2011 San Francisco - Valentine's Week

The weather was pretty mild and equipped with my new GPS we made really good time. A really useful feature of this TomTom GPS is that it’ll also look out for alternative routes to avoid freeway congestion. This way we made our way through Los Angeles areas I’d never seen before, some scenic, some not so much. In the end I’d estimate to have saved at least an hour or two by not getting stuck in LA traffic. Once through the mountain pass much of the land seemed very dreary and dry. Then after every so many miles a sign indicated a shortage of water, hence a shortage of growth, hence a shortage of jobs … Rhônya was taking naps all throughout the drive and about 8 hrs later, we arrived at the Youth Hostel in downtown San Francisco with a parking garage right across the street.

After driving 400mi or so I’d expected to have the Hostel be ready for us and simply hand us a key. Not so. Instead of actually charging my credit card during the online reservation made a week earlier, that was only the reservation to hold the room! At this point I was so tired and not really in the mood for a government employee approach at hospitality, all at one slow speed. Ugghh… This is where Rhônya would remind me that these things happen to me because my lesson in life right now is to learn ‘patience’. ‘Nuff said.

I hadn’t been in San Francisco ever since getting laid off from 2 dot com companies who obviously knew to how spend money but apparently lacked a working business plan that would bring about a return on someone’s investment not to mention a life span employees could bank on. I have to mention that I gained a lot of good experience, really enjoyed the casual professional atmosphere and found each position healthily rewarding including making new friends.

Once we got ourselves checked in and settled we decided to take a quick walk about the town even though it was 20:00 hrs now. It didn’t take hunger to drive us to the nearest sushi place where we enjoyed a nice hot sake and hot seafood soup.

I can’t say enough how much of a joy it is to travel with the right person. The only thing better than that is to find the right person to spend your life with!  🙂

Every day, no matter rain or shine, turns into something memorable and constructive. Our first morning was met with the scent of fresh coffee and toasted bagels, compliments of yours truly hostel. We sat, no rush, and enjoyed our coffee …

Once we made our way outside we strolled down Market Street amidst a bustling metropolis of professionals, tourists, bike couriers, street vendors and the occasional homeless person. I wasn’t surprised to see CompUSA being gone but was still a little surprised to see Virgin Records be gone, too. This day turned into a very long walk as we started roughly from Union Square, went NE on Market St and then West along the coast towards Fisherman’s Wharf.