San Fransisco

 

San Fransisco is a hard one for me to write about... there were so many highs and lows during our weekend in the city that's home to never-ending-hills, year-round-fog and the Golden Gate Bridge. We stayed in a hotel in the Bay Area, just outside San Fran in Palo Alto, CA - birthplace of tech giants like Facebook, Google and Pay Pal, and where Standford is located.

Our first night was spent wandering the streets after dinner - the sidewalks were bursting with students and PHD candidates and young families. We sat outside a frozen yogurt cafe and wondered how many of the people around us were millionaires (or future millionaires). It was a certain kind of magic, that's for sure, to be surrounded by such talent - you could almost feel it: like a buzz in the air.

The next morning we watched Fox News while we got ready. I know that sounds trivial, but it was such a high point for the four of us - sitting around the hotel room, laughing at the news anchor on TV as he stumbled over arguments and committed philosophical fallacy after philosophical fallacy. By that morning in San Fran we felt like a family - like a unit that thought and acted and ate as one.

So maybe that's why we had a rough day, following that blissful morning. We were all so close, and had been for a week. And it was windy in San Fran, and cold - too cold for August. We walked along the shoreline, went to the famous arcade a la The Princess Diaries, saw Alcatraz from afar and touched the Golden Gate Bridge. Don't get me wrong, it was an amazing day. But by the time we wandered Chinatown that afternoon, and ate Italian for dinner, it was clear that a good nights sleep was needed by all.

Looking back on San Fran, I have a lot of mixed emotions. What a beautiful city to be a tourist in, I kept thinking as we walked the streets. But I can't imagine living there, I can't imagine calling it home. And maybe we were still on the comedown from Clouds Rest: maybe it was inevitable that whatever came next wouldn't fill the epic void Yosemite had left inside us. And I think that's okay. San Fransisco, you didn't steal my heart, but you're beautiful all the same.