San Francisco, California – Cycling the Pacific Riptide (2/1)
Time flies and when you aren’t keeping track of it you don’t keep up with your travelogue.
I flew in the 31st of January and out on the 15th of February.
Flying in from Austin was a great experience and the glow of pacific sun warmed me on arrival. I toted my luggage to the Bart station and phoned my host, Shannon, that I had arrived and was on my way.
The Bart is a D.C. style metro system where you pay by distance traveled on the system, in comparison to flat rate systems like New York and Montreal. It is frustrating to pay $5 to ride the subway for 30 minutes when in NYC you can ride it end to end across three buroughs and still just pay your $2.50.
My first night in San Francisco kicked off with a bhangra dance party at the Yerba Buena Arts Center downtown. The main draw – free pizza of which I managed two tiny slices. The best parts: being complimented on my bhangra by random woman during the lesson and the short video documentary on helicopters and their status in Vietnam.
Cycling in Austin had me inspired to do the same in San Francisco and there are fewer better places that I’ve cycled. Sunday proved to be a perfect day for a ride and I started it off with a stop at the Squat and Gobble cafe. Breakfast was a florentine crepe, rosemary potatoes and coffee. The crepe fell flat for my expectations yet the rosemary potatoes were excellent. I sat outside and enjoyed the late breakfast, watched locals pass by, and admired the sun.
Packing away the leftovers of my breakfast for later consumption, I biked towards the ocean. The ride downhill was smooth and I stopped along the way for the occasional iPhone snapshot [note: invest in actual camera]. By the time I got to the coast it was nearly noon and I merged onto the coastal bike path. The coast has that short scrub-like appearance you find along the Atlantic. Trees are sparse and the ground is covered in short rough vegetation capable of weathering the salt and living in sand. Along the bike path there were occasional cases of unopened water bottles, presumably for cyclists and joggers. I decided against taking one.
By the time I reached Golden Gate Park, I was headed for Lindy in the Park, I had cycled farther than I had since living in Montreal and had good bit to go through the park before I got there. I was sweaty, having over-layered, and my legs had that semi-numb lactic acid buildup feel. I looped the bike-lock through the spokes and frame and set it to the side.
An hour later and I had barely rested a moment as Shannon introduced me to friends and fellow dancers and I was seized upon for nearly every song (this would prove to be a trend in SF). I took a few moments to snap some pictures of the park, although very few of them turned out well. The dance wrapped and we zipped off for food at a local Chinese restaurant.
I had work to do so I got advice on a cafe in the Mission, Ritual Coffee Roasters, and headed out. I barely made it down Haight St. before I saw a cafe that called out to me. Coffee to the People had a really nice vibe and by the time I looked at the time it was nearly 8:30pm. I had intended to catch Gaucho, a hot jazz band, down at the Riptide between 8 and 10pm, so I had to hurry. I slung my gear into my Chrome bag and huffed back down to the ocean.
Riptide is a hole-in-the-wall surfer dive bar a block away from the Pacific. Divided in half by a U shaped bar, with mostly local beers on tap, and a strange assortment of surfer paraphernalia and animal heads on the walls, it had a unique feel. There had been a Superbowl party earlier so leftover wings waited for the taking. Gaucho is a small group in the style of Django with a touch of the gutbucket New Orleans style. The musicians were friendly, quite talented, and encouraging of the dancers who got up in the tiny space.
We left the Riptide not too far into their last set and headed to the Rite Spot Cafe, a bar in the Mission district. The Sweet Hollywians, a string jazz band from Osaka, played a really tight set to a packed audience. They had a unique sound and really good presence on top of spinning ukeleles. I ran into a few other people I knew at Rite Spot and caught up with Manu who was my host for the last half of my stay in San Francisco.
My first day was full and finished.
I’ll attempt not to write whole days out again in my summary of San Francisco, but sometimes they are so packed it is hard to avoid.
