Don't Cry For Me San Francisco

Ok, I know that's not how the real song goes, but it works. As of this weekend, San Francisco is my new favorite city in the whole world!! (the very small corner of it that I've seen anyway.) Walking around the city with my cold hands wrapped around a blessedly warm cup of the the best hot chocolate I've ever had, laughing with new friends and marveling at each beautifully designed building and all the hole-in-the-wall shops along the street was the best way I could imagine to spend every morning this weekend. I'd love to be doing that for the rest of my life, and am now seriously considering moving to San Francisco to be a full time poet (let's be honest, it would be amazing :)

Why was I in California, you ask? My good friend Noah was asked to be the best man at his best friend's wedding in San Jose, but didn't want to drive alone, so he got 3 awesome people to come with him: Kimber the lady, Linsey the hippie, and Kyle the cowboy (Noah's descriptions, not mine haha). We drove to San Fran on Thursday and stayed with Noah's brother Dustin in his artsy little apartment downtown that he shares with 5 other people. It was so my style: to live with a very diverse group of people in this eclectic apartment with its 60s yellow kitchen complete with deep sink and window looking into the dining/living room. Just perfect. We played Catch Phrase Jenga with his roommates that first night, which is a game they invented to combine Catch Phrase and Jenga, and holy crap was it hilariously fun!

Friday morning we got breakfast at a little bagel place (where aforementioned amazing cup of hot chocolate came from) and went to the beach right next to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was cloudy and the water was FREEZING!!  But the sand was warm and the waves were beautiful. I couldn't believe how green it was!

Then we went to Ghirardelli Square (also very good hot chocolate to be had at this chocolate factory) and the fisherman's wharf. We enjoyed the antics of "the bush man," a homeless guy who hides behind some branches and scares people coming down the sidewalk--probably one of the highlights of the day. My other favorite thing was the Musee Mecanique, a museum of mechanical toys and machines from the early 1900s; things like the big Laughing Lady and player pianos and fortune telling dolls. (visit their site here, be warned it has loud music on it, so turn down/off your speakers) The whole thing is in a kind of ware house and you run the machines with quarters. Linsey and I took pictures in a photo booth, which was something neither of us had ever done, and the pictures were super cute! I could have spent another couple of hours in that place. That night we went out for one of Dustin's roommate's birthday at the best pizza place ever and thoroughly stuffed ourselves full of goodness. It was quite a day.

Saturday was the wedding for Noah, so he was gone all morning and Linsey had signed up for a raw food cooking class at a restaurant she really likes there, so she was gone too. That left Kyle and I to our own devices so we took an electric bus to China town and explored (we'd been there for a second before dinner the night before and wanted to spend some more time there.) I got a lovely red scarf and he got a good knife to use for his landscaping business. Overall a fun morning. We all went to the reception for Noah's friend that night, at which Linsey caught the bouquet and Noah caught the garter, so our little group stole the show! The reception itself was beautiful and soft and even though we didn't know anyone it was really fun. We decided to drive through the night straight from the reception so we wouldn't have to go all the way back to San Fran and so that we wouldn't get in so super late on Sunday, since we all had to get up early for work on Monday. So we piled back into our Lumina and high-tailed it back to Utah! (We were very safe and traded drivers often so people wouldn't get too sleepy and someone was always awake with the driver, for anyone who was concerned ;) ) We made it to American Fork, where the other 3 are from, in time to go to their church, so we literally rolled out of the car and into the church. We were all still in our Sunday clothes from the reception, though we were decidedly disheveled and unshowered, but we were pretty determined to get to church. I got home to Provo to broken air conditioning and a sweltering apartment, but it was good to be home.

I'll put up all the pictures as soon as the others put them up on Facebook and you'll be able to enjoy the full visual awesomeness of our trip :) Hope you made it through this incredibly long post haha.