June 18th

my dad’s birthday is on june 18th and so it’s always just a few days away form being on father’s day. this year, both were on the same day. my brother and i got my dad a Razr cellphone which he was really excited about. my dad can be pretty hard to shop for and we never really know what he might want, so it was cool to see that he really enjoyed our gift and spent the day trying to figure out how to use the various features and taking pictures of stuff.

we went to the flower conservatory in golden gate park which was pretty cool. so many crazy different kinds of plants. this one species of flower actually really looked like some kind of alien space creature. i haven’t really taken many photos recently, so i snapped a bunch while i was there.

Here are the rest of my flower conservatory photos.

after the park, we checked out Canvas cafe which my mom was totally blown away by. they have this really cool art exhibit there now where someone hung 20,000 pieces of orange paper from the ceiling and it looks like you are fully being showered by tons of autumn leaves. really cool. i showed my new apartment to my parents from the outside, and was really tempted to go inside (the door is unlocked), but decided i didnt want the landlord to start hating me before i even moved in.

after driving back to the southbay, we went out to a dinner at Scott’s seafood restaurant which was pretty mediocre. here’s a photo of my dad and uncle weraing some really dorky bibs!

*v

Bar#23 – Lucid

Lucid is a really slick looking lounge that is divided into two floors. the main floor is all polished and nice looking, and the downstairs is all brick. when we were there, there was some really cool artwork on both levels. downstairs you could either dance to whatever dj was playing, or there was a sitting area where it was quiet enough to be able to talk and yet still hear the music really well. that was pretty cool since in most places, either the music is so quiet that it becomes background noise, or it’s at a million decibels and you couldnt carry on a conversation if you tried. given how nice this place looked, i expected drinks to cost a fortune, but they didnt. a lot of reviews for this place said that the bartenders were super rude and cold, but when i was there, they smiled a lot, served us quickly, and were overall friendly.

Lucid is at 580 Sutter Street in San Francisco

Bar#22 – Top of the Mark

At the very top of Nob Hill is the Mark Hopkins Hotel, and the at the top of the hotel is the Top of the Mark. seeing as the hotel is 19 stories tall, and Nob Hill is pretty tall to begin with, the views from up there are phenomenal. there are small tables lining the huge windows where you can sit and take it all in. you can even sit on the windowsills which makes the view even more thrilling. actually, when i first saw some woman sprawled out on the windowsill, i thought “damn dude, some people are fucking wasted!”… but it turns out that this is perfectly acceptable behavior up there.

the atmosphere is pretty upscale (as is predictable when you see limos hanging out in front) and it had it’s fair share of snooty people. some guy in a tuxedo threw a hissy fit when he wasn’t allowed to sit at a table, even though it was clearly marked reserved for someone else. our waiter also, gave me the vibe like he was a bit above serving people like our group. but, it looked like at least some of the crowd was not all stuffy. the place had a huge drink selection, 100 different martini drinks. pretty much every conceivable combination of alcohols is on the martini list. the drinks are a bit pricey at 10$ a pop, but they were pretty strong. supposedly there is a 10$ cover charge after 9pm, but we somehow didnt have to pay. phew!

this definitely isn’t the kind of place i could see myself hanging out at often, but it was really cool to try it out and enjoy the views. really, this is what the new year’s resolution is all about… trying places that i wouldn’t normally have tried.

Top of the Mark is at 1 Nob Hill in San Francisco

San Francisco!!

It’s amazing how time flies. when i first returned from my trip, i planned to moved up to san francisco as soon as i started earning some money. it seems like that was just a little while ago, but i finally realized that i’ve been back for a little over 6 months now. it was time to finally get a move on.

Caryn and i started looking through craigslist for a place in SF. choosing a place wasn’t easy. i was very picky about what neighborhood we’d be living in. i wanted to live in a neighborhood that was fun and where i would have reastaurants, bars, and excitement right outside my front door. i wanted to feel like i was living right in the middle of the city, and not just be surrounded by residential housing. Pretty much, i was limiting my search to the Mission, Hayes Valley, and the panhandle.

getting a good place in one of these areas wasn’t easy. houses pretty much came in one of two flavors: expensive or craphole. then there was the tiny handful of places that were within our budget and were actually nice looking. each time we showed up to one of these, there would be like 30 other people waiting to see them. apparently everybody likes to move during the summer, and competition was fierce. one landlord we talked to said he got *50* calls the very first day that he put his ad on craigslist. another told us that his phone has been ringing off the hook for a week straight with enquiries. we talked to this one girl who was also looking for a place to live… she had already been looking for 5 weeks with no success. she had even tried to bribe one landlord by offering to pay $200 more per month for a place, but was still turned down. wow. so this was what we were competing against. was that why we had been turned down for each place that we applied at?? were we supposed to be bribing people?? ugh.

so, things were looking grim. would we be able to find a place we liked? would we ever be able to park our cars again? how could we compete againgst all the others? would the landlords be ok with our very mediocre credit scores? after 3 weeks of this, i was getting more and more discouraged.

and then, finally, we got a place! after discussing the many negative marks on my credit report, the landlord finally said yes. i am finally gonna move up to SF. SWEET!! i am so fucking excited! the place is on the corner of Gough and Market, which is pretty much exactly where i wanted to end up. just 5 blocks from the Mission and 5 blocks from Hayes vlalley (it’s in a new neighborhood called DecoGhetto by some). it’s super central, and also just a block away from the freeway which will make our commutes much nicer. it’s a tiny one bedroom place in an apartment building, but it has hardwood floors, lots of tall windows, and looks really nice on the inside. i dont know how we’ll fit everything in this place, but i love it anyways. not only that, but for a little bit extra, we’re getting 2 parking spots inside the building.

so, now i’m just counting down the days to move in. our official move-in date is july 1st, but if the place is ready before then, we might move earlier. it’s been almost 2 years since i’ve lived in SF… and now i’m finally coming home!

*v

Bar #21 – Pig & Whistle

this is the kind of place that makes it hard to write a review. it’s a british pub, with all the usual qualities you’d imagine it to have. lots of beer. pool and darts. laid back atmosphere. there’s really not much i can say about it that really stands out. i’ve read that it has fantastic pub food, but we didnt try any when we were there. what i did try, was this beer called Old Speckled Hen. the beer, despite it’s bizarre name (which oddly enough is a reference to MG cars), was damn good. it reminded me of this other creamy ale that i had back in london. it was so good actually, that i wasn’t able to try anything else since i just kept ordering the same thing over and over and over. even if that beer was the only thing that stands out for me about Pig and Whistle, it still makes it worth going back.

Pig & Whistle is at 2801 Geary Boulevard in San Francisco

Bar#20 – Bar 821

I read a bunch of reviews about Bar 821 on yelp, and one of the things that i thought was really weird about it was their door policy. they dont let anyone in after 11pm. hmmm, sounds like kind of an interesting gimmick to stop letting people in after a certain point and have a private party inside for the rest of the night. sure, a bit odd, but i thought it could be interesting. we headed down there and showed up at the place at 10:45pm. as we walked through the door, the bartender glanced up and shook his head at us. nope, we wouldnt be getting any drinks tonight.

it turns out that we misunderstood… they dont just stop letting peole in after 11… they shut the bar down. so, it’s only 11pm and we’re outta luck with no other new bars anywhere near by. what kind of bar shuts down at 11?? is it past people’s bedtimes or something? also, it’s lame enough that they close at 11, but why not at least serve drinks right up until closing?? the reason bars usually stop serving early is because they dont want to break the law and have people still drinking at 2am… but if your bar closes at 11pm, there’s no legal reason to have a”last call”. also, they have a rule where they give “locals” preference. what does that really mean? do they check your address on your drivers license and then make non-locals give up their seats?? basically, i think these guys just wanted to have something quirky and interesting about their bar, but instead their rules are just kind of lame.

Bar 821 is at 821 Divisadero St in San Francisco

Bar#19 Latin American Club

I’ve seen the neon glowing horseshoe sign a countless number of times, but haven’t ever actually wondered what it was a sign for. turns out it’s Club Latin American. what a random name. what the hell would be inside a place named club latin american? mariachi music? no. a lot of latin americans? no. pinatas? Yes!! lots of them, hanginging all over the ceiling. other than the pinatas though, there’s really not too much about the bar that reflects its name. instead, it’s a typical mission bar. not exactly a dive, but definitely has a chill dive type atmosphere and strong drinks.

Latin American Club is at 3286 22nd Street in San Francisco

Bar#18 Place Pigalle

It’s gonna be very hard for me to write a review of this bar because of how my night started. yan was in town from prague, so a few of us went to a german restaurant called Suppenkuche to have dinner. the food there was pretty good and they had a ton of different beers to choose from that you could get in all sorts of sizes ranging from small glasses all the way up to huge *4 liter* containers. yes, you could definitely drink a serious amount of beer in this place. yan and kevin got a huge 2 liter beer that came in a monstrous glass that was shaped like a boot. it was hillarious. erica and i each got 1 liter beers. as the night wore on, we each got another order, so by the time we left the restaurant, we had each drank 2 liters a piece.


kevin drinking from the boot (and spilling on himself)


Erica’s drink isn’t all that small either

we left Suppenkuche and stumbled off to Place Pigalle. the rest of the night is a bit of a blur. somehow i lost my debit card and also my paycheck. somehow i got into Popscene without paying. somehow we ended up being driven around in a Lincoln Towncar. somehow we ended up on some girl’s balcony. the night ended at Sparky’s, yet i dont recall anything about a very expensive milkshake, nor how we got home. ahh yes… another classic night.

so, what does this review actually say about Place Pigalle? well, pretty much nothing really. all i know about that place is that it has a pool table and looks kind of run down inside… and i only know that cause i had to come back a few days later to pick up my missing debit card.

*v

Place Pigalle is at 520 Hayes Street in San Francisco

Bar#17 Amber

Amber is a cool liitle bar in the Castro. well, actually it just seems little when you look at it from the outside. onse inside though, it turns out that therere’s actually lots of space and there are couches everywhere for people to sit on. this place seemed like a really nice mixture of a lot of things. there was fun music playing, yet not so loud that it would drown out everyones talking. the place looked nice and semi-slick in some ways, yet was totally relaxed and didnt give off that stuffy vibe at all. the crowd seemed very mixed: everything from people who were dressed up to people looking gritty, from hip-hop types to indie kids to everything in between. everyone seemed to be having a good time too. you could get fruffy coctails or you could drink pbr. basically, this place was a little bit of everything. unfortunately i ahd a cold so i had to go home early, but i definitely wanna go back again…

Amber is at 718 14th Street in San Francisco