TPIR Trip 2: San Francisco

The Price Is Right did a rerun of my episode today August 18th, 2014


I am back from San Francisco! It was an incredible trip. My trip took place August 7th and I came back August 13th. I took it with one of my best friends I've known since second grade, Adam Booz. We did so much in less then a week, and I have HUGE story to tell down below about it all.

Starting off I should say the travel adviser for this trip screwed a few things up. The dates got confused. I was booked for the wrong day and had a lot of things I had to do myself to make sure my flight dates were the same as my hotel dates because trust me they weren't before I called and checked.

I choose the dates of my trip to be August 7th-13th.  I choose these dates because this is when Outside Lands Music Festival was happening, unfortunately by the time the travel adviser confirmed he could give me these dates the tickets to the festival were already sold out, but it was completely fine! I got to watch and listen to some of my favorite bands such as

Arctic Monkeys, Chromeo, Death Cab For Cutie, Lykke Li, Cut Copy, The Kooks, The Killers.

Anyway enough about that! Onto the awesome stuff!

We left for our flight, we made it into the SF airport at 9am, we caught the train to our hotel which was Union Square which was cool because we were surrounded by an art market in the square everyday. There were fancy clothing stores we checked out, and trolleys running up and down our street daily. It was nice, and when we booked into our hotel we both received $50 food and beverage cards for the restaurant connected to our hotel. There were huge batch of free cookies 24/7 at the hotel, and a mini bar in the lounge. It was pleasant and all FREE!

We walked around SF and did a little bit of exploring around the city and discovered Hosteling International SF was two blocks away from our hotel. We walked in and checked it and they were having a pub crawl that night we decided to attend. Before we actually went out to the pub crawl we decided to use some of our $50 beverage card, we got many drinks there, ate plenty of free cookies, watching 49er's vs the Ravens (Ironically it was playing while we were in SF). We went back to the hostel and they gathered about 40 guests and we all headed to our first destination which was another HI in SF and they had a bar in the hostel, we had a few drinks there, hung out and they gave me discounts due to me working at HI - Baltimore. It was nice! We went to two other bars did the same and a little bit of dancing and then headed out to The Owl Tree, which was a super cool bar the atmosphere was nice and so was the designs on the bar. It was fun! We decided to call it a night early due to being awake for 14 hours, so we went back to the hostel and immediately crashed.


The next day! It was time to really explore and have some FUN!

We walked so much that day, so many miles, so much to see. We walked and explored the culture of China Town, we saw so many rad murals, kimonos, oriental lanterns, etc. We also got some delicious bumble tea while there.




We then made our way to the Coit Tower, which gave us an incredible view of the city! The ocean, the actually city buildings, and the infamous Lombard street were all in our view.



Afterwards we walked down to Fisherman's Wharf which was a big tourist attraction and we made our way to Pier 39 where apparently according to a plaque I saw in the year 2009 there were over 1700 seals living in that spot. We saw so many! It was a beautiful sight to see all the sea lions and relax by the ocean and feel the chills of the ocean breeze.

We then left to walk up and down the infamous Lombard Street. It was  really cool to see this and make our way here. We took many pictures and it was an amazing hike.

We made our way to Golden Gate Park this is where we tried to figure our way to get inside to see Outside Lands, unfortunately security were too tough, and had horse, plus there were 3 massive fences you had to hop, luckily we made our way into the woods and got great views from outside of the festival, there were huge screens for each band playing and the music was definitely loud enough to hear so we watched Chromeo and they played an amazing set! I was very impressed and glad I got to watch and listen with other random people who decided it's a better idea to save $350 and watch from outside and BYOB. We then had 2 hours before Arctic Monkeys came on so we explored the park. We checked out the Japanese Tea Garden and made our way back to see AM. They were good, they played all their new stuff which I am not a huge fan of, and the style they play and dress like now is a little too much, however it was a cool gig to watch. We then made our way back to the hotel and went to sleep.



The next day I woke up got free breakfast just like every other morning, showered, cleaned up, then Adam and I made our way to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was beautiful! We did a lot of sight seeing there, we walked the bridge back and fourth, the wind was very cold but I strongly enjoy cold weather. It was perfect. Seeing a historic bridge like that and walking across it. We walked back. starred into the ocean and just sat around for a bit. We then would head back to Golden Gate Park to head to Outside Lands to see The Kooks, and Death Cab For Cutie.

During us being there, many guys and girls tried jumping the fence to see the bands. It was very entertaining to watch actually.

A group of 20 people all jumped the fence at once while 5 security officers with horses came over to stop them most of them made it over except for one who was too late. The one was on top of the fence and his I-phone fell out of his pocket so he jumped over the fence reached his hand out and a horse crushed his hand!!! As he tried picking up his phone. After the people would make it over the 1st round of fences there were 3 more and cops on mini motorcycles would surround them and take them under control. We were told most of the one's taking in were arrested. The guy who told us that was one of the many who jumped the fence. His shorts were destroyed! As well as the rest of his clothes. He said he barely made it and luckily the cops couldn't catch him

We crawled under branches, and climbed trees and rocks. It was a ton of fun. Security blew whistles at us but we were doing much except making weird noises and trying to confuse them to be funny.



We watched The Kooks, it was cool to hear all their hit songs, and brought memories back of my teenage years. We then headed over to Haight Ashbury. This was a super cool town. Lots going on, plenty of art, craft beers, and thrift stores around. We got a happy hour at some artsy bar. It was tight. We saw our bus and ran out the bar to catch it and I was probably a nano second from getting hit by a car on the other side. I was so close to death but luckily it just missed me by less then an inch. YAY I survived. Anyway we went back and

We watched Death Cab For Cutie. They were amazing I was super impressed. They played 4 songs off my favorite album of all time (Narrow Stairs). That was very enjoyable.

We then made our way on the subway heading back to our hotel and some random man and woman were sitting on the subway and the woman was very fucked up on something and she started giving away FREE weed to everyone on the subway. She gave us $40 worth of weed completely FREE! We went back to the hotel and slept. There is definitely more of this story to come about the free weed. Continue reading...



The next morning we had a lazy morning, went to Washington Square. Adam bought me pizza we ate it in the square and then went back to the park for the last day of the festival to go see Lykke Li, Cut Copy, and The Killers. Adam decided to go back to Haight Ashbury to explore some more as I watched Lykke Li. I was very unimpressed. I expected way better and would suggest not seeing her performance. It really wasn't much of anything. I then watched Cut Copy for the 5th time in my life and WOW they nailed it! The show was very dancey and they just proved again they still have what it takes to keep their fans coming back for more. The music was excellent so was the stage presence. My phone was about to die and I contact Adam to meet me to watch The Killers. He does, we watched most of it and then called it a weekend.



We went back to the hotel and got ready for our tour of Alcatraz which was one of the other prizes I won! We headed to Fisherman's Wharf got some 711 and headed on the tour boat. It was so awesome. We went under the Golden Gate Bridge, we circled Alcatraz twice, they gave us great stories of Alcatraz. It was awesome to listen to. It was just really nice to be on the cruse and relax. We then got off the boat and immediately found out from people Robin Williams died. We decide to go pay respect and go to the house where Mrs. Doubtfire was filmed.

We first decided to go to the International Cocktail Lounge for $2.50 Blue Moons 4-8pm. I bought one then this really drunk Irish man Ryan challenged me to pool. Early in the game he destroyed me! He only had to hit in the 8 ball, but missed. I had 4 balls left to hit in. I hit all of them in my one turn. I beat him he bought me another Blue Moon. I finished it asap! He challenged me again, he beat me so quick! I buy myself a beer, the bartender decides he had too much. A new bartender comes in, Ryan and I play one last round. He destroys me again but this time hits in the 8 ball. I WIN! I then meet 4 other Irish people, Adam goes outside to smoke weed with Ryan. I tell my new Irish friends I won The Price Is Right and this is why I am here. They tell me after we were finished this bar they're taking us to Bourbon and Branch. I buy another beer. I'm on my 4th Blue Moon draft and I'm feeling drunk. I meet a Seattle woman she buys me another Blue Moon. I'm on 5 and now I'm watching the Seattle woman play Ryan in pool. I walk outside and she comes out and hands me another Blue Moon and tells me to chug it. I did. I am then VERY drunk!



A English guy comes in with his new wife and starts playing Arctic Monkeys old stuff on the jukebox. We all start singing, he demands to buy me a drink. He buys me a vodka coke. This is my 7th drink at this bar and I haven't even spent $10 yet.

A news reports comes on the tv of the bar and it states Robin Williams death was a suicide. Adam calls a Lyft we head to the house Mrs. Doubtfire was filmed. There were news crews all over the place. We leave our Lyft driver gets lost she takes us back to the bar we were at. None of our old chums are there. We leave and head to the bus.

We get on the bus for free, and we start talking to some random girl on the bus she tells us she's headed to the bar she works at which is Bourbon and Branch, which is literally the coolest bar in the entire world. GOOGLE IT RIGHT NOW! You will be impressed. Anyway she gets us in through everyone else although you need a rsvp. She buys us a round of shots, then she bought us a round of cocktails. We talk about random stories, she then takes us to a bookcase. She presses a button. The bookcase opens and inside is another bar. She buys us another round of cocktails takes us to a wall, presses a button that opens to an old detective room. She takes us in the basement and shows us the whole bar. We leave together, we head back to our hotel and I offer her and Adam to smoke the weed. I can't due the possible chance of me getting into another clinical trial soon. Her and Adam smoke some of it.

We got to sleep. Adam is deadly hung over. I go for a run, and I went to all the places we went to before. I go to AT&T Park this time. I passed the IGN building which was a nerds dream for me. I lay in the grass at City Hall in SF. I found a Pokemon card on the ground.  I head back we pack up. We had a ton of weed left over.

We hand the rest of the weed to a homeless guy, and a lighter. It made his day for sure. He was shocked!

We caught the train back to the subway. We got on our flight, head back home, meet our partners, and there is my girlfriend who picked us up and gave me mozzarella sticks as a come back gift as well as many kisses and hugs!

It was an incredible trip and it was my 3rd being back in California in a year period.
Thank you The Price Is Right!
Thank you for reading.
Follow me at @jameslanee