San Francisco!
Visa success!!! Kris and I made a long weekend of my mandatory trip to San Francisco to apply for my long-stay French visa and had a great time. We flew out of Seattle on Thursday evening and made it to our hostel, USA Hostel, without any trouble. That was Kris and my first time flying somewhere together! We've taken trains, Greyhound buses, and ferries together, but no flights in three years until now. It was a milestone. :)
We didn't have an official dinner before we left Seattle, so we were decently hungry when we got all settled in. The guy at the front desk recommended a restaurant/bar called Fly a short walk away, so we headed over there and were not disappointed! They served up great drinks and we had a crazy-delicious Thai Basil Chicken "pizzetta": a pizza with a salad on top! Oh man, it was ridiculously good.
On our way back to the hotel, we discovered this awesome hole-in-the-wall bar called "Big" that the bartender described as "the saloon behind the Ford Theater". The decor was an awesome Civil War/Prohibition combo theme, and there was no menu! The two bartenders made only cocktails and each one was unique. Awesome! Kris and I are all about those kinds of places, so we had a blast enjoying the drinks and atmosphere.
On Friday, the first thing on the day's to-do list was to get my to the consulate for my appointment! It wasn't scheduled until 11am, so we had time to grab breakfast at a cute French place called "La Boulange", complete with sidewalk cafe-style seating. Perfect!
The visit to the consulate was nerve-wracking as always, but it went quickly and smoothly. For a hot second, I was afraid that they were going to send me away because the people in Nantes had sent me a stamped photocopy of a form that the Consulate people needed an original for. Luckily, the big cheese at the visa station was from Nantes and had actually gone to school at Lycee Carcouet, the high school where I'll be teaching! So he and I were buddy-buddy right away and he let everything through. WHEW!
Kris and I walked ALL OVER town the rest of the day. We made it to Haight-Ashbury, Fisherman's Wharf (where we played vintage arcade games at the Musee Mechanique and bought a sourdough turtle at Boudin Bakery!), Coit Tower, and then ended the day at the Rogue Brewery near Washington Square. My feet were nearly dead by the time we made it back to the hostel, and boy, did I sleep well!
On Saturday, we met up with a couple of Kris' friends who just got married and live about an hour from San Fran. We had breakfast at another adorable and very French cafe near Chinatown called Cafe de la Presse. We walked around again and explored the Business District, Chinatown, more of Fisherman's Wharf (played more arcade games!), more of Coit Tower and Telegraph Hill (we saw the parrots of Telegraph Hill!), walked up "the crookedest street in the world" (Lombard Street), and stopped by the Rogue Brewery again, haha.
This time, though, while we were at the Wharf, we tried the infamous clam chowder in a Boudin sourdough bowl from the Boudin Bakery. HOLY CRAP. I mean, I love bread, but this bread was downright orgasmic. It was ridiculous! I completely devoured the whole thing and probably could have started in on another one. Whoa. Worth the trip to San Fran right there, haha. We also went to an organic brewery, Thirsty Bear, and had some delicious brews and some exceptional tapas plates. A great way to end the day!
Our flight out was on Sunday evening, so we had lots of time to explore some more and decided to rent bikes! We first biked down to the California Academy of Sciences, which I had really been wanting to see. It was a great natural history museum with an aquarium, a rainforest exhibit, a living roof, planetarium, earthquake exhibits, etc. I had a great time! We both brought our big DSLR cameras, and we were snapping pictures like nobody's business. We both took some fantastic shots in the aquarium exhibit. My favorites were the jellyfishes!!
Of course, you can't go to San Francisco without seeing the Golden Gate Bridge, so we biked over there next! It was a gorgeous day, there were unbelievable amounts of people, and we were running short on time, so we didn't bike across the bridge, but we walked a ways on it and got our picture with it like all the other tourists. :)
What a great weekend- and so much walking!! We were both sad to leave and have to go back to work; we love exploring new places and seeing the sites, and it was awesome to catch up with his friends on Saturday.
In both Whistler and San Francisco, I was particularly impressed by the number of foreign visitors we encountered everywhere. We probably heard twenty different languages in each city. And, I was super excited by the fact that there were SO many French people in San Francisco! I heard French spoken multiple times each day, and I loved that we stopped by a couple of French cafes, too. Another random thing was that we did the crossword puzzle in the in-flight magazine and one of the clues was "Atlantic feeder, in Nantes" (the Loire)! :) It has to be a good omen that there were that many French-related things this weekend!
P.S.- My mom just called and told me that my long-stay visa already arrived in the mail! YES! Two-day processing time! Way to go, Frenchies! I'm all set for my adventure. :) :) :)
On Friday, the first thing on the day's to-do list was to get my to the consulate for my appointment! It wasn't scheduled until 11am, so we had time to grab breakfast at a cute French place called "La Boulange", complete with sidewalk cafe-style seating. Perfect!
The visit to the consulate was nerve-wracking as always, but it went quickly and smoothly. For a hot second, I was afraid that they were going to send me away because the people in Nantes had sent me a stamped photocopy of a form that the Consulate people needed an original for. Luckily, the big cheese at the visa station was from Nantes and had actually gone to school at Lycee Carcouet, the high school where I'll be teaching! So he and I were buddy-buddy right away and he let everything through. WHEW!
Kris and I walked ALL OVER town the rest of the day. We made it to Haight-Ashbury, Fisherman's Wharf (where we played vintage arcade games at the Musee Mechanique and bought a sourdough turtle at Boudin Bakery!), Coit Tower, and then ended the day at the Rogue Brewery near Washington Square. My feet were nearly dead by the time we made it back to the hostel, and boy, did I sleep well!
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| We saw the famous sea lions of Pier 39! |
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| Lombard Street |
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| The Garden Court at the Palace Hotel |
In both Whistler and San Francisco, I was particularly impressed by the number of foreign visitors we encountered everywhere. We probably heard twenty different languages in each city. And, I was super excited by the fact that there were SO many French people in San Francisco! I heard French spoken multiple times each day, and I loved that we stopped by a couple of French cafes, too. Another random thing was that we did the crossword puzzle in the in-flight magazine and one of the clues was "Atlantic feeder, in Nantes" (the Loire)! :) It has to be a good omen that there were that many French-related things this weekend!
P.S.- My mom just called and told me that my long-stay visa already arrived in the mail! YES! Two-day processing time! Way to go, Frenchies! I'm all set for my adventure. :) :) :)
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