San Francisco: Twin Peaks & Lombard Street

Home to the hippies, a house with too many father figures, and sorta close to Ayk's friend Mo.

When Ayk told his parents and I told my mom about the road trip, they were mostly concerned about traveling through the snowy, mountainous areas.  My dad, on the other hand, was mostly surprised and disappointed that we were going to San Francisco.  “San Francisco?” he grimaced.  “The weather’s going to be awful there.”


Of all the wintry places we were visiting, like the Midwest, the Great Plains and the Rockies that get pummeled with snow, he was the most concerned about the rainy weather that San Francisco has year round.  Thanks for the heads up, dad.  Best bring my raincoat (I actually didn’t bring one, so I hang my head in shame for mocking my dad rather than taking his advice).


Though this was Ayk's first time visiting San Francisco, I went for Spring Break my freshman year with some Zetas.  The weather isn't the best, but it's a really great (but expensive) city that I knew Ayk would like.


Thankfully Mo, Ayk's friend from University of Maryland who lives in Sacramento, took us to see some sites new to both of us.  With so much to see, I divided our day on Saturday in San Francisco into four posts.

Twin Peaks

An overlook for a great view of the city, but of course it was rainy that day, so we could only see as far as the Castro and their giant rainbow flag (not pictured).

Ayk and Mo 

We were up to our elbows in "Uranus" ... jokes.

Lombard Street
The windiest road in the US, making it an ideal set for car commercials and a free roller coaster ride for tourists.

People actually live on this street. 

 I'm sure backing out of your garage only adds to the morning stress.

The endless stream of tourists are just the cherry on top. 

Good thing it doesn't snow here.

Drive from SLC to Sacramento: Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe was breathtaking.  We got some amazing sunset pictures.  These are just half of the pictures we took (overkill, maybe; worthwhile, yes).  Too beautiful for words.

 Senior portrait time.

Drive from SLC to Sacramento: Nevada

We left SLC early Friday morning to head to Sacramento.  There we were meeting up with Mo, Ayk's friend from University of Maryland, and his wife Amy.

On a scale of Wyoming to Colorado (Wyoming being positively miserable to Colorado being wonderfully scenic), I’d give this drive a 7.  It was pretty boring in some areas, but it became picturesque later in the drive.  It's a 9 hour drive on I-80, so of course it's not going to be completely stunning along the way.

Before I get into our pictures, I have to share this image of a hill with actual eyes in Utah on I-80.  We weren't able to process what we saw until we passed it by, and my camera is unbearably slow, so we didn't actually get an image of this creepy site.  Luckily, we found it with a google image search.  It's too good not to share:

OK, enough creepiness for now.  Here's our collection of pictures from Salt Lake City up to Lake Tahoe.  The drive stared out foggy, but quickly cleared up...

 Aw, a heart!

 Reno: The Biggest Little City We Didn't Care Enough To See

SLC: So long!

SLC was a vacation from our vacation.  Rather than visit a different city each day, we relaxed and spent time with family.  It was sad leaving everyone, but at least we had fun on our last day. 

My niece Lily begged us to go to Jump & Bounce, which is a place for kids and adults to aptly jump and bounce on a dozen moon bounces.  We adults were a bit skeptical, but it was actually a lot of fun.

Helped burn off the soon-to-be-consumed calories from In-N-Out.

The best part?  Having In-N-Out for dinner.

Note Kayla all the way on the left trying to avoid being in the picture.  Too bad, sucker!

For those of you who have never tried it, this is how I describe it: It tastes like McDonalds, if it were good.

The Double-Double.

If you like McDonalds, then you need to get your tastebuds checked out, then head to the West Coast and get yourself some fresh and fine tasting In-N-Out.

Ayk's a believer now.

Timmy initially didn’t want his burger and whined about how he wanted some soda.

He took one bite and completely forgot about the soda.

The little one apparently doesn't like water.

Hats, on the other hand, delicious.

Before we left, we got a few hugs...

took a dozen pictures of the same pose...

Literally dozens, and this is the best one.

This is a close second.  That is not me trying to be funny, it really is the second best picture.

And I got dogpiled.

Until next time, SLC!