It's was a long winter in Philly. Late nights working and cold mornings took their toll in the form of missed gym days and cab reciepts. Wisely, Sarah and I decided to take a trip to San Francisco in March for my birthday to visit some old friends and make new ones.
We landed around 11 AM on Friday, March 11th to a beautiful sunny california day and took a pretty rough looking BART train into the city (a few days later I would read this NYT article explaining the seats on the BART have "high concentrations of at least nine bacteria strains and several types of mold", interesting fun fact indeed). Waiting for us in the Mission District was a beautiful contemporary loft with a private deck that we found on airbnb.com. Susette handed us off the keys and gave us a brief run-through of the space. After unpacking and broadcasting a slightly embarassing twitpic, we set off to meet our friend Rob for some much needed lunch.
The afternoon was spent soaking up the Delores Park and Castro areas. Sprawling hillsides with punishing sidewalks that rewarded the brave with a glorious view of the surrounding area. At this point the scale and beauty of San Francisco was beginning to overwhelm me. On a clear, warm day, drenched with sun, I could see why so many had decided to call this home.
Oddly while walking past a bar on Mission, we ran into someone who looked exactly like Mike Perry. After further inspection, we found out it was indeed Mike Perry, who was randomly in San Francisco with Jim Stoten and some other friends. Despite not knowing Mike personally, he invited us in for a few pints with them, and we obliged.
Feeling like we were officially on vacation, we carried along to the offices of Dwell Magazine where we met up with Celeste. At Dwell, we were lucky enough to have a mutual friend in Dakota Keck who gave us an office tour and introduced us to Editor-in-Chief Sam Grawe and Creative Director Kyle Blue. After getting a sneak peak at the new issue and talking shop, it was time to go have two dollar beers at a weird 1980's (not in a good way) bar down the street. After our entire eight-person table was presented with our $24 bill, We packed it in for the night, heads spinning and feet throbbing.
Day two was greeted on the patio of Foreign Cinema with Rob and Celeste. Brunch with these two would be a reoccurring theme throughout the trip, as they acted as unofficial tour guides for the weekend. Bellies full with slow cooked brown sugar bacon and the like, we made our way out into the city for another adventure. A brief stop to Benny Gold's shop confirmed the age old fact that my body was made to fit exactly in-between a Large and an Extra Large. Sausage in one, swimming in the other. The ladies hit up the thrift stops up and down Valencia before we headed out for the bay.
For the next few hours the four of us meandered through the hills of San Francisco chatting about nothing in specific. The conversation continued to wander effortlessly, as did we. Somewhere between the Fort Mason Green and the top of a very large hill, we met up with another friend of ours, Aimee Gauthier. The five of us took the opportunity to take many cheesy photos in a park, skip merrily, and perhaps even have an outburst of singing the Full House themesong (much to the local's chagrin).
After sushi and some much needed drinks, we hopped the most crowded bus known to mankind to head over to the studio of I Shot Him. Several local designers were kind enough to organize a bit of a meet-up over a showing of Bullit, the 1960's murder mystery set in San Francisco (common misconception with Bullit, many see as a Steve McQueen movie. While he is quite convincing, the star of the film is clearly the 1968 Ford Mustang GT). While the specifics of the night got very, very murky quite quickly. I remember having wonderful conversations with Javier Garcia, Mike Jeter, Erik Marinovich, and Richard Perez. It was really nice of everybody there to invite us, and as the night progressed and Steve McQueen chased baddies around the hills we had just walked on, it seemed like somehow we had all known each other for much longer.
Day three was planned as a trip to Napa. We started out with a trip to Tartine where we drowned our hangovers in espresso and fancy pastries. Our friend Aimee was sweet enough to land us a BMW 328i (nicknamed "Baby Doll" by Zipcar) for the trip. Being a closet car geek, and this being my first chance to have a BMW all to myself, I was gladly down for the task of designated driver. After Rob escorted us through various SF neighborhoods to give us a more mobile view of the land, we fueled up the car, switched drivers, and headed north with wine in mind. After putting the BMW through its paces, we arrived at Mumm Napa, makers of sparkling wine. Within minutes, there were at least three times as many flutes as there were people. A few minutes later they were gone.
After some more gawking at the natural beauty of the countryside, we headed to the Oxbow Public Market for some snacks and of course more wine. Ultimately we had dinner at Ubuntu, a Michelin Star winner that does amazing things with vegetables. We made mincemeat of the drive back, and even had time to drive up to Coit Tower for a view of the city before putting "Baby Doll" to bed for the night.
Day four consisted of some more brunching and a trip to see the coast. Our friend in Minneapolis, Anne Larson had some goods in the General Store, so after stopping in there and at Trouble Coffee , we walked down to the beach. Something about the vastness of a coast is always impressive, no matter where you are. The never ending sea in front of you tends to put things in perspective.
After drying off, we wandered around the Embarcadero area before meeting up with Ryan Fitzgibbon for a short tour of Ideo. Located right on the waterfront, the studio is built on a pier. In certain places there are steel plates bolted to the floor that hide the ocean underneath. Open and yet very condensed, the studio features lots of innovative touches and builds nicely on the heritage of the building. We had a nice long chat with Ryan about design, our jobs, the industry, etc. Can't say nice enough things about him.
For dinner, we linked up with fellow traveler Kyle Fletcher who was also in town for the weekend. Kyle hails from Chicago, and shares a mutual obsession with all things automotive. Our dinner at Suppenkuche was fantastic, and lead to an interesting evening at a pirate themed bar named Smuggler's Cove ( which for some reason made the phrase smuggling plums" get stuck in my head for the rest of the night). Tight gym shorts aside, we once again returned to our home slightly buzzed with sore feet.
Our last day in SF was spent doing more walking, and eventually getting an amazing tour of Chronicle Books by our friend Aimee. We grabbed up a last minute burrito before grabbing our bags and heading to the airport for a red-eye back to Philly.
While it seems life has other plans for us in California right now, San Francisco has made an amazing impression on me. Should life ever steer us in that direction, I will gladly buy the ticket and take the ride. In the meantime I'll have to take solace in the fact that we have some great friends in San Francisco (old and new), and that our next visit to the area will be highly anticipated. Thanks again to everybody who showed us an amazing time.