San Francisco

     We drove from my dad’s house in Calabasas to stay with friends from college who also lived in Turkey, the Harman’s. On our way up we made a quick stop to see some extended relatives, Dick and Penny Walters, in Shell Beach, quickly followed by a lunch date with Austin's grandpa Bill and aunt Cori in SLO. After evening #1 of Turkey reminiscing and remembering (if you happen to be in Izmir, you may want to stay away from karisik sandwiches for a day or 2 unless you have a pretty strong stomach), we were ready to explore the city the next morning.

Our brief visit with Dick and Penny Walters in Shell Beach

     It turned out to be a visit full of different people, which was great fun. We met up with Austin’s brother Gavin at a hole in the wall pizza place first, which was great. A beloved friend, old college roommate and bridesmaid from my wedding, Alyssa, and her boyfriend Thulfaqar came up from San Jose to spend the afternoon with us, and we had an absolute blast! We just walked around Golden Gate Park, but little did we know that Golden Gate Park is: a) massive, apparently apx 3 miles b) inspiringly beautiful and c) super duper random. Between open air concert areas, museums, Japenese Gardens, Botanical Gardens, mini yacht clubs, waterfalls and a bison range-yes, a bison range-we could have easily spent the entire day there just walking around and being surprised at every turn with what random, awesome thing was there. The 2 or so hours we ended up being there was still totally worth it though, especially since none of us had ever been there before.

Catching up with Austin's brother Gavin

Alyssa and I by one of the random waterfalls in Golden Gate Park

 

The Park crew outside the entrance to the Japanese Gardens, which was sadly not free admission-aka not for the McRobbie's

Seriously, bison!!!

     We finished the SF leg with a delicious dinner at the Harman’s, and a college friend Liz joined us. With deep conversations about what’s going on in our lives, what God is teaching us, and Austin and I monologuing for perhaps too long about how excited we are for this trip, it was a perfect ending to our SF adventures. The whole day affirmed what we already knew, that no matter where you are, or what you’re doing, doing it with friends makes it that much more satisfying and rich, and it potently reminded me that people are so valuable and worth every moment of investment. 

The lovely couple we stayed with, the Harman's, although Liz was taking the picture so wasn't in this one

      Despite getting off to a 1 1/2 hr delay leaving the city-thankfully Austin asked where our electronics bag was, I wouldn’t have noticed it was gone until we reached Portland instead of us just heading back to the apartment after about 20 minutes-we had a great visit. So overall, SF proved to be as stereotypical as you could hope, with ridiculous parking difficulties and restrictions, random shouting people and crazy traffic; but also with wonderful unexpected surprises like genuinely helpful and kind local strangers helping us avoid parking tickets, and the diamond in the rough Golden Gate Park. We left wonderful refreshed, ready for all Portland has to offer.

Here's a link to more pictures of our time in San Francisco: https://picasaweb.google.com/117860913937238604610/RoadTripSFAndPortlandia