One of the more interesting friends I have is a woman named Midori. A native of Japan, she now makes San Francisco her home and travels the world doing, well, very interesting and rather non-work-safe things.
I was lucky enough to get to sit with her during a recent cocktail party in San Francisco, where my girlfriend and I were spending some vacation time. When Midori learned that it was our first time together in San Francisco, she instantly came up with a budget travel guide for our trip to the city.
Here are the places she recommended:
- The Ferry Building, at Embarcadero and Market (we did actually make it here--it was magnificent, especially with the "Passages" sculpture from Burning Man out next to the bay)
- Japan Center in Japantown ("Neglect not the hardware store!" Advice taken and well worth it.)
- DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park
- Femina Potens Art Gallery (We really wanted to go to this, since Midori had a show up there, but it was only open Thurs-Sun)
- Chinatown
- Asian Arts Museum (The closest I got to this was while I volunteered at Lovefest, but I didn't make it inside)
- MoMA, and the nearby Yobabuena Gardens
- Ride a Cable Car (this we also got to do, during our time at the ferry building, and bonus! It was a free ride. Nice to be on a part of history)
Another bonus was being treated to dinner at John's Grill (famous haunt of Sam Spade), walking around the Haight to have some exquisite tapas, and (best of all) being driven up to Twin Peaks for an unforgettable nighttime view of the city lights.
Thanks to all of our friends, I now want to live in San Francisco. Damn them.