Friday night, I’m finally done with my work assignment in Sacramento so I pack and go; objective: the city of the 49ers. I want to try to get there before sunset to snap a few pictures of the sun setting on the pacific before enjoying SF by night. It’s around 30C in Sacramento but I now know that SF is a meteorological abnormality. It’s only 1h30 away by car but my phone tells me the temperature is down to 15C when I reach the bay area. I’m on schedule for once but upon arrival, I can only witness SF being overrun by clouds. They climb from the pacific and fall down into the bay. I won’t get my pictures of the sun setting on the Pacific tonight clearly but thinking quickly I come up with a backup plan. It could be cool to see the golden gate bridge in a sea of clouds. The problem with that is that the sea of clouds is so big you can’t even see the bridge! So much for plan B but I’ve got a plan C (resourceful if anything!) I go back to the other side of the bay and head to Richmond. Google finds me a place to see the sun setting on SF and following its instructions, here’s what I get.
After a burger and a beer in a local bar, I go back to SF and quickly drop the idea of taking pictures at night. It’s cold, windy and overcast…The coldest winter I ever saw was the summer I spent in San Francisco (says a popular quote and not Mark Twain!)
The next day, I first have brunch in Mission then head to SF central park. Even though the shape and size are similar to the New York one, this one is much wilder. After all, the one in New York is completely artificial. It’s a shame so many roads cross the park but at the center you have 2 museums waiting for you. And to my surprise one of them was hosting an exposition from Musee D’Orsay on… the impressionists! (It’s a small world isn’t it Dad?)
I pay a mandatory visit to the famous summer of love meadow and I go all the way to then end until I reach the ocean.
This city has a vibe very different from anything I experienced before. They still have wild hippies roaming around (they just have a few more wrinkles than they used to) and the norm here seems to be nonconformism. It has a really relaxed energy, very easy going but if I were to live here I’d probably miss the speed of New York fast.
I had one last item on my list. A friend of mine recommended me to go up to the twin peaks to have a great view of the city. She also said it was much better at night. Veni and Vedi a hell of a fog… SF doesn’t let itself be visited that easily!