San Francisco

Girmantas | Travel, Video | May 31, 2010

Enjoying the great views of the Pacific Highway we have reached San Francisco. Short stop at Live2Kite store to get our new Religions together with some other small stuff, and we have crossed the Golden Gate bridge to meet our friend Steve at his homespot on San Francisco Beach.

Steve is a firefighter (bombero). He used to windsurf, but now he’s mostly surfing and kiting. He has surfed many places around the world including Maldives, Galapagos Islands and sailed with a boat all over the French Polynesia including Tahiti and famous Teahoopo. And for the most of my respect – he still has this beautiful, wooden, RRD waveboard in his garage!

Wind was blowing all the way down the coast. And here in San Francisco it was still strong enough. When Steve has finished his session, the waves have topped overhead. The beach in SF is wide open and the beachbreak was kinda messy. In a way those conditions reminded us our good old homespot on the Baltic sea.

We have spent the whole weekend in SF and, thanks to Steve, had a chance to see and know the city. San Francisco was founded in 1776 and had experienced an incredible growth during the Californian Gold Rush back in XIX century. San Francisco have survived several big earthquakes and fires. Also massive immigration, liberalizing attitudes and other factors that have lead SF to become a center of liberal activism in the US.

The city is very cozy wherever you go. Let it be downtown with the beautifull hills, tramways and the view to the Bay area, or Twin Peaks hills, Golden Gate recreational area with it’s beautiful parks or the ocean side with it’s cozy blocks of apartaments. The city is also incredibly international. People, culture and architecture differences makes the city very colourful. The best way to feel that is going out for dinner. The variety of cuisines can drive you crazy. Though we never found Lithuanian restaurant – that would be one exception of a few. But we’ll keep looking for the next visit!

After a great weekend we had to move on, but first – we’ve visited Steve at his station. Take a look: