Due to a 8 days training, I had the opportunity to stay in San Francisco for a week-end. I used this occasion to have my first Couch Surfing experience as a guest. Ty kindly accepted to receive me and she did a lot more than just proposing a couch as she showed me many places around.
On saturday, despite the rain, Ty, her girlfriend Tovah and I started the touring day with the Golden Gate Bridge. Believe it or not but we could not see it from the parking lot right next to it. The fog was so dense that we had to be on the bridge to see it. Alcatraz island was invisible and elephant seals were the only things we could see. Completely wet and frozen, we went to downtown starting by North Beach, where we had our italian meal at Mona Lisa. Afterward we walked around in Chinatown very close and I took some pictures of the Transamerica pyramid under the rain. Back in the car, we have toured around Union Square and ended up in the traffic due to the Oracle mega event : Open World. We finally entered the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Fortunately, it was free so we were able to quickly appreciate the different exhibitions. I personnally liked the ones with the photos, but I still have some problems to understand modern art. Anyway! At 6pm, Ty and Tovah had to go and get prepared for a girls party, so they dropped me in Union Square in the middle of the shopping area! After checking different stores, I finally found a place to change my old shoes and get my feet drier. Now I was ready to walk around for hours : Union Square, South of Market, Financial District, Chinatown, North Beach… and South of Market once again to go to the train station, catch the last train to Redwood City and get a very good sleep!
On sunday morning, I went with Ty on Stanford University campus, as she had to run 10km for fundraising. While she was running, I took some pictures of the enormous campus and I unfortunately managed to get late for her finish. Sorry! After the race, we went back on the campus and I amazingly discovered a statue of the 6 burgers of Calais (where my grandparents live)! Difference is that each of them was a different statue, whereas the ones in front of the Calais city hall are altogether. Big surprise to see them here!!!
After a perfect breakfast, Ty and I crossed the mountains and arrived on the pacific coast at the Año Nuevo State Park. The first goal of the trip was hiking, but the person at the gate of the park explained us that there were elephant seals at the end of the trail. Interesting, I was hoping to see couple of them. Well, it was difficult to miss them as they were thousand of them on the beach. By chance, one of the volunteers had a lense so we’ve been able to see one coming out from the sea! Very cool!
On wednesday night, few hours before my plane back to Montreal, Ty took me to one of the numerous hills in the city, saying that it was a nice spot to take pictures… Thank you Ty, cause yes it is indeed a very nice spot :
Watch all the videos of my journey to San Francisco.
