SF Chronicles: Part 1

The plan that was scheduled to start at 7 AM obviously started an hour late as we finally departed for SF on a chilly Saturday morning. Although it had been raining the whole week, we were fortunate to witness an uncommonly sunny weather. This was my first time sitting in the Caltrain, and I was quite impressed with the top deck experience. 

Our first rendezvous point was Dandelion Chocolate, which had some of the best coffee I have tasted in a long while (and probably some of the most expensive too). Since there were 7 of us, we had the liberty of trying most of the options. The Marocchino was pretty good as per public opinion, as was the European Drinking Chocolate; but my personal favorite turned out to be the paradoxical "Frozen Hot Chocolate". The cafe has chocolates sourced from different parts of the world for tasting, and I was pretty interested in trying them out. I was, however quite disappointed to realise how dumb my taste buds are when it comes to chocolate, since everything ended up tasting the same. 

Next, we headed to Dolores Park, which is kind of the American version of this place. It has a nice bird's eye view of the whole area around, and we had sandwiches from Rhea's Deli on the grass, which is apparently a very "California afternoon" thing to do.  (Recommend the "MDX" if you happen to go to Rhea's). 

We then took the trams, which were quite crowded from California standards, to the next place on our itinerary. We also walked through the city, and a mandatory SF skyline appreciation picture has to follow. 

I really enjoyed the Fisherman Wharf and the Farmer's Market, the next two places on our itinerary, not just because this was the first point from where we spotted the ocean, but also because of how much side-quest material there was to complete. 

We started our foodfest at the Fisherman's Wharf with some Meh momos, some Ube Latte (which is just purple colored coffee that tastes like coffee colored coffee; change my mind), and some guava patties. One of us tried ***cking oysters right on the open street and enjoyed the experience. (If you misread that, note that there are three *** stars :) ). 

We also tasted some goat cheese, and it was so good that we decided to buy a whole box it. The interesting part, however, was when one of us pointed to us that it was actually just standard milk cheese, and we had bought the wrong box (all hail the placebo effect).  

The star of the day, however, was the seemingly inconspicuous 2$ glass of guava juice, which ended up being so refreshing that we had to stop ourselves from guzzling down the whole thing. 

We then spent the rest of our time waltzing through the market. The shops in the market reminded me of Hogsmeade from the Harry Potter series, while the price tags in the souvenir shop reminded me that I came from India (seriously, who the heck buys a super generic af cap for $25?). That being said, the market has a variety of random but cool stuff, right from mushrooms the size of your palm, to branches of wood with deep (pun intended) philosophical thoughts inscribed on them. 

The next stop was Coit Tower, and although we didn't go to the top to the tower due to time constraints, we still got some nice pics. 

On a tight deadline to reach our last attraction before sunset, we then headed for Mile Rock Beach. This for me was the best part of the trip, and had so many picturesque scenes that they need to be strewn about. 

Although our plan was to enjoy the sunset, we could hardly see the sun thanks to dear old Karl the fog. We were able to, however, get really some good views of the Golden Gate Bridge! 

The serene grace of the waves crashing on the rocks at the Mile Rock beach is the perfect environment if you want to experience the beautiful feeling of tranquility (or if you want a quiet place to sit and contemplate your life decisions). 

Mentally refreshed and physically exhausted from the bottom of our heart, we hiked our way back up and headed to SF downtown for one last dinner before we braced ourselves to be jostled by the melancholy of unsubmitted assignments, and deadlines past due.