My San Francisco Trip Or How I missed Kelly Slater winning the world title twice.

In November of 2011 my fiance surprised me with a trip to San Francisco so that we could watch the Rip Curl Pro Search event first hand. This was our first vacation together and it still stands today as the best vacation of my life.

We traveled by train from Portland. It was a seventeen hour ride, but I loved seeing the sights from the train window; truly the best way to travel if you're not in a hurry. After making stops in Eugene, Klamath Falls, and Sacramento, we arrived in Emeryville, California, where we transferred from train to bus and rode into San Francisco.

We arrived in San Francisco early in the morning and checked into our hotel; a quaint little room at the Castle Inn in the Russian Hills neighborhood. Since we didn't eat breakfast on the train we were both starving and were directed to The Bagelry--a local favorite for something to eat breakfast and have and coffee. With our bellies full and our bodies rested, we set out on our independent tour of San Francisco. The Rip Curl Pro Search had already been going on for a couple of days. Kelly Slater had already won his eleventh world title once (before returning his trophy due to a miscount of points). We headed to Ocean Beach were the event was being held, only to find out we had missed the last heat of the day on November 4th by about 30 minutes. Daunted but not defeated, we decided to take in some of the sights and hit up Wise Surfboards. Alaina (my fiance) snapped a few photographs of the sunset while I chatted about surfing with the guys at the shop before we finally decided we'd better head back to the hotel before dark. Over the next couple of days the contest was on hold due to poor wave/weather conditions; so we did what any other self-respecting tourist would do. We went sight seeing. Pier 39 was our first stop. Since Alaina had been to San Francisco a couple times before and this was her favorite place to visit out of the entire city, we grabbed a burger at In-N-Out and then hit up all the little clothing and bead booths we came across. Alaina was on the lookout for a certain necklace booth that she had purchased from a handful of years back. It was like sensory overload at times... We happened upon an Occupy San Francisco protest march; complete with fully naked men and women and enough patchouli oil stench in the air to ground any flight. We loaded up on knickknacks and ended up at The Wipe Out Grill for Mahi Mahi, baby back ribs, and a beer before walking back to our room for the night.

The next day was pretty much the same except that we stayed closer to our hotel room and found a gem of a Restaurant called Little Thai (now T2J). This was hands down the best Thai food that either of us had ever eaten and I recommend it to anybody who goes to San Francisco. Give it a chance and have the Pumpkin Curry. It is sinful, I assure you. Over the next couple of days the contest was on again, so we headed back to Ocean Beach only to have missed Kelly winning the world title again (go figure), but still in plenty of time to watch him lose his semi-final heat and watch the final round. Being the tourists we were we hit up the merchandise tents and bought some swag. We were given free stickers and postcards to boot before heading back down to the beach to Watch Gabriel compete against Joel Parkinson (Parko) in the finals. This being my first professional competition I was in awe of just how talented all these guys actually are. Gabriel, at only 17 years of age, was doing stuff that I could never even dream of doing, and on top of it he was making it look easy. Parko surfed with class and style but in that moment it was not enough to defeat the wonder-kid from Brazil.

I have never seen such incredible surfing in person in my life and felt like a grom for the first time since, well, being a grom. Kelly was some kind of supernatural freak, and yet, he still lost to this kid. Gabriel exited the water and was chaired up to the podium (on a side note: have you ever noticed that whenever someone from Brazil does anything good there is always someone with a Brazilian flag to cheer them on? I mean really, what's up with that?). We sat right behind the magazine and ASP photographers and watched as they announced the winners and spun the globe trophy. It was, to say the least, a very cool moment that was made even cooler by the fact that it would be the last year that Rip Curl would hold a Pro "Search" event. The local surfers I met in San Francisco were all very friendly, though they were uneasy about sharing their waves with the best surfers in the world. They still seemed to be okay with surfing next to an average Joe from Oregon. I have never met a nicer bunch of locals on any of my road trips. Since the competition had come to and end, me and Alaina decided to play tourist again; hitting up Chinatown, The City Center and of course, Fisherman's Wharf once again. We hiked and sweated up Lombard street, then took pictures so that we had proof of our achievement. We took a few more photos of the Golden Gate bridge, Alcatraz, Ghirardelli Square, and the rest of the underrated nightlife in San Francisco before returning to our hotel room for the evening.

I decided I had never loved a city more than I loved San Francisco. It was the perfect blend of a beach town and enormous city. The people were always friendly, the food is good everywhere, and there is always something new and interesting to see. I can honestly say that I never wanted to leave that city, and I would return immediate if given the opportunity. It was the most fun I'd had in years.

So... If you're due for some vacation time, don't completely rule out San Francisco. You might be pleasantly surprised.