This is 2009... This is the year of the Dude

2009 started out pretty well. I ended up in San Francisco after a few hours of being delayed on Thursday, Jan 1. Started off the day with Webb and Meridith in an area called the Haight. I believe if I ever do get to move to San Fran, this would be the area I would want to live in. We drank a few awesome beers at a place called Magnolia Pub and had an awesome Pizza. Then went to some strange stores and tried on crazy hats.


That night we stayed in Menlo Park, went to a few local small bars and met some interesting people. Then tried to watch Kung Foo Panda, but ended up falling asleep.

Friday involved us waking up and running some errands and chilling out in the afternoon. I caught myself up on mint and was able to make a pretty accurate estimate on how much I spent on bars in 2008. I will say this, it was about what I expected. All in all, I made at least 20 visits and spent 500 bucks at my favorite bar, The Gingerman. Maybe in 2009, I can shift more of my bar expenses to the Gingerman, since that is my favorite place to be.

Friday night... was... well Awesome. The theme of the night was... Vietnamese, a secret, fire, and a castle (not in any particular order). The night consisted of the following characters... Son, Lan, Webb, Mere, and myself. An exciting and wonderful crowd if I do say so myself. The Vietnamese food was good, way better than I thought. From there, we stayed in the Tenderloin area (supposedly a shady area in San Fran, wasn't that bad) and progressed to a secret bar called Bourbon and Branch. It was a speakeasy bar that isn't really labeled well and is suppose to provide a glimpse back into the prohibition days. They had several types of scotch and whiskey... which was awesome. But I still ordered a beer. From there, we traveled to Edinburgh Castle. Another local bar that had some awesome beers on draft. We had several drinks of course and good times went down.

After the Castle... we strolled down to the Fire Bar. To this day, i have no idea what it is called, but it was a party. As we walked in, i could smell some kind of remnants of fire. Apparently, they had just lit the bar on fire prior to us arriving. We learned soon after, that they only light the bar on fire once a night... and we missed it. At this point, webb proceeded to order one of every beer that they have on draft... which might have been 10 to 12 beers for 4 people. I think i had about 2.5. Webb was also able to make friends with a local who helped convince them to light the bar on fire again. A San Fran first. This is what it looked like:

It was amazing. After this... we stumbled and walked really far to make it home. We found Bob's Donuts and ate the crap out of them. Apparently I had a pretty long conversation with a homeless man, and webb tried to make it rain money for the homeless man. After arriving at Lan's place, I pretty much passed out immediately in a chair and was done for the night. All in all, a great night. The next day, webb was pretty sick, and i was kind of hurting. San Fran was a great trip... and this trip once again made me hopeful to possibly move to San Fran some point soon. I like it there... just not sure what i would do there.