San Francisco

I flew into San Francisco yesterday afternoon. Leaving Portland it felt as if all the floodgates in myself had opened up. It's a feeling I often have when embarking on a journey, and entails giving up the entrenchment and control of living rooted in one place. It is an exhilarating and liberating feeling.

It was a beautiful day in S.F. I met up with my friend Jeremy and we wandered the streets looking for cheap eats. The bodegas and corner stores were all closed in support of the immigration-related boycott. It seemed like the only places open in all of San Francisco were Thai and Vietnamese, and I plan to put off eating southeast Asian cuisine until Friday. Instead we found a nice little Indian restaurant and dined on veggie curries and Taj Mahal.

Jeremy is a good friend of mine-- we lived together in an old, rambling house in Portland with three others, which we fondly remember as the Williams house for the street of the same name. It was as close to a boho, "authentic" Portland experience as I've ever had. Jeremy and his girlfriend also were through-hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail this past summer, and their epic journey definitely inspired me to follow up on my own dream of backpacking in southeast Asia.

I wasn't planning on it, but I think I'll be a tourist today after all. Apparently the weather has been miserable the last few weeks and it just turned beautiful yesterday. I'll make sure to enjoy my last few days in the states.