LATE EMANCIPATION

Four score and seven years ago I should have wrote this blog, but better late than never ever. This is installment #2 of my San Francisco series, and this one is titled Late Emancipation because finally I have some free time to write this. Here's a gem that I forgot to include in the last blog, it's a pretty nice panorama at the fisherman's wharf. Click it to get the full detail.
So the next day in San Francisco we spent some good ole recreational time at the Golden Gate park. First we trekked from Bart to Muni and then walked into the park, stopping first at the Japanese Tea Garden. The tea garden was interesting, but I wouldn't pay admission again.
I would say that the peace and serenity of the tea garden freed me of stress, not quite to nirvana yet though. Ah east meets West, the beautiful Japanese culture at its most finest mediocre.
Here's Mr. Twogood strolling through the garden.
This next section, let peace and serenity just pull you into a world of blissful freedom as I stop commenting for a little.

After we found that the bridge was unsafe we headed out to grab some food at a nearby sandwich shop, not the greatest, but solid. If you ever go into a place like this...don't use their bathroom.
After a roast beef sandwich, chicken burrito, and Caesar salad or what not, we headed back into the park, this time to where we could free ourselves from the rigors of adulthood. The playground was fun but too many kids running around taking up all the fun equipment.
We found this fake wave thing that was fun to stand on and we got some nice pictures. We still had fun even though we were college kids amidst a sea of 3 year olds.
Jenny's mom said Tiffany is very photogenic, I think there's a small amount of that going on in this picture, but mostly just a good photographer.
After the park, we decided to romp around SF and visit some places key stone places for me, like The Hundreds store. They have a Disney collab going on right now, and I like it, because I do like Disneyland for the most part because of how free I feel riding space mountain. The Hundreds is Huge.
After that we hit up Niketown and I finalllllly got my hyperdunks in red, I doubt you guys will ever see them, but they are sickk. They're made of flywire.
We need more people who are as motivated as this guy, look familiar?

Today we embark on bart and stop off at the embarcadero to take pier 33 to the infamous Alcatraz island.
Oh how "The Rock" did invite us visitors whole-heartedly.

It's amazing to think of how many people have been incarcerated here over the many years, Birdman, Al Capone, and its crazy how many men had to spend their lives here.

We took an audio tour of the island and the cell which was really fun because we got to know a lot about the history and what really happened on the island, it was the closest anyone could get to reliving the glory days of The Rock.

Men fought long, vigorous battles for their mostly likely undeserved freedom. Men struggled to get off this rock with every ounce of energy they had left in their bodies. Inmates hijacked the arms storage room, while others have tried to swim in the frigid water. It seems that men will always fight for their freedom no matter the circumstance. As I recall " Every man has a right to risk his own life for the preservation of it". I think of preservation of life meaning that one has an enjoyable life outside of incarceration, because in such a place it seems all life is left at the door.

The experiencing was enlightening and left me awe struck at the amazing history contained within manufactured metal bars and steel cages connected with plastered, indistinguishable white brick walls. As your eye saw how far the cement in the prison stretched, you took your current freedom for less granted.


It's insanely ironic how such a hell hole incarceration could be, the views from the island were among the best within the entire bay. Once we got out of the cell house, we were free to roam the beautiful island as the cold, unchained wind reminded us just where we were.
As we got back and walked around the embarcadero still I thought, who of us is truly free? Didn't Jean-Jacques Rosseau say "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in shackles. " This one is just weird. I never did like these leash things, why not just watch the child you love, especially if you only are watching one.
After some trivial fun we headed back to the bart station, not without being confronted by another act of man fighting for his freedom. We unknowingly came up to a protest, one in which people were protesting for the freedom of the Palestinians from the Israeli attacks. It was quite hectic as energy was in the air and people were voicing their opinions over megaphones and through waving flags. It was difficult just to get up the street to bart.
I'm not sure what I think about this whole fiasco, I don't really know much about it. But I caught one person that I more naturally agree with:
Well that was it for this section, thanks for listening, I've got one more installment of SF and then it's off to the real world again. I hope everyone has a good weekend, and don't undervalue your freedom, let you self be free of anything holding you back in any part of your life. As we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, remember to fight for your own freedoms, because no one else will.

START AT THE BEGINNING

Happy New Year everyone, I hope you guys are starting it off well. I was in San Francisco for the time between Christmas and New Year's Eve so I snapped quite the amount of gorgeous photos that I would like to share everyone, so if you didn't travel this break, follow me as I take you with me across California. It's quite the long journey, but I guess we should start at the beginning.
The trip started off with Max, Shannon and I picking up thanson and heading out for San Fran. This is our first stop...an LA gas station. Then off we go for hours at a time, disc by disc, playlist by playlist, license plate game by license plate game, and 'would you rathers' helped us passed the time as we treked to a stop in Santa Barbara and along the coast for a beautiful drive along the Pacific Ocean.
Stops at Gilroy and such accompanied this trip as we needed rest breaks, cars needed gas, people needed restrooms. Not too bad, I even won $25 on a scratcher I got from a gas station. When we got to the Manegold residence pizza awaited us, and I was much too tired to take photos and update anything or let alone keep my eyelids higher than the equator of my pupil. The next day though we started off with the works, and where else to begin in an introduction to San Francisco but BART and the cable cars, and the city in general, where it all began.
Max and Shannon look happy, though we did have to wake up fairly early for this tour to start.
The first time San Franciscan air hit my face it felt good, the second time, it felt cold. It was the coldest weather I had ever face in a city where snow wasn't an option. I was greeted by lovely buildings and luxury malls and a very beautiful Forever 21.
What is San Francisco without its cable cars? I'm not sure but I'm glad they're here, they are quite the touristy attraction, but one I cannot pass up.
I learned during my stay that there are quite the number of characters in San Francisco, and the lovely Jenny told me that this man stands out on Powell St. everyday with his Jesus Christ Loves You sign. Impressive, we need more people who are dedicated to a cause without a care to green pieces of paper in this world.
As I catch glimpses down Boulevards and Avenues in the cable car I realize how unique, distinct, beautiful, and hilly San Francisco is. It was all quite beautiful, it still amazes me how all the land around San Francisco is flat, yet everyone has flocked to this city for decades.
As streets get thin, the ride gets proportionally bumpier, and you find yourself knowing a lot more about your standing neighbors than you would care to wish for.
But once we got off we arrived in the famous Fisherman's wharf. You could tell from the smell if fish and the kaw of gulls in the air. We stopped by an old museum only to come out and be greated by mother nature in the form of precipitation.
We decided a little food was in call, and what better than Clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls on a cold, cloudy day like this? So we stopped over at the Boudin's and had our self a ball.
After walking up and down the embarcadero for a while and checking out Alcatraz tickets, we ventured onto Pier 39 where all the shop, fun and revelry goes down. Oh here's a picture of Tiffany hugging a giant Christmas Tree.
There were some good stores, but this one caught my eye... Ah how I wish Rico would've seen this. Oh well. Oh I did find out that a worker at the magic store respects David Copperfield's magic but is appalled by his personal life.
The Rock.
The Beast, and 3 nice female friends.
After the wharf we jetted off to Chinatown, as I was in search of a turtle. When I was little I bought a pet turtle in SF chinatown and I was hoping that luck would reproduced the same results from that day so long lost in my childhood. Sadly no, but it was awfully fun, we made a few stops at local stores and even at a sushi place (Chinese people making sushi is like French people making cars by the way, it wasn't nearly as good as its counterpart).
After that we finally arrived in Union square where we decided we were done for the day and headed back to BART, on our way back to Fremont.
Tiffany saw that ad that she had bought for her company a couple years back, I think it paid off, she's been doing prettttty well lately. I think she should stick to Tiffany & Co. in lieu of her engineer/winery dreams.
I don't really have time to elaborate, but I wanted to give you guys a taste of the next installment of SF, of which there will be many, but the next one details our trek through Golden gate park.
Plus, civilization all started in the beginning, and the beginning is the east.