Ask HN: First visit to Bay Area. Where should I go? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: First visit to Bay Area. Where should I go?

12 pointsrblion10 comments

I have dreamt of coming to this place for over a decade. Here I am. Staying with a friend for a few days and have time to explore the area. I've been on a road trip from Salt Lake City since 9/9/18, went up through the Rockies and over to the Pacific Northwest, now down to Bay Area.

I'm interested in history, culture, food, yoga, Buddhism, science, technology, design, music.

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Sleep over and party with the other tourists at the Fisherman's Wharf hostel; Wake up to the a calm, detached serenity within the city that gives the Marina district's urbsn calm refuge a run for it's money. Meet a stunning New Yorker. Sweep her off her feet, literally, and swaddle her to place of, more, our own. Watch her later disappear, her a sugar cube, into your teacup; meet another from Texas whose taken to your dumb, musical pining, there in the dining hall. Carry her too. Scale an apartment building to watch the stars and muse on how, maybe she should switch majors to math, maybe. These stars, never a spectacle for a Texan, but here lending to me a perfectly stunning, halcyon glow over the whole situation, after all this time royally without romance, a cliffside's breeze before a warm washing Pacific sunset. All at the Fisherman's Wharf hostel...

Funny thing. I met a beautiful woman from Melbourne, Australia there while watching seals. We spent the whole day together, she had tickets to the aquarium so we went and then I got her a clam chowder bread bowl for the first time. We Uber'd to Golden Gate Park and walked over the Haight and bar hopped. I got her a Moscow Mule (she never had one and now that's her new favorite drink) and we got real cozy. Her old friend from Australia who she is staying with met me and said we look good together and our meeting story is very romantic. She gave me a goodnight kiss after one more drink in Union Square at a swanky bar called Rye. I got on the last BART back to my friend's house with a heavy heart...I really wanted to spend the night with her but it was better if we didn't. She wanted to see me again and I wanted to see her again.

We hung out for a few hours today too. We met up in Chinatown around the Financial District in the Mission area where we laid out in the park and held hands while talking about life and work. She was cold so wore my alpaca sweater. After we ate some amazing Mexican food and then got to go up one of the tallest buildings in the city where one of her friends had an office. We had coffee up there and talked about the Bay Area while looking around at all the buildings in every direction! After that we got a tour of Golden Gate Bridge and the hills around it around sunset. We took some more pictures together. I got the three of us some burgers and I had to say goodbye one more time.

Tomorrow we are going to hang out ALL DAY and then go to Alcatraz the day after and then rent a car to camp together at Yosemite.

What. The. Fuck. She is gorgeous, a social worker. I notice a lot of people looking at us, girls especially. Guys checking her out and trying to talk to her, a female bartender at an Irish pub giving me props.

I got a lot more stories too but I'm a little stoned right now off some California weed and going to go to bed. Gotta catch the BART tomorrow from Pleasant Hill to meet her again. :)

I love this city.

Definitely don't forget the Presidio hiked all the way to Ocean Beach.

Computer history museum in Mountain View. Call ahead and pick a day they're actually open.

Google campus. It's different. Find a fellow alum or something and get them to buy you lunch at one of their many free eateries.

Sand hill road between I-280 and El Camino. Just to realize how densely concentrated the plurality of the world's VC is.

Stanford mall. This is where the really rich shop. Downtown Palo Alto shopping district for comparison & contrast.

A driving tour of Cupertino including Apple's first and second campuses, and drive on out to Santana Row to see where many a Bay Area dollar gets spent. Cupertino is Stepford but with a slightly Buddhist vibe, so maybe you'll discover some of that.

A few half-decent baylands trails, and some mountain state parks, but other than the forested parts of SF, the really beautiful stuff is coastal. Make it out to San Gregorio if you can for some good beaches. Half Moon Bay is decent too. Follow this rule of thumb: If the weather in the city is iffy, it'll be worse at the beach. If it's too nice to leave to the beach, the beach will be spectacular.

Bay Area is massive. If you are in SF or visiting SF, make sure you walk - that is the best way to see the city. Walk through the city and observe neighborhoods change. You could walk from Golden Gate park to Downtown, or Mission to Downtown.

I just wanted to add: if you can find parking, you can actually walk across the Golden Gate bridge. It's windy, but very beautiful. And there's also little placards showing the history of the bridge's construction on the south side. (Although it's a little easier to park on the north side.)

Not sure if there are any aquariums in SLC, so check out Cal Academy of Sciences in SF and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Santa Cruz is a beach/hippie town.

California cuisine (fusion/organic), Asian, Mexican food.

Buddhism? San Jose has a Japanese Buddhist temple but I do not know if you can visit.

Redwood forests.

Drive up to Point Reyes (Inverness) and take the Tomales Point trail. Tons of huge Tule Elk.

I highly recommend eating at Wursthall in San Mateo. It's J. Kenji López-Alt's (from Serious Eats, author of The Food Lab) restaurant.

Consider the Lick Observatory. Just be sure to drive carefully.

Go visit San Fransico and take the cable car and walk around (Market Street, China Town, Fishermans Wharf, Golden Gate, Golden Gate Park, maybe Twin Peaks, maybe Alcatraz, ...)

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