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:)
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:)
2 comments:
the festival sounds amazing and it was free! i checked out the lineup and all i want you to know is that i shall be there next year, expect me.
sounds like you had a great time! i would have loved to seen the drunk man and the port a potty. Haha.
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