So you all know Kellie by now! One of my amazing friends from high school who is just about one of the silliest people I know. Okay, recap over. Anyway, she goes to UC Berkeley, and will be living in a studio apartment next year.
She has already taken a couple of trips up there with some stuff, and will do so again when she moves in in a couple of weeks. Still, she had too much stuff for one carload and needed to be there for her mattress delivery last weekend.
So of course we turned it into a mini vacation!
Kellie, Ari, Danielle and I drove down to Berkeley on Friday morning. But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself.
First my mom and I drove up to Lancaster on Thursday afternoon. Danielle, Kellie, and I all went and saw Charlie St. Cloud that night. It isn't exactly the best movie in the world, but I wouldn't say it was a waste of my money and time. I enjoyed it for more than just Zac Efron's tight fitting shirts, veiny arms, and bare back. It was surprisingly not predictable and Zac Efron gave a fine performance.
Anyway, we then drove to Berkeley. Let me just say 6 hours in a car with three of your best friends is a pretty good time, even though I can't remember what made it fun. We helped unload stuff into her adorable studio apartment and then Kellie showed us around the beautiful campus and area before we headed back so she could wait for her mattress delivery.
We decided that since we are poor college students, we would make dinner instead of going out. But with a tiny kitchen and only 2 frying pans to cook with, we had few options.
We decided to do breakfast for dinner. I made eggs and Danielle made pancakes. It was pretty yummy if I say so myself!
Look at Kellie's adorable plates!
We showered, cleaned up, played some trivial pursuit, and set up for bed.
Four people sleeping in a studio apartment means that the entire room becomes bed.
Ari had to sleep on the Spongebob bed.
The next day we went into San Francisco. Being the nerdy control freaks we are (okay, maybe I'm the only control freak) we planned the whole day out. We wanted to go to Alcatraz but it was completely sold out for some special event. Instead of doing all cheesy tourist things, we decided to mix it up with some museums.
I begged them to go to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and they were nice enough to oblige. How sad is it that I've been to the SFMOMA before the original NY one?
So we were lucky enough to get to the Berkeley BART station early enough to get a free parking space, the train came within 3 minutes, the connecting train was waiting for us, and the SFMOMA was a short walk away from the station in the city.
Oh! Hello Frida Kahlo. Latter that day at Pier 39 I bought socks with her picture on it.
Matisse is love.
A more interesting Pollock than the ones I've seen before.
Eventually we made our way toward the more contemporary stuff. This sculpture of Michael Jackson and his monkey Bubbles sparked a very philosophical conversation on the way home about "what is art" between Kellie and I. The artist didn't actually execute this sculpture, but hired people to do it. These types of snooty conversations don't usually happen with us.
Frank Stella (the second one). In art class Stella kept coming up in videos, but we never saw his art! So I was pleasantly surprised to find a handful of them that I fell in love with!
They love art.
We then took the most crowded bus ever to Ghiradelli Square. It was so crowded that Ari and Danielle were standing next to the driver.
We ate lunch at an adorable 50's diner in the square. The family sitting next to us (there was about 10 inches between our tables) paid with a coupon on a map they had. Danielle noticed it was the same map we had, and voila! 20% off our lunch!
We walked around the square for a bit, got free chocolate at the Ghiradelli Chocolate store and bought nothing.
We then got on another bus on the same line that we had to lightly run to make, and made our way to the Exploratorium. This is the most photographed place in San Francisco, we even saw a couple getting their wedding pictures done.
The Exploratorium was so fun! This was Danielle's suggestion, and we believe it totally proved how well rounded we are, an art museum and a science museum all in one day!
This vibrating sand one (I don't remember what the science was behind this exhibit) made my hands feel tingly, but it got all stuck to my hand and in my nails and made my hands smell funny.
This was the best one. You sat on either side and adjusted the light to see what your faces looked like meshed together.
With this one you "drew" in the room and then it showed up on the screen. When I took a picture with flash it put Ari and Kellie's images on the screen too.
Ari and Kellie trying to read eye expressions.
We then caught another bus, JUST IN TIME back to Fisherman's Wharf.
We went into a bunch of stores, the sock store (woo Frida socks), the hat store, the puppet store, the left handed store, this crab store, and made fun of the name of the knife store "We Be Knives", creative.
Kellie REALLY wanted to buy that hat, but wouldn't spend $8 on it, obviously.
Danielle and her cute lobster, which of course she wouldn't spend $18 on.
Alcatraz!
Sea Lions!
Then we ate at a little restaurant on the pier. At first we were sitting next to a couple with a baby boy who kept waving at me (okay, maybe I waved first), but then they left and this group of two couples, one that was at least 15 years older than the other, sat down. They were so loud and crude! Plus we watched as they had like 4 credit cards denied for their bill at the bar! We left shortly after that.
Then the only problem we had ALL DAY was getting on the bus back to the BART station. When we first got to the stop we were the only ones there, but by the time the bus came we were basically at the back of the line. We didn't make it on the already crowded bus, and decided to wait for the next one. Then like 50 other people showed up, so there were like 75 people waiting for a bus. We were close to the front and decided that we were gonna be tough for once in our lives and GET ON THE NEXT BUS... and if we didn't we would call a cab.
So we pushed our way onto the bus and were all sandwiched together. When we got off Kellie bumped this 12 year old kid (who had been being annoying the ENTIRE bus ride) in the head with her purse. It totally couldn't have really hurt, and he whines to his mother about how badly it hurt, with Kellie right there! How rude!
Anyway, we made it back with no further issues. We decided to play another game of Trivial Pursuit because we are NERDS! Usually Kellie and Ari are on a team and Danielle and I are on a team. Because Kellie and Danielle rock at TP and Ari and I... not so much. I suggested that we switch it up, Ari got cocky and decided that he and I should be on a team because we could totally beat them... and guess what?!
WE DID! WOOO!!!!!!
Anyway the next morning we packed up, deflated air mattresses, ate at a cute little diner (and spent a whopping $7 on pastries) and were on our way home!
It was a great trip. We had no problems, the sky was blue, the weather mild, and everything went smashing! We blamed it on karma, we gave out good vibes, and got good time in return.
Five years ago I wanted to move to San Francisco so badly, and now, even though I'm living in New York for school, my family moved to San Diego, and that my dream job may very well take me to LA, I still feel like San Francisco would be an amazing place to live. Who knows, I'm trying to let life take me wherever it pleases.
And for now, a weekend trip to San Francisco with three of my best friends is enough for me!
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