildings.  The atmosphere was fairly relaxing, though I did get more catcalls there than I do in NYC, which is saying something, especially since I was in jeans and a hoodie most of the time…..Anyway, I basically just spent a couple days walking around the port and lounging in the hotel.  It took forever to stop feeling guilty about not bringing any school work with me, but I’m glad I didn’t, because I really needed to just relax.  I haven’t done a lot of that lately, and I’ve almost forgotten how.

The most eventful part of the trip was the walk from the hotel to the Amtrak station. When I had arrived, I had taken the bus because on the maps there was an interstate in-between me and the hotel, and all the reviews said that the station was a little inconvenient because you couldn’t walk to it.  But the woman at the hotel desk assured me that I could walk there.  What she neglected to mention was that the sidewalk which takes you to the station just happens to cross the interstate on and off ramps…..yeah, there were very few ways that could have been more unsafe…..But I made it home alive, and that’s what counts, right? lol

Montreal

I went to Montreal this past weekend, but have been wayyyy too busy to blog about it.  Between school, homework, and work projects I’ve literally barely had time to eat during the day.  I was supposed to spend all day today working on a project for Marc, but thanks to SJG and JChin’s inability to keep their noses out of anything, the project is no longer happening, so I have time to blog

Work and school were both closed starting Thursday for the Jewish New Year, so that’s when I left.  I took the train up and back because a) it was cheaper than flying; and b) I’d heard that the scenery was beautiful.  Now, I’m sure many people think I’m insane for taking an 11 hour (one way) train ride for the view and the cost, but I’m glad I did.  It was surprisingly comfortable, the scenery was beautiful, and I had plenty of time to catch up on my reading.  I was on a Shakespeare kick and managed to read MacBeth, King Lear, and Troilus and Cressida (along with another novel) during my 22 hour round trip.  I could have read more, but the mountains and river were really distracting.

Montreal’s super cute and the people are reallllllyyyy nice.  Like, so nice it even creeps me—the Midwesterner—out.  Parts of the city look just like NYC, but Old Montreal is very European.  Cobblestone streets, gothic architecture, huge cathedrals, little cafes—the works, basically.  My favorite part was Mont Royal.  It’s this huge hill (I think it’s something like 760 feet high) and if you climb up 432 steps (yes, I counted) and walk up multiple sloping paths, you’re rewarded with an amazing view of the city, the St, Lawrence river, and a couple mountains in the background.  I went up two of the three mornings I was there.  The park on the “mountain” was designed by the guy who later designed Central Park, so clearly that was gorgeous too.

I went to other parts of the city too: Chinatown (cute), Little Italy (lame), Olympic Stadium area (ugly), Botanical Gardens (lovely) St Louis Square (charming, especially the surrounding houses), St. Helen’s Island (beautiful, with awesome views).

My favorite shop was Suite 88 Chocolatier.  I read rave reviews online, so I just had to go.  I tried both their original hot chocolate (made with melted chocolate and milk) and their intense hot chocolate (made with cream and a whole lot more chocolate).  Both were delicious, but the intense was even a little too much for me….and that’s saying something.

Overall, my vacation was blissfully uneventful.  I’m sure that would be boring to some people (*cough*EK*cough*) but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I think I’ve firmly established on this blog that I’m mellow and drama-averse, so the polite chill atmosphere of Montreal was exactly what I needed.  The only thing that would have made it better was if the subway conductors actually stopped the train completely before opening the doors….. lol

PS: This pic’s just for you EK