Road Trip!

I have had a really wonderful week. Lots of love and friendship building, very good stuff.

My friend Russia and I drove down to San Francisco last Wednesday for an impromptu (for me, anyway) adventure. Russia had two meetings with some apparell companies to scout out potential fashion jobs and invited me to make a fun trip out of it with her. Wednesday night we were graciously hosted by my old Pittsburgh comrade K2. Thursday morning, after breakfast out together, Rush and I drove to Brisbane, CA for her first meeting. Her contact ended up taking both of us out to a lavish Dim Sum lunch and then showing us the cutting room in the factory. It was so neat! The cutters use a jigsaw-looking thing to cut out patterns in stacks of fabric. What we thought would take an hour ended up taking half the day, not to mention driving back into the city afterward, finding parking, and catching a bus to Fisherman's Wharf where we fully intended to rent bikes to traverse the GG bridge that afternoon. But... of course we managed to catch the right bus in the wrong direction. This became the story of our lives there in SF, we just couldn't get our public transit acts together!
Anyway by the time we made it to the bike rental shop, it was 6:15pm and they closed at 7. There was no way we'd make the trip in under 45minutes, and I didnt want to have to rent the bikes overnight, so we resolved to try again Friday. Instead we wandered the wharf for a bit, visiting the resident sea lions at Pier 39. Apparently a whole huge group (looked like about 15 bulls, each with their harem) moved in and set up shop at the end of Pier 39 a number of years ago. They were all pretty much laying there in piles on the docks, occasionally snorting or rolling over. I wondered if they were as interested in and confused by the flock of humans arching for a glance and a photo as we were for them. Russia and I walked back to the bus stop clapping and making sea lion noises loudly. I think we scared a group of tourists in front of us, they whipped around, thinking we were real sea lions. Oh well.
We had dinner at a snazzy vegan restaurant recommended to me by my good buddy Jenn - Millenium. Mmm tasty! Dinner was followed by meeting up with K2 and Jenna (another 'Burgh pal) for beers. We finally tucked ourselves in to our little hostel bunk beds in the wee hours.

Friday we had yet another transit fiasco. First we drove forever to San Leandro (or as Russia put it - San Leonardo) for her 10:30am meeting at North Face. By the way, the SF Bay Bridge goes through and island halfway along the bridge... bridge-tunnel-bridge. I thought it was way cool. But I am dorky like that. Okay back to the craziness. The receptionist informed us that Russia's meeting had been moved to 3pm (bike time) and that the contact had emailed Russia this information. Meanwhile Russia had been leaving this woman voicemails left and right to confirm and never got a return call. Anyway, we decided that driving was a pain and parking out there was free and probably safer. So we ditched the car and took the BART back into the city.
We then caught the right bus in the right direction (finally) and rented our bikes (finally). The whole time, I wished I had brought my own bike, because these bikes were kind of lame. They were like a weird cross between a mtn bike and a cruiser. I dont know, but I felt like I was cramped up in a weird upright position and it made it incredibly difficult to climb hills (hello! San Francisco!) I never had to get off and push, though my shoulders were killing me from the strange position. Before too long we reached our goal, the Golden Gate Bridge (which is red)! There was so much fog we could barely see the bridge while we were on the dang thing. But it was a cool effect, revealing itself bit-by-bit as we pedaled on. At the Sausalito end, we took photos and watched more fog literally roll in over the hilltops. We turned around and rode back, speeding to get the bikes back and return to North Face via all sorts of public transit by 3pm. Well it ended up being more like 5, and Russia went in while I dozed in her car. Afterward, we returned to the hostel where Rush took a short nap and I lay listening to the steel drum player outside go through the same three songs again and again. We splashed our faces and picked up some quick late-night Thai food. Then we tried to get a bus to a house party K2 had invited us to, though we ended up walking most of the way because the city blocks along which ran the bus we wanted were too scary to stand and wait at 11pm. At the party I was reunited with still more Pittsburgh friends Jamo and Vanessa. Who knew I knew so many people in SF? The party migrated to a nearby bar, but the local flavor on the sidewalk was so interesting that Russia, K2, Nina, and I never made it inside. We made friends with a little firecracker of a drunk lady named Leanore. Russia and I walked the whole way back to the hostel since we didn't know which buses ran late. We collapsed into our bunk beds safe and sound.

Saturday morning we went to a great farmer's market in Fisherman's Wharf (sorry we were so late K2!!!) We had fresh farmy fruit for breakfast, and strolled towards downtown with a pit stop to lie in the grass for a while. We went to the fortune cookie factory in Chinatown (where else?) were we got free samples and then bought a bag. The factory was a tiny room with two big machines dispensing batter into miniature griddles which pressed together and revolved through a horseshoe-shaped oven - arriving in front of the cookie-makers who folded the fortunes inside. Two machines, two cookie ladies, and one man handling the sales to all the gawkers. Afterwards, the three of us had lunch around the corner at a (you guessed it) Chinese restaurant.
Next we went to a spectacular private rooftop concert/party. A handful of great artists played and sang while we sat on the rooftop, enjoying the sunset. It was truly a special afternoon. I was grateful to Russia for agreeing to stay Saturday instead of heading to the redwoods that morning. And she was grateful to me for agreeing to go back to Portland on Monday intead of Sunday to allot for a camping trip through the redwoods, which she had never seen. One artist at the party was especially impressive - Kelly McFarling. Check her out if you ever get a chance.
Russia and I had dinner and spent some time with Jenna and Nina and Jenna's apt. We later slept at K2's.
We dragged ourselves out of bed as early as we could, after ignorning multiple alarms, said goodbye and thanks to K2, and were on our merry way. We took 101 North, across the GG Bridge (still fogalicious) and up into the redwoods. We got out of the car a few times in various redwood groves to appreciate their size, hike deeper in away from the road, and eat sandwiches we got at Calico's in Garberville. Great sandwich shop, btw. We were so overheated, that at one point in northern Humbolt, we pulled over and scrambled down to what I think was still the Eel River. We tried to stay out of view from the roads, since we didn't have swimsuits, but ahhh that cold water felt great we barely cared! Russia decided that she'd rather camp on the beach than in the redwoods, so we powered on north just past Crescent City, turned west on some tiny street near Fort Dick, and parked when the road ended in sand. We ate a can of chili while we sat on a big piece of driftwood and watched the last tiny bit of light slip down behind the ocean. We set up my tent on the sand, out of high tide's way, and zipped in for the night. I was nervous because I've never camped somewhere without permission, but only the wind and the crashing waves had anything to say about it.
On Monday we motored on to Portland, where I dropped Russia off at work and went home myself to prepare my addition to that evening's potluck and pack my doula bag. Whew!

p.s. photos from this trip on flickr coming soon