Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Day 15: Toll woes

We woke up bright and early to break camp and leave Yosemite on our way to San Francisco. Thankfully our food hadn't been raided by bears the night before, although who knows if they came by anyway? Our campsite was positioned pretty well in the park for us to make a speedy getaway north to San Francisco, so we made good time, and soon the rock walls and trees of the canyon became the rolling grassy hills of Northern California. Before long the city of Oakland sprang up before us, and the San Francisco Bay Bridge loomed in the distance. We had a bit of a nasty shock when we got up to the base of the bridge and were faced with a five dollar toll to cross. After begrudgingly paying the toll, we took the bridge right into the city, getting an excellent view of the bay, Alcatraz, and the San Francisco cityscape.

Our first stop was at a barbecue for one of the fathers at the church Lance, our San Francisco host, attends. We met up with Lance and another couchsurfer, Aaron, who had stayed with Lance earlier, but was leaving that day. After hanging around and meeting with some of Lance's friends at the barbecue, another couchsurfer staying with Lance-- Leo, from Germany-- made his way over, and we all headed back to Lance's place.

Geries and I were road-weary and dirty from the drive and camping, so the first thing we did was take showers and relax for a bit while Lance left to go pick up a friend from the airport. We talked with Leo, and watched some Breaking Bad for the first time until Lance got back a few hours later. Once Lance arrived he made us a delicious dinner of salmon, rice, and zucchini, and told us about some of his work, which included being on set in the miniature photography unit for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

After dinner we had a little bit of trouble with a malfunctioning washing machine that kept us up a little longer than expected, but we eventually got to bed to get some rest for our first full day in San Francisco.

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