The Great American West Trip - Day Two
San Fran here I come. San Fran is the first place on this trip that I truly had no idea about. The only things I knew about San Fran was that there were a lot of hills and a lot of gays (is that politically correct?) so I was pretty excited to get to see the place. Luckily my friend Katherine volunteered to be our tour guide throughout the day so we wouldn’t get too lost.
So we after showering, eating cereal, and getting scratched by the cat, it was time for us to get headed to town. Side note: getting scratched by something that your allergic to makes the wound a lot more uncomfortable. Luckily Tiffany had some magical Chinese Herbal stuff that made everything feel better instantly. Well, we decided to hit the Golden Gate Bridge first, so we headed cross the Oakland Bridge to San Fran (we were coming from Berkeley). Naturally, traffic showed its ugly head despite us traveling on a Sunday morning, so it took us a good hour and a half to get to the G G Br (as all the street signs called the Golden Gate Bridge). It happened to be cold, cloudy and slightly rainy, but despite all that we had an excellent view of the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s a beautiful bridge, but I don’t know if I would travel halfway around the world for it, as most of the tourist seemed to have done. So we decided that instead of paying the five dollars to drive across the bridge, we would walk it for free, and that way we could take in the scenery along the way. As we stop for our first photo opportunity, I was approached by a visiting middle eastern man, and he asked if I could take his picture with the bridge. Being such a friendly person J, I gladly agreed and took his picture…but that’s not where it ends. His true motives came out a second later when he asks, “Can I take a picture with you too?” Seeing that I was a little taken aback, he clarified himself by explaining that he wanted to take a picture with a “real live black American.” After verifying that I was indeed a Black American, to his delight, he told me that he was from Iran and they simply don’t see people like me around. I thought the whole experience was great so I posed for the picture with him and had Tiffany take a picture of us. Seeing that Tiffany was Chinese and that Katherine was white, he wanted a picture of everyone because he was so shocked that we would all be hanging out together. That’s the thing about interacting with people from another society, they point out things that you take for granted or that are assumed within your own society. After that we started walking across the bridge, and after seeing many depression hotline telephones along the bridge, Katherine explained that a lot of people choose jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge as their suicidal preference. So in case the person wanted some last minute advice, they could call the hotline and here some life-saving words. Well after walking about a tenth of a mile onto the bridge, we decided that we had enough and turned back around.
So we got in the car and headed to this really hippie district called Height (pronounced Hate) Street. This street had a bunch of off beat stores and smoke shops mixed in with cozy cafes, but overall had not much to pique my interest. After touring an art gallery dedicated entirely to T-Shirts, we decided to call it a day and get some food in Chinatown. When we were walking out, I smelled these dudes to the left of us smoking weed, and we met eyes. So for the next ten second they were trying to sell me that sticky icky. I was flattered that they thought I was cool enough to buy drugs, but had to politely decline their offer. Katherine had to run off to teach a class, so Tiffany and I went exploring and saw some things that I would have never known existed if I had not had a Chinese speaking person with me. So after Tiffany spoke to a bunch of people about where to find a ‘real’ Chinese food place, we went to have lunch. When I say that I stepped into China, there is no exaggeration. I felt slightly out of place just being in Chinatown period, but in this authentic Chinese food spot, I was in a different world. Out of the two hundred people in the place, I was the only black person, the only American, the only person who did not speak Chinese, and the only person who had to ask what every single food was called. In short, it was great. After discovering that General Tso’s chicken wasn’t going to be found in this spot, we started to pick up some different plates. This restaurants way of serving food was to put about thirty dishes of food on round tables in the middle of the restaurant, and the customers would go and grab a plate or six and take them back to the table. Then the waiters would take the food to the back and heat it up. So after only recognizing rice on the table, I just let Tiffany do the choosing and when she came back we had like eight meals on the table. There was no way in hell we would eat a fourth of all the food brought to our table, so I just assumed that she had managed to waste away a lot of our money. Turns out, the eight plates that we had chosen were less than two dollars each, and our entire bill was like 15 dollars. The lesson, you can get full off of good food for two dollars if your in Chinatown, PLEASE deliver this message to all hungry homeless/broke people that you might know. After stuffing ourselves, we went and grabbed some bubble tea and walked around until it was time to move to the next spot.
That next spot was the Fisherman’s Warf and that was just one of those cool spots that most big cities will have. There were break dancers and street performers, painters and merchants, and just a lively atmosphere that isn’t quite present in Portland. The highlight of the Pier/Wharf was Pier 39, and the reason for that could be heard hundreds of yards away. At pier 39 there are little square barges dedicated to sea lions. They all gather there at night to sleep, and pile onto to these relatively small barges until they are terribly uncomfortable. The result is a constant raucous of sea lion bellowing, roaring, crying, and coughing that is just amazing. The second any one sea lion moved, it created a ripple effect to the other 30 and they would all start yelling and fussing at each other. Usually they would try and push the offender off the barge and into the water. It was just amazing to watch these creatures acting just like children who thought the other was hogging the blankets. The only difference was that there were thirty of them, and it seems that they never settled down enough to fall asleep. Well after getting entertained by the Sea Lions we decided to move on, and head to our final destination of Folsom, CA. After failing to find a bar along the way, we just went on to the hotel, and chilled out for the night. All together a lovely day.
So we after showering, eating cereal, and getting scratched by the cat, it was time for us to get headed to town. Side note: getting scratched by something that your allergic to makes the wound a lot more uncomfortable. Luckily Tiffany had some magical Chinese Herbal stuff that made everything feel better instantly. Well, we decided to hit the Golden Gate Bridge first, so we headed cross the Oakland Bridge to San Fran (we were coming from Berkeley). Naturally, traffic showed its ugly head despite us traveling on a Sunday morning, so it took us a good hour and a half to get to the G G Br (as all the street signs called the Golden Gate Bridge). It happened to be cold, cloudy and slightly rainy, but despite all that we had an excellent view of the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s a beautiful bridge, but I don’t know if I would travel halfway around the world for it, as most of the tourist seemed to have done. So we decided that instead of paying the five dollars to drive across the bridge, we would walk it for free, and that way we could take in the scenery along the way. As we stop for our first photo opportunity, I was approached by a visiting middle eastern man, and he asked if I could take his picture with the bridge. Being such a friendly person J, I gladly agreed and took his picture…but that’s not where it ends. His true motives came out a second later when he asks, “Can I take a picture with you too?” Seeing that I was a little taken aback, he clarified himself by explaining that he wanted to take a picture with a “real live black American.” After verifying that I was indeed a Black American, to his delight, he told me that he was from Iran and they simply don’t see people like me around. I thought the whole experience was great so I posed for the picture with him and had Tiffany take a picture of us. Seeing that Tiffany was Chinese and that Katherine was white, he wanted a picture of everyone because he was so shocked that we would all be hanging out together. That’s the thing about interacting with people from another society, they point out things that you take for granted or that are assumed within your own society. After that we started walking across the bridge, and after seeing many depression hotline telephones along the bridge, Katherine explained that a lot of people choose jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge as their suicidal preference. So in case the person wanted some last minute advice, they could call the hotline and here some life-saving words. Well after walking about a tenth of a mile onto the bridge, we decided that we had enough and turned back around.
So we got in the car and headed to this really hippie district called Height (pronounced Hate) Street. This street had a bunch of off beat stores and smoke shops mixed in with cozy cafes, but overall had not much to pique my interest. After touring an art gallery dedicated entirely to T-Shirts, we decided to call it a day and get some food in Chinatown. When we were walking out, I smelled these dudes to the left of us smoking weed, and we met eyes. So for the next ten second they were trying to sell me that sticky icky. I was flattered that they thought I was cool enough to buy drugs, but had to politely decline their offer. Katherine had to run off to teach a class, so Tiffany and I went exploring and saw some things that I would have never known existed if I had not had a Chinese speaking person with me. So after Tiffany spoke to a bunch of people about where to find a ‘real’ Chinese food place, we went to have lunch. When I say that I stepped into China, there is no exaggeration. I felt slightly out of place just being in Chinatown period, but in this authentic Chinese food spot, I was in a different world. Out of the two hundred people in the place, I was the only black person, the only American, the only person who did not speak Chinese, and the only person who had to ask what every single food was called. In short, it was great. After discovering that General Tso’s chicken wasn’t going to be found in this spot, we started to pick up some different plates. This restaurants way of serving food was to put about thirty dishes of food on round tables in the middle of the restaurant, and the customers would go and grab a plate or six and take them back to the table. Then the waiters would take the food to the back and heat it up. So after only recognizing rice on the table, I just let Tiffany do the choosing and when she came back we had like eight meals on the table. There was no way in hell we would eat a fourth of all the food brought to our table, so I just assumed that she had managed to waste away a lot of our money. Turns out, the eight plates that we had chosen were less than two dollars each, and our entire bill was like 15 dollars. The lesson, you can get full off of good food for two dollars if your in Chinatown, PLEASE deliver this message to all hungry homeless/broke people that you might know. After stuffing ourselves, we went and grabbed some bubble tea and walked around until it was time to move to the next spot.
That next spot was the Fisherman’s Warf and that was just one of those cool spots that most big cities will have. There were break dancers and street performers, painters and merchants, and just a lively atmosphere that isn’t quite present in Portland. The highlight of the Pier/Wharf was Pier 39, and the reason for that could be heard hundreds of yards away. At pier 39 there are little square barges dedicated to sea lions. They all gather there at night to sleep, and pile onto to these relatively small barges until they are terribly uncomfortable. The result is a constant raucous of sea lion bellowing, roaring, crying, and coughing that is just amazing. The second any one sea lion moved, it created a ripple effect to the other 30 and they would all start yelling and fussing at each other. Usually they would try and push the offender off the barge and into the water. It was just amazing to watch these creatures acting just like children who thought the other was hogging the blankets. The only difference was that there were thirty of them, and it seems that they never settled down enough to fall asleep. Well after getting entertained by the Sea Lions we decided to move on, and head to our final destination of Folsom, CA. After failing to find a bar along the way, we just went on to the hotel, and chilled out for the night. All together a lovely day.
posted by Anthony Jackson at 2:37 PM
1 Comments:
Good words.
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