San Fransisco: Day One

So I'm in San Fransisco to pitch a book at Chronicle Books. It seems like just last week I was in Columbus. I guess it probably was last week...

My flight didn't leave until 10:15, so thankfully I didn't have to do another 4 AM wake-up call. I probably got a little too sure of myself and set my alarm for 8 AM, which put me at the airport at 9, a good 1/2 hour later than I had planned.

I made it to my gate with about 3 minutes to spare before boarding. The flight was a dream compared to the trip to Columbus. The seats were big, leather (or faux leather) and spacious. Unfortunately I got stuck between two sizable dudes, but it was no big whoop. I flew to Denver and was prepared to scrambled to my connecting flight, but it turns out I was on the connecting flight. So I had a few minutes to chill. 30 minutes later we loaded up and in the air. This time there were 2 empty seats on the plane, one right next to me. Bonus.

I read the entirety of Alex & Me on the flight. Well, I had read the first two chapters previously and kind of stopped (the first is really uninteresting, the second just OK), but I knew there was a lot of cool stuff in this book. So I figured now was my chance to extract it.

And from the second chapter it gets great. So I plowed through it and was finished an hour before we landed. That little bird was crazy, yo!

I got off the plane and tried to decide if I was going to take the BART or a shuttle to the hotel. I had directions for the BART, but it included some busing. And it would take an hour and 15 minutes at least (and that's if I knew what I was doing). So I opted for the shuttle. I had the whole thing to myself besides one other couple, who got off right away. Fancy living.

I took the shuttle to my hotel, the majestic Travelodge on Lombard Street. When we were getting close, the driver told me I was in luck; there was stuff to do around here and that it was the white area of town. Sweet. He noticed I am white, so I guess this is the place for me.

I got my room, checked my email and found a client had been trying to contact me all day. So after doing some follow-up, I decided to go walk around.

The Travelodge itself doesn't seem to be in the coolest part of town, but I walked down a few blocks to Union Street and decided that looked worth exploring. And it totally would have been... if Lindsay was here. Stationery stores, antique stores, boutiques and gourmet cupcake places galore. Totally her thing.

I walked for a while, and went in and out of a few places, but quickly realized that I don't really care about any of that stuff. I like that it excited Lindsay, but without anyone else to laugh with or point out stuff to, I just couldn't care much.

When we visited Ryan in Columbus, we went to similarly-themed areas that Ryan had never seen. I guess I see why now, it's boring alone.

Eventually I noticed I could see the what looked like the shore, a ways down an intersecting street. That seemed interesting, so I just headed that way. And I found the Golden Gate Bridge. Sure, I wasn't ON it, or even near it, but I was about as close as I was going to get without a car or tour bus or something.









Now I was much happier about exploring. I had also talked to Lindsay a bit on the phone, and she wanted pictures of all the cute stuff I didn't care about before. I decided to go back to Union Street and take some pictures for the Paper Bicycle blog, and once I had a purpose it was a lot more interesting.

With that in mind, these pictures are for Lindsay and the Paper Bicycle folks.

























One place that seemed really cool was American Cupcake. I liked their set-up and their cupcakes looked awesome. It's the one place I had the desire to go in and asked to shoot the interior. People are sometimes weird about shooting their stores, so you'd better ask, especially if you have a big-ass camera like me.

The dude working was pretty sketched out and didn't seem to understand why I'd want to something like that. I tried to explain I'm a product designer and trend spotter, but that didn't mean anything to him. But he let me do it. I think he was nervous because he was just an employee, and maybe thought I was there to trash talk the place or something.

Don't worry dude! I just wanted to spread the word of your amazing cupcakes! There will probably be an official Paper Bicycle blog post about this place coming soon...















Once it started getting too dark for photos, I decided to head back towards the hotel. I stopped at a cute pizza place right next door and got a pretty good margarita pizza and a salad.

It was the first thing I ate since... I don't even know. I didn't eat dinner yesterday because I was at the studio until midnight trying to get this book pitch ready. So more than 24 hours at least? I was not even that hungry, but what else am I going to do in a crazy city all by myself?





I came back to the hotel room and immediately started to organize for tomorrow's presentation at Chronicle Books. I think I'm set, I just have to find my way there without getting hopelessly lost! Wish me luck, knock on wood, etc.

Oh yeah, my hotel! Check out this fancy livin'!