Wednesday, June 12 – Monday, June 17

Was shopping for an apartment in San Francisco exhausting in spite of the fact that we only spent three days doing it, or was it exhausting because we crammed all of our tours into three days?

In retrospect, it’s a little crazy that Jane and I decided to spend a week in San Francisco looking at apartments in the middle of June, given that we wouldn’t be able to move in until two months later (after looking at historic month-by-month rent trends for listings we did not want to leave it off until August). We booked a flight into San Jose on Tuesday the 11th and bookended it with the beginning to our round-the-world trip the next Monday, which meant that we had five full days of touring available in which to navigate the San Francisco housing market. If we weren’t already nervous coming in, we definitely were after one of the first landlords we talked to described the process as “the hunger games.”

I won’t get into the actual hunting process, but here’s the gist: many, many listings, a 50% response rate, and, after a ton of paperwork, approval from our top three apartments. Choosing between them took a three-hour discussion in which we walked between each of the neighborhoods in turn, looping back and back again to Mission Dolores Park. In the end, we signed a lease for an incredible apartment. We joked that we wanted to move in right away instead of going on our big trip… at least, I think we were joking.

One of the highlights of this trip (besides the hospitality of our friends in San Jose and landing an apartment and some peace of mind) was being able to spend almost three non-stop days in the Mission. Some highlights:

• Dolores Park Cafe (on the northeast corner of the park) is probably hideously overpriced but we still went there every time we were in the area and needed a bathroom or a place to work on application paperwork: it’s spacious, clean, and charming, and has a great view of that side of the park. Good cappuccinos and something called a Chai Crusher (?) which involves coconut milk, banana, and honey.
• Slurp Noodle Bar has delicious miscellaneous Asian noodles and the sweetest (probably gay) waiter who called us “sweeties” and “dears” (and “ladies,” which we don’t always get as a couple) after we toured an apartment on Castro Street. It felt very much like a “welcome to the Castro” experience and made us sad that we were mostly looking at places further east; although it seems like the Mission is a pretty queer neighborhood too. I’ve never felt so welcome in a restaurant.
• Tacquería El Farolito—I guess there’s a reason this has 4.5 stars with 2,794 reviews on Google Maps. I didn’t realize until now; when we were there, it felt a bit like a hole-in-the-wall discovery, but this explains the massive crowds (which were mostly Hispanic, like that part of lower Mission). Maybe I should have been tipped off to its popularity when a Mariachi band started playing.
• Stonemill Matcha had a lovely ginger matcha latte (can’t speak for the many other matcha-themed snacks and drinks but they certainly looked good) and was a nice spot to get off the street for a bit.
• Media Noche specializes in delicious delicious cubanos but is definitely not a “hidden gem” kind of place; it looked too spacious and pristine to be any kind of authentic, but then again, California is pretty far from Cuba. We arrived just as happy hour began and I had a guava sangria to celebrate getting approval for our top two apartments. Cubans make any tough decision easier.
• Yucca fries and ali de gallina, argentine beef, and mushroom empanadas at Destino, a Pisco bar near the apartment we eventually decided upon (we’ll have plenty of time to sample their Piscos in the future)!
• Manny’s, a hybrid coffee shop/bar/event space/political coffee shop near the 16th St. Mission BART station, provided a much-needed bathroom towards the end of one day, but we would have loved to spend more time there. Also, we saw flyers announcing that Cory Booker would be there on Sunday—it’s not a large place, and it’s going to be mobbed!
• This guy (I hate to profile but he was also probably gay, which is a plus for us because it speaks to the queerness/acceptance of the neighborhood) on Cumberland street who saw us ogling his dogs from across the street and beckoned us over to introduce us to his whippet (sooo friendly) and greyhound (tall and shy).
• Gorgeous murals all over the Mission.
• DOGS!!! Oh my god, so many dogs. We probably passed by 100 dogs per day (we spent quite a bit of time in the city, to be fair), without exaggeration. Heaven.

In addition to getting more familiar with the Castro, the Mission, and Lower Haight, I also learned how to take Caltrain, BART, and Muni (which, I was frequently reminded, I should not pronounce “moony”). We took Caltrain in and out of the city (an hour and a half commute!) two out of the three days, and benefitted from the generosity of our car-owning hosts on the third, which gave us a chance to see the gorgeous fog banks rolling into the peninsula.

Also worth a mention: we became obsessed with this mobile game called Mini Metro in which you get maps of different cities and have to build metro systems as demand grows. I haven’t played an iPhone game in ages, but this thing is simple and elegant and satisfying and hard! Also: we went kite-flying on Sunday and it’s getting me pumped for Bay Area wind. And finally: we’re both traveling with carry-ons only, which took a bit of packing! Jane is truly one-bagging it; I have a backpack (Tom Bihn) and a smaller backpack (Sherpani) as my hand luggage.

See you again soon, San Francisco!