BIKING.

In lieu of finding housing, I have taken up biking☺ Megan has been shopping and test riding and comparing prices and calling bike experts like Gordy and Ruth. FINALLY on Saturday morning she made a purchase. It really wasn’t a question of when she was going to buy it this weekend though: it was where. We got up and ventured to a bike shop we hadn’t been to which was recommended by her PT, in another part of the city. I drove because if she made a purchase, I needed to be able to get back home (Megan has a manual, and, no, I still haven’t learned to drive one yet). Anywho…we made it over to Lombardi Sports only to find not-so-knowledgeable sales people, over-priced “beginner road bikes,” and super high-end bikes with price tags soaring well beyond $1500. Megan test road one even though neither of us were stoked about the experience that we were having. Shortly thereafter we made our escape only to find that the trip had cost $50—in a parking ticket. See, in the Mission, where Megan lives there is free parking. You just can’t block a driveway or park on the side of the street where street cleaning will be happening from 7 – 8 am. And on the weekend there isn’t any street cleaning either. The Nob Hill area likes to charge for Saturday parking and will come seek your car out even if you are only parking for a lousy, 30 min Lombardi Sports experience. Boo.

We managed to make it over to Valencia Cyclery where Megan’s dream bike resided. She had tested it time and again, and had fallen in love with it, but she needed to know everything that is available: an informed shopper, that one. Back at in the Mission at VC, we were met by Will, who had helped us/Megan the night before. The bike Megan ended up purchasing is a 2009 Specialized Allez Sport in flat black. It has an aluminum frame with a carbon fork and stay. The components are lower end, but it’s a 9 speed triple, which means that it can be upgraded without too much expense. She/we also fell in love with a TREK 1.2 T (I think?), but it’s 8-speedness meant that an upgrade in components would nearly mean an overhaul because the nicer components are no longer made for 8-speeds. Does it sound like I know what I’m talking about here? I feel like I have a decent idea of what I’m talking about now, after listening to so many bike talks, but I fear that I’m still largely in the dark about the biking world and the wondrous amounts money that can be spent there.

Regardless, we met our goal of a bike ride on Saturday. I was planning on taking her roommate’s bike, however, it was miniature (Korin is not a miniature person, but we aren’t the same size). Thus, I decided to ride Megan’s commuter trail bike. It’s a Specialized from an unknown year with a heavy metal frame, components that work, and original tires that might blow at any time (according to the guy who helped me pump up the nearly flat tires). Together we charted a bike map and took off for Golden Gate Park. Riding a bike there made me realize just how crazy it was that Minkoff and I walked there. What were we thinking? Megan and I rode all the way through the park and out to the ocean. I didn’t touch it this time, but I admired it from afar for sure. The ride back was moderately hilarious as we opted to make a right straight up a hill at one point. Megan powered through the hill, I huffed and puffed my way up. Unfortunately, we got to the top and found that in any given direction we would be going up again: time to resort to the map. We backtracked, though we admittedly were proud of the climb we had just made, even though I felt that my heart my leap from my chest.

Sunday morning Megan and I went to breakfast with some friends who were having a big brunch (to raise money for No on Prop 8). At breakfast, Ness and her friend, Catherine, said they were planning a bike ride for the afternoon. I got excited about exploring with people who knew more what they were doing, and Megan did as well. We all got a later start than we would have liked, but around 3pm we shoved off from the Mission. Our goal: cross the Golden Gate Bridge. The ride started out in regular Market St traffic—slow for biking. We made it to the Embarkadero. Our plan was to ride along it (the edge of the land bordering on the bay) to the Marina and then to cross the bridge there. The Embarkadero proved annoying: the bike lane got little respect, the area was overrun with pedestrians, the smells in the air reminded us of sewage instead of fresh air off the bay. Bummer. Finally we made it to the Marina where the fog had landed. The air cooled a bit. We couldn’t even see the GG Bridge: it was shrouded in fog, not entirely unusual. We rode along the water—I was fascinated by the wind surfers! They speckled the water under the bridge with their colorful little sails. The amount of bodies in the water was mildly disconcerting, but they seemed to know what they were doing. Notice that we were nearly level with the water, watching the surfers. The GG Bridge is not level with the water, in fact, it’s rather high above it. We turned a corner and began our climb. Needless to say, I brought up the rear: did I mention that everyone had a road bike except me? Ness also recently invested in clip-ins, which made her climb even easier. We were all a little jealous. Finally we found ourselves on the bridge! It was exhilarating even though you felt like you were floating through the air—even seeing down to the water was a challenge through the fog! As we neared the other shore, the sun broke free of the clouds. I was stoked to soak it up.

I was relieved when Ness suggested that we venture down the hill back to the water level and stop for dinner/a beer in Sausalito and take the ferry back to the other side. My legs were near cramping after the recent climb. Plus, I was a little chilly. We cruised down a windy road that delivered us into the adorable waterfront in Sausalito. We smelled pizza and allowed our noses to lead us to where our empty tanks could be refueled. Sitting there on the street, we managed to do some people watching: a Rolls Royce was parked directly in front of us. The owner came out, got in on the right side of the car. He was also asked of the car’s year as he settled into his seat: “This is a ’54.” Wow. Impressive. The car was in pristine condition. After the diversion and refueling, we realized that we were all quite cold. We discussed our options. We decided that an efficient stop at Starbucks for hot chocolate would allow us to digest and warm up. Then we would attempt to ride back across the bridge—somewhat to my dismay. However, the ferry ride would have been mighty chilly… The climb back up to the bridge was brutal. Catherine and I struggled in the back as Ness and Megan pulled away. I was grateful for Catherine’s company, without which I might have not completed the hill on the bike. And then, my pride would have been hurt. The rest of our ride was moderately chilly and was punctuated by Megan wanting to take full advantage of her bike speeding ahead on a straight away, and Ness having a little trouble with clipping out before a painfully slow fall. But, really, what owner of clip-ins hasn’t done that?

The remainder of the trip was a little bit of a struggle because none of us wanted to battle any more hills as we made our way back through the city to our respective places of residence—especially in the dark with a decent amount of traffic. We were moderately unprepared for our epic journey: only Ness had bike lights, no one had warm enough clothing (though no one froze because of the hills). Overall, we had a great ride. I think we were all satisfied—and quite tired when we returned. We might become a gang...

Hardly Strictly...Fun.

More eons have passed...but I'm still alive and kicking! My trip back east was wonderful! I want to do an entire post separately about it with pictures included. Look out for that at some point.

I have arrived back in California. I almost didn't realize how much I missed it until I left for nearly 3 weeks. Coming back was both exciting and lonely. I really did have a great time at home in ALPH, ATL, and Athens. When I came back, I celebrated my 24th birthday. I planned not to work, so Megan and I had breakfast together that morning, then she headed off to work. I scanned craigslist for a while looking for a place to live--OH, I came home and found that a couple of people who play ultimate and some who don't are looking for some housing. I'm going to team up with them and look for a place. I'm stoked about having people that I know to live with! Also, I'm no longer looking in Menlo Park, where I work. I started looking at prices and realized that it's not any more expensive to live in the city, and, let's be honest, the city is really where I want to be. Most people that I have met live in the city, Megan's in the city, the school I want to go to is in the city...plus, I have the best job ever to commute to, it's literally a stop for Caltrain.

But back to my birthday celebration: I spent the morning online, then Gordy chatted me wanting to know if I was up in the city. We met up a little after lunch and went to Dolores Park. It was a beautiful fall day and the fresh air (minus eastern humidity) reminded me of Italy. I have some amazing memories of my semester there. We swang in the park, then made a stop at a popular ice cream place. They had some crazy flavors, very sophisticated. We loved it. We weren't sure what our next move was...it was early in the afternoon and neither of us had plans until the evening. Gordy asked me if I was up for a walk. I replied that I thought so...not knowing that she had quite the hike in mind. We walked through the Mission up towards the residential area. This is the area that I don't consider very PC, it's entirely NOT handicap friendly. If you were to try to wheelchair around this area, you would go flying down a hill and probably have a near-death experience. Anywho, we climbed and climbed, Gordy apologized along the way, she didn't remember the terrain that it was necessary to scale to get to our destination. However, our efforts were rewarded. We made it to the top of some rocks and got a spectacular view of the city. If you scroll down and look at the main picture here, we were on that brown bit of land in the center of the photograph. The view was amazing. The wind was also impressive, it cooled us after our lengthy hike. From there we toured parts of the city I had yet to visit. Overall, the afternoon was the perfect way to spend my birthday--thanks, Gordy!!! That night, Megan took me to a restaurant in North Beach. It was the first time I had been to that part of the city. They had a vast selection of beer and I had rabbit stew that was FANTASTIC! (Megan's chicken stew wasn't too shabby, either). The place is called La Trappe. If you ever get a chance to go, I think it comes highly recommended by both Megan and me. I guess at this point though I should also give a shout out to our favorite bar in the Mission: The Monk's Kettle. It's an amazing joint, if you come to visit me, you can almost be positive that I'll take you there, unless you are Robin and don't like beer. They have a lengthy beer menu and a warm, endearing atmosphere. They also have great food! Megan and I rave about it constantly. I tried to take my friend Sarah Minkoff there last night, and we took a tour of the Mission before arriving, but I think I have it down now. Sorry, Minkoff.

So, Minkoff came into town for this bluegrass festival in Golden Gate Park. It was called the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. It's always free, and I'm told that it's usually as amazing as I found it today. Minkoff and I made the trek there on foot from Megan's apt, which was a good 2.5 miles--and that was just to get to the eastern side of the park, the festival was a good mile in. But it was worth it. We enjoyed every detail of the experience. The walk there was invigorating on the sunny, windy fall day in the city. We made an early stop on Valencia for some breakfast, which was lovely. But our first find was an abandoned toilet on the sidewalk (look out for a facebook profile picture...). As we photographed me squatting on it, a man walking by nearly doubled over in laughter, apparently we're hilarious. We walked down Haight St into Lower Haight and I fell in love with the area. It was like walking through downtown Athens for a second. The streets were crowded on this Sunday morning. Once on Oak St, we walked past some pretty fantastic, classic San Francisco homes overlooking a park. We briefly fantasized about living there... Minkoff also noticed the plethora of Obama signs. She immediately made it a goal to try and locate something McCain affiliated.

Once on the park grounds, it was pretty easy to tell where to go: just follow the main flow of traffic, bike and pedestrian. On our walk, we passed the Flower Conservatory, a stark white building in a plush landscape complete with a gator made of flowers (Minkoff had to take a photo, she's a University of Florida graduate, it's in her blood or something). After a few more yards, we heard some music. Sarah noted that we must be on the right track! But then we actually heard the music that was playing: 80s rock. Suddenly on our right we saw a collection of roller skaters dancing/skating on a paved area just off the street. I think it's safe to say that we slowed our clip just to take it all in. A little farther down we encountered more music, this was more in the way of swing music. In another paved area we saw couples--of all ages--dancing. We had to stop to watch this. We located some signs: Free Swing Lessons every Sunday at noon. Huh, who knew?? The rest of our walk was filled with interestingly dressed people and people with babies strapped to them.

Finally, our ears were being filled with bluegrass, like actual bluegrass music where the woman singing was occasionally hitting a note on pitch...we moved along. The set up was impressive. There were 5 stages separated by landforms that helped to block the music of one stage from another. We picked up a schedule and headed towards Ben Kweller's performance on the Star Stage. It was quite enjoyable. We settled in on the grass, claiming our spot in the sun, and then we proceeded to people watch. It was highly entertaining. The drunkenness was just beginning for most. We could smell pot in the air. The stage announcers asked that you step outside the stage areas to smoke cigarettes, but that if you had medicinal marijuana, you could smoke wherever you needed to...ah, California:)

Eventually, we left in search of Golden Gate Portables (port-a-potties) and food. The array of food was impressive and moderately priced. We grazed on a hill in the shade and prepared for Iron & Wine's show. We clearly ate too slowly (well, we got caught up watching the entirely velour-clad woman climb the hill, the babies next to us "jogging", etc.). We bought one of the best brownies I've probably ever eaten (peanut butter!) and began to look for a place to settle down. Unfortunately, the entire area was COVERED with people. We got into a slowly moving line headed towards the stage. I occasionally found myself paralyzed listening to the music, which began shortly after we joined the line. I had to shake myself back into the reality of the thousands of people around me. Somehow Minkoff and I managed to walk up to some people on a blanket as they were leaving. They just walked off without their wonderful blanket--which claimed an enormous amount of space. We quickly decided to squat, thinking that the worst outcome would be getting kicked off upon the couple's return, but there was no way that would happen for at least 30 mins with the way the crowd was moving in. We lay down and enjoyed the music and the 2 year old behind us who repeatedly held threatening pine cones over Minkoff's face. The parents were embarrassed, but the kid was just loving the attention. After stumbling through some songs, the show came to a close--though it was a VERY good show. Samuel Beam was hilarious with little comments regardless of his inability to get through a couple songs without stopping to recall the words. Please, if you have never heard of Iron & Wine, do yourself a favor and listen to some of the music. Here's the Iron & Wine bio from the festival: "Iron & Wine is the musical project of Sam Beam, originally from South Carolina. When soft became the new loud in indie circles a few years ago, Iron & Wine quickly stepped ahead of the pack as the most arresting of the new-folk artists. The music is morose and mysterious, with impressively layered harmonies and instrumentation." Love it.

We had to make a bathroom stop again. This time the people in line were less polite and much more drunk. One man came in and cut in line, an older man who was about to take that bathroom tried to wrestle him out. Unfortunately, the drunken man won as he nearly fell into the portable. He was greeted with shouts of profanity and boos when he opened the door to leave. The entertainment was endless.

With darkness approaching and Minkoff's drive back to Davis ahead of her, we decided to hit the road. We stopped at a few stages briefly on the way out. But we soon got back into a good walking pace and left the park. Don't worry, the roller skating rink with the 80s theme was still going strong. Oh, and needless to say, we didn't manage to find a single McCain sticker, poster, t-shirt, etc. It was a good day:)