Once we escaped the island, we walked along the embarcadero and the fisherman’s wharf until we stumbled across Ghirardelli Square to grab hot cocoas and stroll through the city watching the sun set. We thought we’d be back quickly to witness batkid save the city but the national park staff opened up the hospital wing and we got to explore even more real life Shutter Island creepiness. We both agreed that if we were in an Orange is the New Black type situation, Alcatraz would have been the worst place to serve a sentence, but with hands down the best views. It was a maximum-security facility that housed legends like Al Capone and Robert “Birdman” Stroud. The island was at one point an old military base, and then became a prison. The next day, we were off to Alcatraz Island.
The night was lovely, and Gioi and Vernon joined us to witness their first slam. The Berkeley Poetry Slam is a weekly venue at The Starry Plough in Berkeley, which hosts talent such as Lauren Zuniga and Rachel McKibbens. We made sure to hit up our friends Cheryna and her girlfriend, Emily, who were our cabin mates at A-Camp! They took us to the top of this hill in Oakland to watch the sunset over the whole bay, and then we went back to their apartment to play Super Smash Brothers before heading to The Berkeley Poetry Slam. The first day and a half in the city was spent recuperating from Portland, fighting colds and getting sleep. Looking back, I had wished they were in my life during my coming out process so I could have looked to them for advice and guidance. Though I’ve been estranged from my uncles for the past 10 years due to family drama, I was very excited to get to know them better this week. We boarded the BART and made our way into the city.Īshley: My uncles Vernon and Gioi were hosting us this week, they own their own interior design company downtown. A few hours later, the sun was up and shining over the beautiful city of San Francisco. We made our way through security and onto our plane before watching Oregon disappear into the patchwork quilt of earth beneath our ascent. I’m hoping to get into pharmacy school at UCSF so I can explore more of the city.
People seem to be a lot more free spirited and there are so many things to do. Marine: Every time I come back to SF, I fall more in love with the city. Although we have a seven-hour drive to get to the bay, we make this trip as often as we can. We have both grown up here, Marine in the OC and Ashley in LA. Today, we were going back to California.Ĭalifornia is our home. Last week was a fun and exhausting trek through the Pacific Northwest, but this morning we awoke with a particular excitement. Our alarm went off at 5:30 in the morning and we scrambled to get the remainder of our things packed up and into Andie’s car before we left for the airport.