Thursday, April 18, 2013

Travel: San Francisco - Berkeley


I'm reverting to my old trip summary format. I'm leaving out a lot of stuff, but this is the crux of it.

  • Day 1 (Friday): Since it was a last minute trip, B and I drove to SF from LA (airfare prices were in the $250/pp range already). Checked into the Hilton San Francisco (Union Square) and couldn't score a room with two queen sized beds (two conferences were going on that day). Instead got a modern room with two double beds :(. But the front desk staff offered to switch our rooms the next day :). Showered, got snacks from the Starbucks downstairs, and waited for C to arrive from dropping off his rental at SFO. We all finally met up at about 8pm (only 30 minutes late) and had dinner at the Claude lane restaurant area. We were supposed to go to Cafe Claude but the 2-hour wait forced us to settle on Claudine (which wasn't bad at all AND had no wait). After numerous tries at nearby crowded/popular/noisy bars, we finally settled on a horrible one (that shall not be named) seeing as how late it was. But we had a good time nonetheless and then crashed for the rest of the evening.
  • Day 2 (Saturday): We had a looong breakfast at another hotel near our own. We then drove up to UC Berkeley to tour the campus. After riding the elevator up Sather Tower, we discovered that a Holi celebration was going on and proceeded toward it. Because C was catching a flight later on that day and since I was afraid of getting color packets thrown at my camera, we decided to watch the festivities from atop and afar. It was great fun. We continued touring the science buildings of the campus (dinosaur fossils!) before walking down Telegraph Ave to a Japanese restaurant where we had a looong lunch. Finally we dropped off C at SFO. 
  • Continuing Day 2: H canceled on us. H was supposed to hang out with us that evening and spend the night at our hotel but was simply too exhausted to come out to SF. So, we called up another couple and had dinner with them at a Cajun place near City Hall (we were supposed to go to Suppenkuche but that had a two hour wait). After much discussion, we realized S had an amazing view of the city from his place on Twin Peaks AND that he had the game Apples to Apples. So that ended up being quite an enjoyable evening (upon returning to LA, I bought Cards Against Humanity + the 3 expansion sets). 
  • Day 3 (Sunday): After doing a little shopping, B and I met up with a former high school classmate of his (+ gf)  in Union Square. Packed up and drove down to C's hotel to pick up a bag he left behind. Made our usual pitstop to a Fresh and Easy and then drove back to LA that night.

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