San Francisco: The City by the Bay

After I finished my summer classes, I went to San Francisco to see my Uncle Oreste. I think the most amazing part of San Francisco was the weather. It was a cool 70 ° F every day I was there. I've been told this is because the city is in a sweet spot between the hot, dry California mainland and the extremely cold (~50° F) body of water that is the San Francisco bay. Whatever the reason, it led to a pleasant stay.

Above: San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge.

I fully planned on having a wonderful time here in this laid-back city. What I didn't plan on was that my uncle had four jam-packed days all laid out to show off how exciting San Francisco can be. Right after I arrived, we started off by riding on the Rocketboat.

Above: RocketBoat.

For our RocketBoat tour we went around the Bay Bridge at nearly 50 mph. Talk about fast! It was more like a water ride at a theme park than a tour boat. Our captain would open the boat to full throttle and then brake and spin around, getting everyone splashed. We got soaked. Fortunately, they gave us ponchos, but even those weren't enough.

Above: We all needed ponchos.

Afterwards we treated ourselves by going to Ghirardelli Square. What I learned was that Ghirardelli chocolate first debuted in the US at San Francisco. Good thing too, because going to this square was one of the big highlights of my trip.

Above: The Best Square Ever.

Going to a Ghirardelli shop was a true delight. I never knew that there were Ghirardelli products besides their chocolate squares. But after trying their Chocolate Shake called the Nob Hill Chill, I fell in love with their chocolate fudge sauce.

Above: Nob Hill Chill. See that chocolate on the sides? Pure Gold.

The next day Uncle Oreste told me we'd be driving in a GoCar. No, not a Go Kart, but a GoCar.

Above: The Three-Wheeled GoCar.

GoCars are little vehicles that can drive through the city at around 30 mph at top speed. They are technically motorcycles since they only have three wheels. But what I learned most about them was that they have very weak motors. There were times when we had to get out and push it to get it rolling on some of the uphills! Talk about exciting.

Above: Bryan Rockin' the GoCar.

Nevertheless, we did get the car to go past some famous landmarks. For instance, our halfway point was the Golden Gate Bridge.

Above: Bryan and the Golden Gate Bridge.

And our grand finale was going down Lombard Street.

Above: Lombard Street.

After we rode our GoCars, it was time to try Go Karts. We went to Go Kart Racer, which features an extremely large indoor racing track that even featured a hill. I found it interesting that my Kart was so much more powerful than my GoCar.

Above: An elevation change in a Go-kart track? Cool.

Normally Go Kart Racer has two very large indoor tracks to race from. But the day we came they combined the two tracks into a SuperTrack. What really surprised me was just how exhausting continued go-karting was. I was genuinely exhausted by the time we had finished our second 15-minute race. Not surprisingly, Uncle Oreste managed to place first on our second race, which was impressive given that there were eight racers present.

Above: Go Kart Racer SuperTrack.

There were many other activities that Uncle Oreste and I did, such as:

• Going to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom
• Eating at Pier 39, Hog Island Oysters, and other places
• Watching three movies in theatres
• Saying hello to my great-aunt Perlita and other family and family friends
• Petting the many, many cats outside my uncle's place
• Riding on my uncle's Segway to his workplace
• Driving out to see San Francisco's bunkers and maritime defense

Clearly I had a packed four days! Unfortunately I did not get many good pictures of these activities. So I'll just skip to the last day. 

On my last day in San Francisco, Uncle Oreste and I went to Embarcadero square outside San Francisco's Ferry building. In the Embarcadero there is the Vaillancourt fountain which features a bunch of square pipes that are constantly releasing water. Below you can see the fountain and even the ferry building behind it.

Above: The Vaillancourt Fountain at Ground Level.

But what interested me was actually the eighty-foot zip-lining tower left of the fountain. That's right, you can actually zip-line through San Francisco!

Above: Justin Herman Plaza ZipTrek Tower.

For our last thrill-inducing adventure, Uncle Oreste and I walked up this tower and zip-lined through San Francisco. Now I've zip-lined before, but this was the first time I ever zip-lined upside-down. And let me say, doing it upside down is awesome. It knocks the pants off of doing it right-side up (and I love zip-lining right-side up). I highly recommend upside-down zip lining for any adventure-seekers out there.

Above: Vaillancourt Fountain from 80 feet in the air.

Anyways, that was it for San Francisco. Afterwards, I went back to nice, warm Austin. But my summer wasn't over yet. Next up, It was time to see my Aunt Shelly in the beautiful, forested West Virginia!