Two Hikes

7/7/2013 - Marin County, CA

I hiked twice today: through the Marin Headlands, and across the Golden Gate Bridge.

At the farthest point into my Marin Headlands hike, I saw a man, alone, looking out at the ocean through his binoculars. During a break from his viewing, I asked if he could take a photo of me. He said, "Ah, no, I can't, I got into trouble last time I took pictures with someone else's camera." Perhaps unfairly, I assumed that he was a sex offender. I said, "Oh, I understand, well, thank you anyway."

I walked across the Golden Gate Bridge next, and it was much more crowded. I heard cars going by, loud bay winds, and tourists shouting and laughing at each other. I often find tourists to be annoying. On the Golden Gate Bridge, they were endearing.

Maybe I'm just a "city boy," but I preferred the Golden Gate Bridge walk to the hike with the possible sex offender.

Pictured: The Golden Gate Bridge (left) and the Marin Headlands (right)

Shut the Box

7/6/2013 - San Francisco, CA

Between hostels and bars, I won't have trouble meeting people in the cities I visit. My first night in San Francisco, I met two people at the hostel and took them to an internet-renowned bar down the street.

There was a dice game at the bar called "Shut the Box." I know Shut the Box. To prepare myself for traveling around the world, I learned games of the world. I may regret learning games instead of learning something useful. For example, languages.

I didn't expect to see Shut the Box until I got to the Channel Islands, but here it was in San Francisco. I joined the game and won quite a bit after "shutting the box" twice in three games. I was not invited to a fourth game. If I'm looking for another source of income overseas, I'll have to work on my hustling skills.

Pictured: A bartender picks up the dice to roll against me in Shut the Box.

Bookquest: San Francisco, CA

7/6/2013 - City Light Bookstore

Bookquest: Golden Gate by Vikram Seth

Golden Gate is a story about San Francisco yuppies in love. It is written entirely in verse. Gore Vidal called it "the great California novel."

I picked it up at City Lights Bookstore. City Lights had its heyday in the 60s and 70s, publishing counterculture writers. That legacy remains: for example, the store has more books devoted to "Western Spiritual Traditions" than to Judaism and Christianity combined.

My favorite part of the store: a building across the street had Banksy art with the quote, "If at first you don't succeed - call an airstrike." Heh.

Pacific Road Trip

7/5/2013 - U.S. Highway 101, Oregon and California

When I decided to drive from Portland to San Francisco, I did not realize how far it would be. It's probably for the best. If I had realized I would be driving all day and night on the 5th, I wouldn't have stopped to enjoy the scenery as much as I did.

It's impossible to share the scenery through photos: first, it's too wide: panoramas of green mountains and waves crashing onto beaches. Then, it's too tall: arriving at the redwoods, it's impossible to see the tops of them, let alone photograph them. 

Pictured: Scenery from U.S. Highway 101.

Fireworks

7/4/2013 - Eugene, OR

I had a great 4th of July with friends in Eugene. We had a full summer evening: a beer tasting at a brewery, Japanese food for dinner, a live band at a bar, and fireworks.

On our walk home, a fireball rolled down the street in front of us like a flaming tumbleweed. We couldn't help but laugh at it: in any other context, it would have been frightening, but today it was just AMERICA!

Pictured: Backyard fireworks lighting up a masterpiece of sidewalk chalk.

Hipster Karaoke

7/3/2013 - Portland, OR

Portland is trying to elevate karaoke to an "art form." 

I expected to see the best karaoke of my life: hipster divas performing some of my favorite indie rock / pop songs. Maybe I arrived too early, but that wasn't the case. The first few songs included the Foo Fighters, Judas Priest, Lionel Richie, and Megadeth. Those are not mainstream karaoke songs, but they're also not the weird indie Pitchfork music that I expected. 

I planned to sing A-Punk, by Vampire Weekend. The song has the three important qualities of a karaoke song: easy, short, and upbeat. It even has potential for audience participation, with an "ohhh ohhh ohhh" or a "hey hey hey." Unfortunately, when I showed up, the songbook contradicted what I had read on the website: A-Punk was unavailable. My practice was for nothing, and I had to make a quick choice.

Scanning through my iPhone, it seemed my favorite obscure bands' songs would be too long (LCD Soundsystem), the wrong mood (The National), too difficult to do without serious practice (Sigur Ros), or absent from the songbook (Animal Collective, Dirty Projectors). Then I was surprised to see a pretty long list of Deerhoof songs in their songbook. I can't sing anything like Deerhoof's lead singer Satomi Matsuzaki, but I thought I could do something interesting with the song. I decided I'd get as far away from the original performance as I could: I'd bust out a Lou Reed-style Deerhoof song.

It kinda worked. It was not my best performance, but at least it was unique. The hipsters clapped politely and said nice job when I was finished.

Travel As a Game

7/2/2013 - Portland, OR

Foursquare has introduced some badges specific to cities: since I visited enough recommended places Portland, I got the Portland Foursquare badge. I have mixed feelings about doing this: it makes my travel a bit less spontaneous, since I'm visiting the places that Foursquare considers interesting. On the other hand, they're places I'd generally visit anyway.

It also doesn't take too much time: I got the Portland Badge within 24 hours of being in Portland by checking in to Powell's, Deschutes Brewery, Ground Kontrol arcade, Voodoo Doughnut, and the Portlandia statue. That's a good 24 hours.

For a perspective on travel as a game, check out this article. 

Pictured: My score on Dr. Mario at Ground Kontrol, the arcade bar in Portland.