I have been extremely tardy in updating the internet of my (mis)adventures, but that is because I have been quite busy. Some of the minor reasons being because I started a new job and I moved across the country to San Francisco, and one of the major ones being that now I own a shirt that says "Best. Dad. Ever." (Yes, I am a Dad, but no of course I'm not a father: I'm too young to have kids). More info about that one in a future post. Anyway, I thought I'd regale you all with the multi-part saga of how I traveled to San Francisco for a wedding and then stayed for a few weeks to camp up the west coast until I hit Canada. Enjoy some of that snarky, awkward road trip journal that you are no doubt used to by now.
Friday 6/20/14 - San Francisco
It is about that time to start another grand adventure. To start off, I just accepted a job offer at LM in the bay area, so I'm pretty pumped to be moving to SF in a month or two. Also, my really good friends Joe Bryan and Rebecca Busch are getting married. TOMORROW. And I'm the one officiating. It's a huge honor, and I'll admit that I'm a little nervous, but it's going to be beautiful and a ton of fun.
So Michelle and I are on the plane to SF RIGHT NOW! So pumped. Today will be a lot of hotel logistics and rehearsal stuff, but it will definitely be a blast.
And now it's roughly midnight (reading from an actual written journal is like jumping into a literary black hole: you never know where in space-time you're going to be next!), and let me just tell you that I was previously correct - a blast was had this day. Michelle, Jessie, Jake, and I took an Uber to our hotel downtown from the airport. Uber will be the name of the game travel-wise in SF, so let's just get used to it now. So we checked in and then grabbed some food at a local place, the Brick Hotel (at least I think that's the name, don't hold me to it). Phenomenal food. I had a corned beef sando that was just killing it, and garlic fries that were offensive to anyone within a ten mile radius of my breath. So good. I then had to leave (Uber) to meet up with Joe, Rebecca, and family at the flower observatory in Golden Gate Park for the wedding rehearsal. It was an AMAZING day out, and the flower garden area was pretty easy on the eyes.
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| I just got here, can you tone it down San Francisco? |
After a few dry runs, we seemed to have a decent idea of how this wedding thing was going down. A lot of moving parts, but we got a good handle of it. It seems like it will be a breeze (the wedding is kite themed, get ready for the puns everybody).
After that, I Uber'd over to Fisherman's Wharf (a somewhat touristy but still cool area in the northeast part of the city) to check out the sea lions on Pier 39 and have a beer with Michelle, Paul, and Sam.
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| I usually associate Alcatraz with the deafening sound of sea lions barking |
We then walked back to our respective hotels since it was so nice out (so nice that we started working on our base-burns) and wanted to see part of the city. I then had a fun adventure with the iron at our hotel in an attempt to salvage our airplane-wrinkled clothes, and then we headed over to Joe and Rebecca's place for a fun reunion dinner.
It was so much freaking fun holy crap. First off, their place is unbelievable. So nice and with amazing views (which only get better as the Sun set), and the Indian food dinner was delicious.
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| Just the view from their deck, NBD |
And we got to meet new people and a reunion of people that we hadn't seen in a while. A lot of Tufts and Winchester people; it was amazing (turns out I even re-met my future roommate, Burdick). We spent the night just hanging out and enjoying the views before heading back to the hotel. I can't wait until tomorrow.
Caturday 6/21/14 - San Francisco
So today (or rather yesterday since I'm cheating and writing this on Sunday - don't tell anyone!) was the big wedding day. I awoke to find Kyle and Amanda sleeping next to us - YAY! They came when I was passed out in deep slumber the previous night. We started the day off with a walk to Chinatown - explored a bit, walked up the insane hills, bought some fortune cookies at the little alley shop where they were invented. Then we met up with a bunch of people at a really cool brunch place in Castro - the bartender was wearing only underwear. Classic Castro. Good food and it was Joe's big day! He seemed not nervous at all. Dude's a champ.
Then a few of us hiked up to Corona Heights, which might be my favorite part of the city. Great views and it kind of feels like you're not actually in a city.
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| Apparently I don't have any quote unquote NORMAL versions of this picture |
Michelle and I then had to leave and go back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding; we had a trolley with the wedding party to catch. WHICH WAS INSANE. We drove all through San Francisco just waving and drinking champagne as Rebecca and Joe looked awesome.
We drove to a few cool spots for pictures - pinwheels everywhere, dapper as fuck, and then over the Bay Bridge to Treasure Island - the location of the wedding.
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| I'm so pumped to be on a trolley right now |
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| Those sunglasses were MADE for this |
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| LET'S GO |
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| Paul: improving pictures since whatever year he was born |
It was so perfect outside and the island provided such amazing views of the city: it was nuts. The ceremony took place right at the "Bliss Dancer" statue, which is a gorgeous location. As we were prepping with pictures, Michelle, Paul, Sam, and I all went and got some pizza. The correct decision.
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| Majestic as fuck |
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| Joe has been happier, but not by much |
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| dudejump.org (I swear to god if that is an actual website...) |
Getting back to the Winery (the location of the eventual reception), I attempted to calm my officiating-related stress with an odd combination of champagne and 5-hour energy. Not sure if it helped. Didn't matter: before I knew it, it was go time.
I walked out listening to my pump-up playlist. And lucky for me, everything went off without a hitch. I remember when Joe and Rebecca came down the aisle and were staring at each other, both kind of nervous and both excited, I thought "wow, this is real." They were both just so happy that any nervousness that I had immediately went away. It really felt great getting to be a part of such an incredible moment. And their vows were great, almost as good as my kite puns, which preceded them flying a huge awesome kite with their vows written on it. So amazing. So yeah, we survived it and I made two people become married.
The drinks, dinner, and dancing were indescribable. The venue was beyond gorgeous and I think we danced so hard that it is going to be legitimately difficult to hike tomorrow. Such a blast. We had several adventures in the photo booth and donut area. And did I mention how AGGRESSIVE the dancing was? I did? Ok good, because holy shit.
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| Dawwww |
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| Varum tanzt der Afe |
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| Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun |
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| What a lovely bunch of Jumbos |
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| I can't even |
Needless to say, as the night rolled around to a close, we were wiped out. But I still remembered to sign the marriage license, so that's good. I think that wedding is going to be hard to top. The bus ride home was sleepy, but we made it back to the hotel with as minimal complains as one could hope for.
I love this city and I love Joe and Rebecca. I'm so happy they asked me to officiate their wedding and I'm beyond pumped to be moving here in a few months.
Sunday 6/22/14 - San Francisco
Today started achy as hell, but we managed... strugglingly, to pack up and head to the SoMa StrEat Food Truck brunch. This place was nuts. ALL KINDS of delicious food trucks with which to stuff our faces. Joe and Rebecca had a school bus rented out for us (yep), and we used it as our base for nomming so many foods, hanging out with people, and eventually watching soccer. USA almost beat Portugal, which would have been great for our World Cup chances, but we ended in the last second with a crushing tie. It's ok though; I ate Korean tacos and Old Bay fries and pig roasted over a pit. So good.
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| They are happy on the inside |
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| Right before Portugal tied it up |
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| "Wanna be roommates in September?" "Yeah." |
But alas, now was our time to say goodbyes and pick up our rental car for the next phase of the journey: Yosemite. Getting our groceries was actually taking a lot longer than anticipated. Silver lining is that we dined on some delicious In'N'Out Burger. So yeah, just driving out to Yosemite in the dark after that. Pretty late too, we didn't arrive until after midnight. After a really fun switch-backy drive with some INSANE stars. Seriously the stars were so clear and incredible. You could easily see tens of thousands, along with shooting stars, from patches between silhouetted evergreens. It was beyond amazing. But we were extremely tired after an eventful weekend, so it was bed time. I was asleep before I was fully in my sleeping bag.
Ok gang, the adventure continues in the next installment of "WEST COAST ADVENTURE EXCEPT WITH A BETTER NAME!"
Rated PG 13.
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