JUST ON THE RIGHT TIMING IN THE CITY THAT HAS 5+ FACES!!!

October 31st to November 4th

View of the city as we cross the bay bridge

Following the last post (en spanish), which explains our experience arriving at the crazy guy's house at which we were suppose to couch surf, we headed into town. Prior to this though, there was the actual challenge of getting into the city. Americans DO NOT know how to drive. I have never been passed by so many people on the right, nor cut off and had people slam their breaks in front of me while driving...all this of course on a 6+ land highway with exits on both the right and left hand side and the road splitting on multiple occasions, and people driving super fast all tailgating each other. I am so surprised we made it with nothing happening.

So, back to leaving the crazy guy's house, we didn't make a direct route to our hotel. We of course stopped at a MacDonald's along the way to connect to the internet to find a cheap hotel...it was Halloween, so on top of all the regular crazies, there were extra crazy people both in types and quantity! And of course police out in the parking lot frantically searching through a car.

We finally end up at a cheapish motel on Market street....crazy people HQ! By the time we go through the whole ordeal we're too tired to go out and we ended up missing out on Halloween.....no worries, we were happy to get to sleep somewhere we felt "safe". Fun fact: unpacking the car we discovered that Luna's suitcase literally melted to the trunk of the car....hmmm something is wrong...more to come later

MOvember...time to shave

MOnday MOrning...can anyone guess what day it is of this fine MOvember? It's the first day of MOVEMBER! Time to get your MO on people! It's also our first day in San Francisco(SF)! So we head out to discover the city. Walking down Market street we got to see some of the highlights of SF and many of the lows. We've made a theory, the more liquor stores per street corners, the more crazy people per block...so far so good. SF fits the theory. That being said, it's a beautiful city. After seeing the sights of Market Street (such as the old trolley's being turned manually) we made it to the Port of SF (via the financial district) and the walked through China town on our way back to the hotel. Lucky for us, the Giants also won the WORLD SERIES that night! We really were in the right place at the right time!

Manually turning the trolley

Tuesday was a whole new day! We headed out on our bikes up Haight Street (coolest street ever, with the best shops) towards Golden Gate Park where we visited the dejong museum for free (it's free on the 1st tuesday of the month). We got to see some "american" art and got to up to the observation deck to see a grand view of the whole city. On our way back down we side stepped over to Japan town and also saw a couple of the SF's cathedrals. 

Dia de los Muertos parade

That night was probably our best in the Bay Area. Today was Dia de los Muertos and we really got to live the hispanic catholic tradition. "Over 15,000 people will gather in the Mission to participate in the 26th Annual Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead Procession & Altars. 

Dia de los muertos

Through art, music, and ritual this event honors our ancestors and celebrates the vitality and richness of today's community. While the ceremony remains true to its Latino roots, the San Francisco procession actively encourages participation by people of all origins."Dressing up in our best "dead" costumes, we joined the parade and celebrations as it made it's way through the Mission District. We visited the altars and really got a feel for this important event.

million people +/-

switch the "T" with the "F"

Wednesday started off with a trip to the Mechanic...guess what, the exhaust system is BUST! That's why Luna's suitcase melted (all the exhaust was coming out underneath the car, so the trunk was SUPER over heating). We were lucky nothing happened. So, with the car getting fixed, we headed out on our bikes again. This time though we weren't alone as ALL OF SF was out in the streets celebrating the GIANT's win. I don't think I've ever seen so many people in the streets all at once!....One thing is for sure people here cared WAY more for the Giant's win than about the elections (which occurred on Tuesday).

the Giant's littlest fan

Facts: Population of San Francisco 776,773 (of total Bay Area 7.4 million)

Giants parade - over a million people were there!

the guy behind us is famous

After the celebrations we headed up to the Castro district to meet our host for the night, Jenner. This is where Luna's Curtain Theory comes into play. At our crazy guy's place on Sunday night, Luna noticed before going in that all the people in the building had really shitty curtains, and yes, it was shitty inside. Whereas at Jenner's place, nice curtains were hanging, and thus, nice interior! 

After hanging out a bit we headed out for our biggest excursion yet...Castro to Golden Gate Bridge over to Fisherman's Wharf and then back up Market to Castro.... for a grand total of a little over 25km +/-......doesn't sound like that much, but now take into account the hills of SF....it was a grueling but enjoyable afternoon/evening.

Upon arriving at Jenner's we went a got groceries and then made a big dinner all together. Before going to bed we watched Food Inc....this drastically changed our road trip plans. We were going to have a Fast Food counter of our trip, but watching that movie has ended those plans, and we're going to try to stick to better food :) FAST FOOD COUNTER: 0 ( and it will stay like that...)

not sure who's scarier?

And thus ends our time in San Francisco...but not the Bay Area. As thursday morning, after going to pick up the car (which is all good now) we slowly made our way to Sonoma!