SF - the perfect city

This is my first time visting SF, so pardon while I wax poetic about the qualiites of the city. Yesterday, E, B, and E’s friend Kevin biked from SF to across the Golden Gate Bridge (the most perfect of bridges) to Mairn County and Sasalito (sp?). I’m only familiar with the area from my days playing Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. Funny how realistic the game is - it’s like I’ve seen all this before, only I was carjacking, killin’ some gangstas, and picking up prostitutes.

So afer the big breakfast that B made we made our way to not 1, not 2, not 3, but to 4 bike shops to finally find a place that had bikes available. Eric and I decided that it would hilarious if we rented a tandem bike. A tandem bike is like those driver’s ed cars where the instructor has a steering wheel and a brake - even though the person in the front of the bike has control, the person in the back can affect the power and the balance. It took us a lap around the shop to get a handle on the thing, but we finally got the thing going forward. Our first obstacle was a hill (this is SF) that basically went up 75 degrees. We didn’t make it the first time - Eric fell off and then we lost it. I decided that we should try again - if we coudn’t get this hill early on then we woud be screwed later. So we went to the bottom of the hill, gathered momentum and got about halfway up the hill before the chain snapped from the brute force of powering up the hill.
So now we head back (I’m changing tenses, deal with) to the bike shop and get 2 regular bikes. Mind you now it’s 2:45 and B (who is a tri-athlete) and Kevin (who was told that we’d be on the trail by 12:45 are losing their minds...finally we make it on the trail and biked across the bridge, to Sasalito and got lunch.

On the way back, while the sun was setting, I realized that SF is strikingly similar to Valpairiso, Chile - where I spent a weekend 2 years ago. Valpo, on the coast of Chile, is situated on a rolling hill. It’s kown for it’s different cerros and funiculars - elevators that take people up and down its steep hills (just like SF). When the sun sets its rays hits the windows of the city and you see a golden reflection...too cool. Maybe I will add a photo on FB to get the point across better.

Once we got back Eric and I went to dinner with his friends and his cuz Emily. There were 8 of us...the food was good, but the group was better...I guess one can’t adequately describe the experience of a great dinner with new friends and great conversation.
ok - time to motivate and get back to work...wait, no I don’t! I can do whatever I want all day!

-gk