It almost feels like home
Back in San Francisco, again
How do you find a place like home when you’re not going home for another two months?
We left New Zealand in good spirits, having enjoyed our road trip around the South Island and concluding the magical ride with a few good days of rest in Christchurch. However, that didn’t stop us from having jetlag when we landed in San Francisco International Airport at 7AM. We managed to stay awake until 2pm and then crashed with a long nap until dinner.
This is our third time in San Francisco, having visited twice at Christmas in previous years. As such, we were comfortable crashing Yuki’s aunt and uncle’s house. It was great to see them again and not much had changed.
Yuki’s uncle suggested we go into the city on the second day, so we got up early to hitch a ride to the ferry terminal. We were so tired that I forgot my camera.
We can’t say that San Fran was especially exciting this time, but that’s because we’ve been there three times. We got our now-ritual photo at Pier 7 and then almost had a snooze on a bench.
Nearby is the Exploratorium, a really cool-looking science museum. Outside, there were several exhibits including dishes that reflected sound waves and allowed people to talk normally across a large distance (similar to what Vancouver’s Science World has), a pile that could rotate out of the water to show barnacled marine life, a gauge to show how far one could look into the murky water, and directional current indicators for the tide coming in and out.
We figured that this museum would be really interesting to visit. Unfortunately, it was $30 and we didn’t go in, given the cost and time. Next time we’re in San Francisco, we’ll have to see if we can get a discount coupon for it.
We wandered along the tourist walk to Pier 39, where we had clam chowder at our “usual” spot and then watched the final act of a magic show. We then walked up to Coit Tower but didn’t go up the tower because that cost money and we were feeling particularly cheap. By then it was nearly time to go, so we went to the ferry dock and enjoyed the pier while lying on the benches waiting for the boat.
During our 10-day stay, Yuki’s uncle cut my hair and also drove all of us out to Yountville for lunch. We ate at the same French Restaurant as we did on a previous trip and walked through the same shopping market, Oxbow Public Market.
All of these familiar events and having plenty of days to just sit around the house made us feel like we were almost home. It was a comfortable week of doing nothing, and I ended up working most of the evenings between watching episodes of Stranger Things, Season 2.
It would be unforgiveable if I did not mention that November 11th, 2017 was the day that Taylor Swift’s Reputation Album was released and Yuki lost her wig. We even made a quick trip to Target to pick up a Swift T-Shirt. The albums and magazines, pre-ordered, arrived by mail on release day. We proceeded to listen to Swift on repeat.
