My first proper weekend off

This weekend, for the first time since moving to this city, I had both Saturday and Sunday off. Such a special event should not go wasted, so I decided to make the most of it.

Saturday

Salvador I had a few options for Saturday. My roommate was moving back to Spain on Sunday so he asked me to go with him to the Golden Gate Bridge. Didn’t really want to go, because the bridge is a long walk and I’ve been there several times before. Plus Salvi wanted to go to Hooters afterwards, which is expensive…and…questionable. The picture on the left is Salvi, proudly holding his certificate for passing his English course. In reality, the certificate isn’t even worth the paper it’s written on. This guy came to America and couldn’t speak a word of English and is now leaving and able to say “Todie I go Golden Gate Park weet me freends”. Still, I shall miss him. He was a good roommate. I also moved to a private room at my residence on Saturday, because they gave my room away. It’s a little more expensive but hopefully it won’t be long term.

So, I decided against going to the bridge cos Salvi found another Spanish speaker to go with him. Instead, I went with my Brazilian friend Lisandro to the Golden Gate Park for a bluegrass music festival. I wasn’t expecting a big crowd, but was very surprised at the turnout. The entire area was crammed with people, probably around 10,000 people. The music ranged from bluegrass to country to rock and was, for the most part, awesome. Took a few photos:

Lisandro Girl on tree Crowd

In the first picture, Lisandro asked that I take a photo of him and Los Lobos in the background (remember La Bamba? That was them). They were excellent, great mixture of blues, rock n roll and Mexican roots music. Plus there were 5 stages so always different music going on. We spent most of the day at the festival and headed back in the evening. I had planned on going out with a few people but I was pretty tired and I think the other guys ended up not going out anyway, so instead I went for a short workout at the gym. Was nice to get the heart going and work off some of the crap I’d eaten during the day. I finished the night with a few beers at Lisandro’s room with the Spanish people leaving the next day. Was cool to chat to them, I shall miss them!

Sunday

The bluegrass festival was on again on Sunday, but I decided against it in favour of the Blue Angels show at Fisherman’s Wharf. It’s one of those American air shows where the jets do the fancy tricks, pretty much the same as the Red Arrows. It wasn’t a bad show, but went on a bit. Very impressive though, and the planes are flippin loud! I took some photos but they didn’t really turn out. Afterwards we headed to Pier 39 for some clam chowder. It’s beautiful, it’s kinda like chicken soup and it comes poured in a big roll of bread. Tres bien.

In the evening, I went out on a date with Valerie. We see each other a lot, but this was our first proper date. I wanted to surprise her with ice-skating at Yerba Buena Gardens, but it was closed so instead we went to a sports bar and played a few games of pool. Went out for food after at a really nice diner then I showed her some cool things around the city. We had a lot of fun together and a really nice night so I better think of a good second date soon!

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