Mount Tam Hike above San Francisco

My cousin Tyler and I went up to Mount Tam the other weekend, one of the highest points in the Bay Area. From the top, you can see San Francisco in its entirety, Oakland and Berkley. In addition to seeing the Golden Gate Bridge, Pacific Ocean and the Bay. The views are unbelievably gorgeous, especially on a clear day, so we set out to go to the top. 

               We made our way up to Mount Tam by driving across the Golden Gate Bridge, which never gets old. Every single time I look at it or drive across it feels like the first time. Just seeing the immense gates being tethered by the thick crimson strings makes me truly love being in San Francisco and California.

Mount Tam overlooking San Francisco.

If you look outside, you’ll see they crisp blue bay being sprinkled with stark white sail boats. Once you pass over the bridge you must go through Robin Williams Tunnel, which is a tunnel through a mountain marked by a rainbow on the front, then your eyes are opened to the wonders of Sausalito and Marin marked by all the marina’s and million dollar homes on cliff sides.

               We take the exit for Muir Woods and make our ascension up through the groves of eucalyptus and redwood trees to Mount Tam. It is a very windy road were the tall, gangly trees tower over the roadway. Once you get out of the groves, you see the scenery open like book showing you all the grand ocean, hills and forests. We round the curve to start our windy road to the base of Mount Tam and continue up the unbelievably windy roads, if you look at the roads from the sky they must look like a river delta on the side of a mountain. We wind our way to the very top and finally park our car, take our all our camera gear and start hiking. It was an unnaturally clear day, we were standing on the cliffs edge breathing in all the fresh ocean and mountain air. 

Karl The Fog rolling in as the sun sets over Mount Tam.

Saturday 5/22: Graduation Day

So this was the "Big Day," the reason everyone was here to see me graduate from USF. Graduating was a weird feeling- it just seemed like one more routine thing I had to do. The significance was totally lost on me, it still is right now as I write these words. It will probably hit me in a few weeks when I'm at home doing dishes or something, and I'm going to crumble into a sobbing ball of emotions, but for now we're good. 

It was wonderful to see all my family once I came out of the ceremony, and they were all waiting for me with praise and leis. It was surreal seeing all their faces in SF and at my graduation- that's when it started to hit a little bit. I took many pictures with everyone, exchanged a multitude of hugs, and accepted much praise and congratulations. I ended up graduating cum laude with a GPA of 3.7 and a degree in International Business with a minor in Chinese Studies. 

I have to wait a few months to receive my actual diploma in the mail. Once I have it, it will be the most expensive piece of paper I own. By Far. So I need to buy a really nice frame, just to make sure I don't loose it. 

Now back to the big festivities. After all the picture taking and hugging, I taught my aunt how to hail an Uber for half the family for brunch at Sweet Maple, which is in my opinion the best brunch in SF. We all packed into the remaining car again and made our way over to Sweet Maple. We parked, walked over to find out that we had about a forty five minute wait, which is not bad at all for Sweet Maple. Sometimes it can reach up to an hour and a half to two hours. Half us headed over to Japan town while the other half waited at the restaurant. After poking our heads in and around Japan town and then quickly making our way back to the restaurant, we were seated fairly quickly. We ordered coffee, lattes, mimosas, Bloody Mary's, omelettes, crepes, french toast, and their famous "Millionaires Bacon". This Bacon in UNREAL- thick cuts of bacon that are drenched maple syrup, brown sugar and a variety of peppers, then baked until it is properly caramelized and ready to devour. 

After brunch we made our way back to the Marriott to go into our food comas and recover from our feast. We all napped for quite a bit, then decided on heading over to Grandview Park for the sunset, which is by far the best view in the entire city. It has views of everything. You can see downtown SF, the Golden Gate Bridge, ALL of Golden Gate Park, The Pacific Ocean and many more. It simply has everything.

These are the stairs leading up to Grandview Park. They start out at the ocean move their way up to land, then the stars and the moon, ending with the sun at the top. 

After we climbed up these stairs we made our way to the top, which literally feels like you are on top of the world. The sunlight dances off everything it touches and blankets the city in a serene layer of light, making for a stunning view. 

After we finished at Grandview Park, we headed over to El Rancho Grande on Divisadero to make everyone go through the rite of passage of eating a California Burrito. For those of you who don't know, a California Burrito is a burrito filled with a meat of your choice, guacamole, and french fries. It is absolutely amazing and this place is my favorite spot in the city to get them. We all head over and all practically order the same thing, a California Burrito. We grabbed our chips and beers, then proceeded to find seating. We all sat down, started eating our chips and made our way over to their amazing salsa bar. We got a good variety of salsa and munched on chips for a while. Just as we were about to run out of chips, our burritos came, and it could not have been better timing. We all took off the foil and dove into the burritos. I could not have asked for a more perfect day.

Wednesday 5/18: Day One

This week I am going to graduate from college and I am going to have a small clan of family coming into town. I spent quite a lot of time planning out what places to see, which places to eat and everything in between. I used my college educated mind and made a wonderful excel spreadsheet showing casing all the neighborhoods of San Francisco, attractions of the city, amazing places to eat and an itinerary breaking everything down for the next six days by fifteen minute increments. Some family had never been to SF before and I wanted to show them and everyone else my city, so I figured having a rough schedule would make things a bit easier.

Today my Mom and John came into town and they met Steph and I at my house. We then quickly gave them a tour of my spacious studio apartment and then proceeded to get dinner. We planned on going to Gorilla BBQ in Pacifica, but they ended up being closed, so we decided on 4505 Burger's and BBQ on 705 Divisadero in the city. We all got wonderfully delicious pulled pork sandwiches and basked in the smell of smoke in the outdoor seating. After dinner I decided to show them the whole city at Twin Peaks. It was a gorgeous night and you could see the whole city shrouded in mist and bone chilling cold.