Priceline: Destination, San Francisco

Last weekend, I decided I needed to get outta dodge. So I put in a Priceline request for a hotel in SF. Being a Saturaday night in downtown San Francisco, and my "name your own price" of $45, I fully expected to get rejected, truning my weekend getaway into more of a day trip. But, lo and behold, my offer was accepted.

The first thing I did, of course, was to hit a taco shop in the Mission District. As explained earlier, El Farolito is probably my favorite taco shop outside of San Diego County.



On my way to El Farolito, I saw this truck



and knew I was in San Francisco.

Now, I've been to San Francisco at least a hundred times, but for some reason had never really ventured outside of Downtown / Mission / Tenderloin / North Beach / Haight. To me all that WAS San Francisco. So when my roommate asked something like, "you know how when you take Geary all the way, you eventually hit the ocean?", my answer was a very confused "no". So that's what I did next. I drove down Geary and lo and behold, the ocean.

Why had I never thought to do this before? I got out of my car to take in some fresh ocean air, when i saw this:



Whoa, man. This must be some sort of old military installation. I got all excited and ran down to check it out. Yeah, totally must have been.






There was even a cool cave. I guess soldiers could use this for, I dunno, something.



So as you can see, I was pretty excited about my run in with history. I had concocted a whole vison of a military installation from the 1700's. I wondered how the soldiers spent their time and what not. I didn't yet know the history of the story of these ruins, but when I got home I would surely find out.

Um, yeah, about that.

Apparently, the "ruins" were just the remnants of the Sutro Baths. A bathouse built in 1896, destroyed in 1966. Way to ruin my imagination, wikipedia! Anyways, yeah, I'm pretty much a big ol' moron.

(note: when trying to explain to others where you were, never just casually ask "Hey, you ever been to that bathouse in San Francisco?" You will get some looks, let me tell you.)

But nevertheless it was nice. I'd never been out this way before so it was nice to see new beaches and neighborhoods. I headed over to the Haight to do some record shopping at Amoeba Records, and then it was time to finally check in to my $45 hotel.

The hotel sure had a nice name, The Edwardian. Oooh la la. Reality quickly dispelled any high society dreams I had.

I wasn't expecting much for $45 in downtown SF on a saturday night, but I did expect to have my own bathroom and shower. No go. Both were in the hallway, for all to use. Here is the shower:



And here is the toilet:



Let me translate that last one if you can't read it:

PLEASE BE CONCIDERATE AND TIDEY UP AFTER YOURSELF WHEN USING THE SHARED WAS FACILITIES. YOUR FELLOW GUESTS WILL APPRECIATE IT AS MUCH AS YOU DO.

Someone didn't listen, because when I went in to tinkle, someone had left a floater. I spared you that picture.

The room itself was a glorious and roomy. Okay it wasn't.



It was $45 so I'm not gonna bitch, but for now on when a hotel describes itself as "European", I'm steering clear. For now on "European hotel" = "hostel".

Next day was pretty casual. Just strolled down Market, checked out Yerba Buena Gardens. Headed to the East Bay and went to Ikea in Emeryville (West Sac Ikea can blow me), and met my new friend Nicole for lunch at a place called Rudy's Can't Fail cafe, which is apparently owned by one of the Green Day dudes. It's caddy corner to the Pixar Studios, which I had no idea were in Emeryville.

Then I went home. And that was that.