This past weekend my brother Roy and I flew to San Francisco. This is my first time visiting San Francisco or California for that matter. I would have liked to visit “the mothership” in Cupertino but it was going to be about 2.5 hours by bus and we really didn’t have the time.

We scoured what seemed like most of San Francisco on our first day. My god is San Francisco hilly! I was warned about this before the trip but I didn’t realize how out of shape I am – well OK I know I’m out of shape but it was a big reminder! We went through Chinatown then North Beach for a boat ride around the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. At times the boat ride seemed more like a roller coaster because the waves were pretty big at one point causing the boat to bounce up and down. As a result, the last 15 minutes of the ride I was feeling pretty nauseous. I don’t see how people do cruises for several days, maybe with a larger boat you don’t feel a lot of the bumps. Later in the day we went to the Castro and I saw where Harvey Milk’s camera shop used to be and my brother pointed out several areas where memorable moments happened. I’m not too familiar with Harvey Milk outside of what I’ve seen in the film “Milk” but he seemed to have made an impact on Roy.

While we were in San Francisco we also went to the California Academy of Sciences with one of Roy’s friends and his wife. They had a rain forest exhibit going on that was pretty cool or shall I say humid! ;-) It didn’t seem like we were there very long before they made the announcement they were closing. We didn’t really plan that one out too well. That evening we went to an italian restaurant called Steps of Rome. Earlier in the week I got my hair cut and my stylist recommended going there and getting tiramisu for dessert. He was practically salivating when he was talking about the restaurant so I thought it would be a good idea. The pasta dish I had was just OK but he was right about the tiramisu; it was heavenly.

The trip seemed to go by really quick but then again most weekends do go by pretty fast. And as always I wish that I would’ve taken more pictures. I’m glad I had the experience of going to California, but I don’t think it’d be my first choice for vacation. A lot of people – which I’m surprised that’s even a factor given that I really like NYC. Then again it is NYC.