truly the end of my san francisco rotation

Continuing from the last post:
On Friday (August 9), I met up with another Cal classmate, Katrine, for lunch.  We went to Sushirrito which serves what are basically sushi burritos.  YUM!  I can't believe we hadn't seen each other since Cal graduation so many years ago.  We had fun reminiscing and sharing what had gone on in the interim years.

katrine and me after lunch

That night, I got to go to another Giants game, this time courtesy of Trudy and Steve.  The occasion was Steve's brother Bob's visit.  They played the Orioles, and sadly lost in the top of the 10th.  It was hard to watch them come from behind in the bottom of the 9th and get within one hit of a win...

bob, steve, trudy, and me

wow, prime seats!

I got off the MUNI at the Embarcadero Station on the way home and walked back over to the water to see the Bay Bridge lights - I'd seen them from afar and had heard of them even living in Atlanta, so I decided to take the opportunity of being downtown after dark to go check them out.  Verdict: very cool.

bay bridge lights

Saturday afternoon I headed across the bay to meet Shannon and Paul, and Elena arrived not long after I did.  We wandered into Oakland Chinatown for lunch at our favorite Banh Mi (Vietnamese sandwich) joint - I knew it from my CIBC (Chinese Independent Baptist Church) days, Shannon and Paul had discovered it shortly after moving to Oakland.  We strolled along the waterfront through Jack London Square and eventually headed south to Shannon and Paul's place.  It's in a former I-don't-know-what building on the site of former boatworks, with a yard full of what Paul termed shrapnel.  Out the back is a community garden and waterfront access including a quirky pier and a small beach.

me, elena, paul, and shannon

silly cousins on the beach

paul laughing about a huge pile of "shrapnel"

That Sunday was the first morning service for Reality SF since the first time I'd attended - Summer Nights had ended.  I met up with Liz and after lunch with a bunch of people, the two of us headed out to Ocean Beach.  It was cold and windy, as one might expect in San Francisco, but still beautiful.

me and liz, freezing at ocean beach

ocean beach panorama

I walked home a couple times during my last week of work, taking Howard Street for a change of scenery.  Along the way, I discovered a mural I hadn't seen before, and it has become my favorite.  I think I just like all the colors and I think the funny round birds are really cute.  No, I don't think they look like Angry Birds.

i have a favorite mural now - this one (no, not the billboard)

Wednesday after work I took BART to San Leandro where I met Yvonne and her daughter Annalise.  Yvonne is a good friend from CIBC days, we've kept in contact as we've both moved around.  We had Halal Chinese food at Annalise's favorite restaurant near their old house in Union City.

me, annalise, and yvonne

Thursday I had lunch with a friend I met through Stefan at Reality SF - Duygu visited Reality my second time there.  She is an incredibly friendly girl, originally from Turkey, who was in San Francisco to get her MBA through Hult International Business School's San Francisco campus.  She has lived in several other countries en route to this.  We had a great time hanging out and I look forward to keeping in touch with her as her adventures continue - she graduated the next day!

duygu and me

After work, I met up with Geoff, a friend from Tahoe.  He happened to be in the Bay Area because he had flown to the East Coast for an extended weekend and flew in and out of SFO.  We headed up to Twin Peaks and just sat on the wall at the observation area and enjoyed the view, watching the fog wrap around us reaching toward downtown from either side.

the red rectangle is the house where i lived, as seen from twin peaks

twin peaks panorama with fog reaching around on either side.

After dinner in the Mission, we made our way out to Ocean Beach in the cold and fog.  There, we found Stefan making himself a birthday bonfire.  Duygu showed up later and had her first ever S'More, and Geoff and I ended the evening helping her move from her apartment near the beach to a new place in the Mission.

ocean beach bonfire with liz, stefan, duygu, and geoff

My last day of work finished a little bit early, and my parents and Trudy met me at work when I got off.  We went back to Trudy and Steve's house to wait for Steve to get home.  While we waited, I finished packing up my stuff and packed it all into the trunk of my father's car.  When Steve got home from work, we piled into one car and went to the big Off the Grid Friday night setup at Fort Mason.  It was huge, with about 20 food trucks and tons of people.

my parents, steve, trudy, and me with chicken and rice

friday night off the grid is really crowded!

We were thoroughly stuffed with treats from the Peruvian truck, the Nepalese truck, and a couple others.  Before we went back, we stopped back at the Embarcadero and took in the Bay Bridge lights from the Exploratorium pier.

steve, my mother, trudy, and my father with the bay bridge lights in the background

We could see inside parts of the Exploratorium since there was a party of some sort going on in there.  One thing we saw was this toothpick art, a kinetic sculpture in progress since 1974 when the artist was only 14.  It not only has some moving features (propellers, for example) but also has multiple "tours" for pingpong balls.  Click here for a video of the tours (narrated by the artist).

"rolling through the bay"

nighttime view from the exploratorium pier

We went back to Steve and Trudy's, put the bike rack and my bike on the back of the car, and headed back to my parents' place in Cupertino.