San Francisco and Me 7 - little moments

On the apex of San Francisco's steep hills, we saw some gorgeous views of the city and the water. But sometimes, at the bottom of a hill, a mysterious tower or rooftop would peek out at us, and I loved wondering what the rest of the building looked like as we made our way upwards.

San Francisco and Me 6 - pride day

I secretly drew the backs of the heads of two people wearing orange afro-wigs

on the BART en route to the pride parade. A very shy boy sitting across from me

was smiling to himself and playing with the rainbow coloured lei around his neck.

Everyone was sporting cheerful rainbows, and the train was full of laughter.

I loved all the colours and the happy atmosphere!

I sure wish everyday was like pride day.

San Francisco and Me 5 - the landscape

To me, Californian landscape is made up of scorched yellow hillsides and small, olive green bushes crawling all over them. I felt very thirsty as I took in this view.

san Francisco and Me 4 - Muir Woods

I was most excited about going to Muir Woods, where I would see ancient redwood trees, some over a thousand years old. They towered over us and were wider than the arms could encircle. In an area called the Cathedral Grove, I understood the sacredness of the space - with all the majestic nature surrounding me, and in my ear, the ethereal sound of the wind tickling the leaves.

Interestingly enough, I decided to draw all the littlest things I could find.

san Francisco and Me 3 - birds

These birds are San Franciscans! I watched them on the pier, and translated their chirping for your reading pleasure.

There's a story behind this scenario, I'm sure, but I didn't get to stick around long enough to find out whether the bird on the left ever got his girlfriend to tell him what was wrong.

san Francisco and Me 2 - embarcadero

As I was drawing this on the pier, a gust of wind rushed by and grabbed the hat off of a fisherman who was standing beside me. I said "oh no", as he looked woefully down at it floating in the water. I considered-what could I say to make him feel better about his loss?

Before I finished this thought, he pulled up the fishing line that was dangling from his hand and tossed the hook out into the water, to try to snag the floating hat. This wasn't going to be a loss for him, hell no. After a few tries, he grabbed a longer fishing pole and cast it in the water. My mouth was agape, I couldn't hide the fact that I was rudely watching him. Finally after three tries, he got it! He pulled up and as his hands took hold of it, I clapped in delight and said "yay!". He was startled by this and almost dropped the hat, but then he smiled shyly and acknowledged the fact that yes indeed, he had just accomplished a pretty amazing thing.

San Francisco and Me 1

I've been in San Francisco visiting a friend for the last two weeks,

here are mini stories that came out of my wonderful trip:

I stayed in a very cute house in Millbrae, and as I relaxed on a patio chair

the first morning, I caught sight of a bee busily feeding from

the cone shaped flowers, sticking it's head into each flower with it's 'beehind'

wiggling all about. Then it would back away, hover there uncertainly

and then dive into another flower. Adorable.

This made me think about what I expect to see when I'm sight-seeing in a new city,

and how I've stressed myself out in the past, trying to take in all the most unique experiences

that a place has to offer. Meanwhile, interesting things are happening everywhere.