SF

evening folks,
the plan was to get into San Francisco pretty late, check into our hostel, sleep, and explore the next day. we got part of that done. we did get into San Francisco pretty late. parking was incredible. downtown parking was $3 - 15 minutes, or $36 max. cheapest parking anywhere downtown. I've parked in Hollywood, LA in general, Santa Monica, Portland, DC, etc etc, and haven't seen it quite that bad. we went to Chicago and NYC of course, but I don't remember trying to park downtown.
so we went to check in at our hostel, and they wouldn't let Mary-Beth check in. hostels have a general rule that you can't stay there unless you're under 18. I knew this. but I wasn't 18 when Sam checked us in to a hostel in NYC, and they saw and copied my ID there, and knew I wasn't 18, and let me stay. same thing in Santa Monica, earlier in this trip. I checked us in, same company every time, they saw Mary-Beth wasn't 18 from her ID, but let her stay without comment. SF was different, they said she couldn't stay. we tried another hostel, but they said the same thing. so, obviously hotels were too expensive there in town, so we drove out of SF, and called Ben, and in the end drove almost an hour away, and found a place to stay that was fairly cheap.
the next morning, we drove to the BART station, the metro-train service, and parked, and rode the train into downtown San Francisco. there we met Mike, who helps people, (tourists mostly,) find where they are and where they want to go. Mike has to make a living of course, and asks for tips, but in my opinion it's worth it, as he's friendly, has free maps of the city on hand, and knows SF pretty well. so he helped us get our bearings, and gave us a map, and of we went. the trolley's looked fun, but were rather expensive, so we ended up walking most the day. we firs hit Union Square, then Chinatown, which was quite large. then the commercial part of downtown, where the Transamerica Pyramid building is. if you've ever looked at the SF skyline you know which one that is. ;)
then we headed to Coit Tower on Knob Hill. at least, that was our planned next stop, but then we came across City Lights Bookstore, and independent bookstore that's semi-famous, and pretty cool. a good bit of history there. I enjoyed it anyway.
after that we continued onwards and upwards, to Coit Tower. it was a hard climb. especially after walking most the day. but it was a pretty cool view from the top of the hill, (it cost to go in the tower, so we skipped that part,) and we saw the first good view of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island. after that, back down the hill, to Lombard street, San Francisco's Crookedest Street. very touristie, but we decided to see it anyway.
after that it was getting pretty dark, so we started back to the Bart Station, and went back to our car. we then drove to Rio Vista, another hour away. there we met Angie, her boyfriend Jordan, and Jordan's parents. or rather, his mother, I didn't meet his father until a few days later. there's more to tell of them, which will be another post.
be sure to check our Flickr for plenty of pictures. we may be slow uploading at times, but we have plenty of pictures, so it's only a matter of time until they're all up. enjoy!