So much to catch up on! Last weekend was really fun. Friday I went to Pixar after work and met my friend Kevin. He’s interning there so could give me a tour. The campus is SO nice! Unfortunately I couldn’t see some of the coolest areas because they don’t give access to outsiders, but it definitely seems like a very fun and creative place to work for. I’ve been learning second-hand a bit about the process of movie making and I have a newfound appreciation for the work that goes into the end result! After we toured Pixar we stayed for a screening of Transformers III at the studio. Because the audience was full of movie snobs, there was a lot of ironic laughter and once I found myself laughing genuinely and realized NOBODY else laughed and it was awkward. OOPS! Haha.
San Francisco City Hall
Saturday morning I met one of my college roommates, Katie, in San Francisco and covered a lot of ground over the course of the day. She stayed with me for the weekend and we had so much fun together! We met at the Civic Center and went to the Ferry Building and got lunch at the farmers’ market there. Inside the Ferry Building we sample expensive olive oils to see if we could notice a difference (we couldn’t) and had some blackberry and lavender honey sticks, which were a delicious throwback to childhoods in New England.
Next we headed to Pier 39 to see the sea lions, but there were only a few stragglers… the rest were off breeding. However, we DID see some really cute puppies for sale at Fisherman’s Wharf. After gushing over them for a few minutes, I found out they are pit bulls and lost interest. From there we kept walking along the water to Ghiradelli Square. There was an awesome rock violinist street performer that was fun to listen to, and going through the Ghiradelli chocolate samples line a couple times reminded me of doing that with my brothers and cousins when we visited right before I started high school. It’s been very nostalgic to come back to some of the touristy places that I went with my family when I was younger.
All of this walking made us pretty hungry, so we shared a burger at In & Out, because I guess you have to go at least once while you’re in California! Then we kept going west to Fort Mason. It was so sunny and beautiful out, so we found a really cool gnarled old tree to lean on and hung out for a while watching all the dogs and people picnicking and playing in the park. Sitting there with Katie I could really see myself living here. (Scary, huh?!)
We could’ve stayed there the rest of the day, but there was still so much to see, so we walked south through North Beach (Little Italy). We poked our head into a bar to listen to some live music (full of people our parents age dancing and drinking – I could totally see my dad having a ball there!) and stopped by the City Lights Bookstore (where Jack Kerouac and the Beats did a lot of writing apparently). We kept going south through Chinatown in search of steamed buns, but the bakeries were all just closing, so we were out of luck.
Finally we decided to head back to the East Bay. We stopped by my apartment briefly to change and freshen up, and then met Kevin and some of the Pixar interns at a bar in Berkeley. Before heading home, Rigo (one of the other interns) took us to a taco truck. Sadly, this was the first time I’ve had Mexican food since coming to California! Fortunately the taco did not disappoint. As a bonus, Katie and I met another hapa while waiting in line.
On Sunday, Katie and I dragged ourselves out of bed at took BART/bus up to Marin to meet Polly and go to the Marin County Fair. It was SO HOT… we were roasting! We couldn’t stand the heat for too long, but it was definitely fun while it lasted. My favorite thing to see was the pig races. These little pigs would race around a track all for the coveted oreo cookie at the end. So adorable! And they all had funny names (for example, one heat of pigs were all named after actors and actresses, like Lindsay Loham). We also watched some sheepdog trials, which was impressive to see how well trained (most of) the dogs are, and reminded me of the movie Babe. It was also interesting to see some of the bunnies entered in the county fair: some of them were bigger than Chi-Chi!!! To get respite from the heat, we headed to the indoor showrooms, where there was a really impressive origami display, as well as a huge Rube Goldberg machine that was a ‘tour’ of San Francisco, complete with trolley cars, the Golden Gate, and all the places we visited Saturday!
After cooling off and eating lunch at Polly and Alex’s, we hiked down to a beach behind their house. It was so beautiful, but the water was frigid. (I didn’t believe the water here would be even colder than in Maine! It’s pretty funny how all the people I see at beaches here are wearing jeans and sweatshirts instead of bikinis and swim trunks.) We saw a bulldog that was having the best time – he was frolicking in the waves like a little kid would, and also chasing and jumping onto a guy’s skim board. He was so funny! After our feet were numb from the cold water, we went to Pelican Inn (an inn that was literally shipped over from Britain and resurrected in Marin) to meet Alex and Spirit for some drinks. Finally we went back home for a delicious 4th of July BBQ, complete with juicy sliders fit even for Spirit to eat! ☺
On Monday we went into Sausalito with Polly and Alex and ate brunch at Cibo. I was disappointed to see that they didn’t have chocolate chip scones this time, but we shared a some really tasty paninis. After lunch we walked around some foresty trails and admired the cute houses and huge redwoods, and then Katie and I headed back to Berkeley.
All too soon it was time for Katie to fly back to LA, so after sending her off I met up with my Berkeley friend for a 4th of July BBQ at his frat house, but I definitely missed Katie already.
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