Only In San Francisco

As you may have read in the San Diego post, we have been told quite a bit about San Francisco, and everything (aside from the cost of living) has been amazing. We have been told about the terrain, entertainment, diversity, festivals, etc. But nothing could have prepared me for what San Francisco turned out to be. The second I saw the bustling city on the peninsula from the bridge I knew that it was different than anything I have ever seen.
We arrived during rush hour traffic so we had plenty of time to slowly check out the city, taking care to keep all 8 eyes on the road. We arrived at the Rockit Room at about 5 and had a chance to walk around the city a little bit, mostly through Japan town, the 4x2 block of authentic Japanese cuisine. That night we played at the Rockit Room with a band call The Great Sand Waste, great band out of San Francisco. They started around 9 and we got going around 10:30pm and were done by midnight. We had a great crowd for the show and a great reception. As we were unloading our stuff we heard music coming from the ground floor of the Rockit Room (the concert area was on the second floor). We made our way down and found a Reggae dance party with gobs of people packed into a small room dancing in probably 15 different styles and more diversity than I have ever seen in one place. This was my first inkling about San Francisco. It is pretty much 100 different cultures slammed into a 7X7 mile peninsula forcing exposure to and from every group. After the dance party we went outside to our van and started talking to a group of people who invited us over to their house to hang out and drink a bit. When we arrived, we walked through what looked like an art studio to get to the back room, which turned into a custom instrument shop. Boomer played some guitars, we passed around the guitar to a couple of people in the room who sang some original tunes, and then we sang some tunes for them. By about 4 we were starting to wear down and, knowing that the next day was a free day to explore San Francisco, we headed back to the van to sleep. A couple of nights before this, Boomer tried to sleep on the roof of the van and claimed that is both uncomfortable, and frightening given the 6 foot drop off the side. But after sleeping inside the van for a couple of hours in a very strange position, I had to give the roof a try. I jumped up on the roof with a sleeping bag and, after enough dents were made, it turned out to be very comfortable. The next morning I awoke to a lady taking a picture of me sleeping on the roof saying to herself “only is San Francisco.”