Sunday 5/23: Day Five

After having a quite night after graduation, I woke up quite early and headed over to the Wharf. I headed up to my Dad and Ben's room to see what they were doing. They were just getting ready for their day, so I asked them if they wanted to get some delicious food and go into the city for a bit, which they enthusiastically said yes. We all quick hopped into the car and headed on over to Mr. Holmes Bakery, one of the coolest places and bakeries in the city, Lombard Street and Coit Tower

Then after seeing all the touristy spots downtown, we still had some time left over so we headed out to Outer Richmond to see the Legion of Honor and all the houses at Sea Cliff. We climbed up the windy roads, through golfs courses and mansions until we finally reached the top. After reaching the top and driving around for a bit, we found parking and decided to get out. 

After we finished exploring the Legion of Honor, we had to drop Cam off downtown on Embarcadero to meet a friend. after we dropped him off downtown, Ben and I decided to head back to the Wharf to see what was going on. We found everyone hanging out and we all decided to go to Haight. Now the Haight is the hippie district. This is the place where the summer of love happened in the 1960's, where Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix and many others lived. Its a pretty interesting place filled with hippies, homeless people, head shops, record stores and everything in between. .

Then after Haight we all headed back to the Wharf to hang out for a while and catch up on some sleep. Once we got all well rested we went out into the Italian district of North Beach, which has amazing Italian places around every block. We however decided to go to Tony's, which is the best spot to get pizza in North Beach. We waited in line for a while, sat down got our pizza, calzones, and sandwiches and start to feast. After finishing eating,  we decided to do one last trip up to Twin Peaks to see the sun go down and the city before even left the next day.

Saturday 5/22: Graduation Day

So this was the "Big Day," the reason everyone was here to see me graduate from USF. Graduating was a weird feeling- it just seemed like one more routine thing I had to do. The significance was totally lost on me, it still is right now as I write these words. It will probably hit me in a few weeks when I'm at home doing dishes or something, and I'm going to crumble into a sobbing ball of emotions, but for now we're good. 

It was wonderful to see all my family once I came out of the ceremony, and they were all waiting for me with praise and leis. It was surreal seeing all their faces in SF and at my graduation- that's when it started to hit a little bit. I took many pictures with everyone, exchanged a multitude of hugs, and accepted much praise and congratulations. I ended up graduating cum laude with a GPA of 3.7 and a degree in International Business with a minor in Chinese Studies. 

I have to wait a few months to receive my actual diploma in the mail. Once I have it, it will be the most expensive piece of paper I own. By Far. So I need to buy a really nice frame, just to make sure I don't loose it. 

Now back to the big festivities. After all the picture taking and hugging, I taught my aunt how to hail an Uber for half the family for brunch at Sweet Maple, which is in my opinion the best brunch in SF. We all packed into the remaining car again and made our way over to Sweet Maple. We parked, walked over to find out that we had about a forty five minute wait, which is not bad at all for Sweet Maple. Sometimes it can reach up to an hour and a half to two hours. Half us headed over to Japan town while the other half waited at the restaurant. After poking our heads in and around Japan town and then quickly making our way back to the restaurant, we were seated fairly quickly. We ordered coffee, lattes, mimosas, Bloody Mary's, omelettes, crepes, french toast, and their famous "Millionaires Bacon". This Bacon in UNREAL- thick cuts of bacon that are drenched maple syrup, brown sugar and a variety of peppers, then baked until it is properly caramelized and ready to devour. 

After brunch we made our way back to the Marriott to go into our food comas and recover from our feast. We all napped for quite a bit, then decided on heading over to Grandview Park for the sunset, which is by far the best view in the entire city. It has views of everything. You can see downtown SF, the Golden Gate Bridge, ALL of Golden Gate Park, The Pacific Ocean and many more. It simply has everything.

These are the stairs leading up to Grandview Park. They start out at the ocean move their way up to land, then the stars and the moon, ending with the sun at the top. 

After we climbed up these stairs we made our way to the top, which literally feels like you are on top of the world. The sunlight dances off everything it touches and blankets the city in a serene layer of light, making for a stunning view. 

After we finished at Grandview Park, we headed over to El Rancho Grande on Divisadero to make everyone go through the rite of passage of eating a California Burrito. For those of you who don't know, a California Burrito is a burrito filled with a meat of your choice, guacamole, and french fries. It is absolutely amazing and this place is my favorite spot in the city to get them. We all head over and all practically order the same thing, a California Burrito. We grabbed our chips and beers, then proceeded to find seating. We all sat down, started eating our chips and made our way over to their amazing salsa bar. We got a good variety of salsa and munched on chips for a while. Just as we were about to run out of chips, our burritos came, and it could not have been better timing. We all took off the foil and dove into the burritos. I could not have asked for a more perfect day.

Friday 5/20: Day Three (Part Three)

So after Sol Food, we all made our way back to the Wharf to the hotel. Some of us took a nap and some of us continued to explore the wharf. I personally took a nap for about two hours. Then we all got back together for dinner at Boudins Bakery, a famous bakery in SF known for their bread bowls and intricate ways of baking bread. We all sat there and had a great time chatting, devouring bread bowls and recounting the days events. We then proceeded to head on over to Ghirardelli Square for a quick dessert. We walked through the door and the place was bustling with overworked servers and hungry tourists. We quickly gave our orders and looked for a place to sit.

We were wandering around for a while until we scored a massive table with just enough room for all of us. We talked for a couple of minutes and then received our desserts which looked straight out of the menu pictures. The looked and tasted delicious, especially after the day we just had. It was the perfect way to end the day. 

Friday 5/20: Day Three (Part One)

This was a full day, starting with a sunrise view of the Golden Gate bridge and the city, except there was one problem- the weather report had the wrong sunrise time. Instead of the promised 6:25 am sunrise, the sun rose around 5:45 am that morning, which was way too early to galvanize everyone to get up. Nonetheless, we all got up and made it the Marin Headlands at 6:25 am which was a miracle in and of itself, with the day off to a good start.

Even thought there was no sunrise, the Golden Gate Bridge and the city were shrouded in bright, breathtaking sunlight. One perk of waking up that early was that we ended up having the place all to ourselves. Anyone else who has ever been here knows how crazy this is. The Headlands usually have tons of traffic with all sorts of tourists, locals, and photographers clamoring for a position. This morning it was our own personal playground. 

Once we finished exploring the lower portion of the headlands and admiring the view of the city, which never gets old no matter how many times I go there, we made our way to the top of the Marin Headlands. The top of the Marin Headlands is even more majestic and grand than before. We all got out of the car and set loose on the top part. We hiked up the to the top of the hill with Mom blazing a path out in front, taking in the views and admiring our surroundings.

Once we got our fill of the views and we set our sites on breakfast, so we made our way to Sausalito. We didn't have any particular place in mind, but descended through the hills of the Headlands and through the hills of Sausalito. We admired and looked at all the wonderful houses on the hills over looking the bay and Sausalito and SF. 

We ended up finding parking and made our way to the Sausalito Bakery and Cafe, a small quant little cafe operated by one man in a full chef outfit with everything including the classic goofy hat. We all clamored to look at the pastries and what to order, ending up ordering an assortment of coffee, tea, pastries, and breakfast sandwiches. We all sat, chatted, took in Sausalito, and talked to one other over our breakfast. We then made our way around the downtown of Sausalito talking to one another and exploring. After we had our fill, we made our way back to the cars to make our way over to Muir Woods next.

Thursday 5/19: Day Two (Part Two)

After strolling around Sutro Heights, we decided to scatter. Steph had to go to work, Pat and Josh were dead tired, and the rest of us wanted to continue exploring the city after we checked everyone into their hotel. We made our way over to the Wharf to check everyone into the Marriott, which is a fantastic hotel. The only problem is that on our way I didn't know there were two Marriotts, we were quickly informed they couldn't find our room because we were at the wrong hotel. Then we headed up the block and found the right one. We got everyone settled in and made a pilgrimage over to In N Out Burger. This place is amazing and is only available in California and some parts of other states on the western side of the US, it was a treat to educate everyone on what this place really is. 

We all got our food and ate it outside on their patio seating. Everyone loved their food and was learning about the "secret menu" and what animal style was and why they didn't get it on theirs. Once we finished feasting we then proceeded to fit everyone into the rental car once more to head over to Golden Gate Park (GGP) to see the Japanese Tea Gardens. We made our way weaving through San Francisco traffic and odd street signs to GGP. This place is unbelievable. First off it is bigger than Central Park in New York and was all originally sand dunes, everything there is man made. The reason the big music Festival in GGP is called Outside Lands is because that is what the sand dunes used to be called back in the day. Anyways we parked our car outside of The Conservatory of Flowers.

Once we finished looking at the Conservatory of Flowers, we slowly made our way over the the Japanese Tea Gardens. This is a garden made completely in the Japanese style fit with everything from koi ponds, a tea house, pagodas, bridges and many more. it literally feels like you stepped into Japan when you pass through the stoic gated entrance.