A New Perspective on a Familiar Place

[Clearly I haven't blogged in a while... Summer's been full of fun and adventure! I'll be back at MIT in a little less than a month, so the fun and adventure will be coming to an end and will turn to fun, adventure and p-sets. As such, I'll be blogging more. I promise.]

I'd been to San Francisco before. Twice: once to visit Stanford back in the days of college decisions, and once to spend Christmas in a (slightly) warmer climate. As a result, I'd seen the Golden Gate Bridge, Haight-Ashbury, the Exploratorium and Fisherman's wharf a couple of times. Basically, both typical family vacations.

My friend Natalie wants to be a filmmaker (that doesn't really do much justice to what she wants to do... but I tried) and is looking at transferring to the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, and when she suggested we head down there for a visit, I couldn't have been more excited. A trip to a great city with one of my best friends in the summer? Definitely a win.

Rather than bore you with my usual "And then we did this, and then this, and then..." I'll just tell you about some of the awesome places we went. Also, our trip was July 6-12, so clearly some of the information here could have changed since. I also may have forgotten details since...

The Hotel
Four out of five of the nights of the trip were spent at the Gaylord Suites hotel in the Union Square area of San Francisco (the first night was spent at the Econolodge in Ashland, OR on our way south). The hotel was in a perfect location for walking around downtown, and was within walking distance of the SoMa district. There were several parking garages within a couple of blocks, and a lot of restaurants. There was also a Walgreen's drug store nearby, which came in handy. The only complaint I had about location was that it was literally a block away from the Tenderloin district. The Tenderloin... not the best place ever. It seemed okay-ish during the day (though we definitely didn't pass through there unless we were in a car), but at night it was incredibly noisy. The room was really nice - all ikea furniture, clean, and even had a flat-screen TV. For the location and amenities, the price was more than reasonable (check Expedia for reservations!) and I'd definitely stay there again.
The Food
One of my favorite things to do is find good restaurants to eat at. To be perfectly honest, I want to go back to San Francisco just to eat at all the restaurants that looked amazing. Unfortunately, I forget a lot of the places that we ate at... The one place that sticks out the most in my mind, however, is the Crepe House. We ate at the Gough Street location, but I'm sure the other locations are just as good. I had the chicken pesto crepe, and it was amazing. The crepe was perfect, the potatoes that came with it were perfect, and they have Orangina. Perfect. The only other place I remember having exceptional food was the restaurant/cafe in the Museum of Modern Art - definitely a great place to eat after a trip through the museum.

I can also safely say that most of the Starbucks we went to were flawless in service and quality... Except they rarely spelled my name correctly. (Really?! Every time it was spelled wrong, it was some weird spelling of Kelsey. Seriously. Just go with the most common spelling - it's not that hard.) What would a trip be to San Francisco without copious amounts of coffee?

The Places
We went to some pretty amazing places while in the Bay area. Probably because I'm a huge nerd, the Exploratorium was one of my favorites. Granted, the Exploratorium is my favorite science museum after OMSI. Anyway. It was awesome. Also awesome: the Museum of Modern Art. They had a Robert Frank exhibit and a joint exhibit featuring works by Ansel Adams and Georgia O'Keeffe. Being the photography nerd that I am, I was running around (well, almost... we didn't have much time before the museum closed) in love with a million different photographs. Definitely worth it. Prior to this trip, San Francisco was the furthest south I had ever been in California. That changed after our trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. While I was practically hyperventilating over contact sheets at MoMA, Natalie was dying with sheer joy at the aquarium. But understandably. It was an awesome aquarium. The exhibits were fantastic, and they filmed part of the fourth Star Trek movie there (yeah, we were excited about that). The sea horse exhibit was amazing, and the best part of the sea otter exhibit was the video screens featuring John Cleese.

Okay, so I'm just going to post a few pictures. Lame, I know, but they're probably better than the tales of us walking all over downtown San Francisco looking for coffee, food, and the Academy of Art.

The Palace of Fine Arts outside of the Exploratorium

Part of the Exploratorium (a.k.a. nerd heaven)

Part of the Yerba Buena gardens, and a view of the SoMA district. MoMA is the building with the weird disk on top.

I'm Baaaaaack!

First: Kelsey-Pedia is exactly one year old! Well, as of yesterday. Also, this is the 100th post! whoo! It's kind of amazing that I've managed to keep this going for a year now, and it's looking like it'll be continuing into 2009!

Second: I am back in Oregon!

I am very lucky that I left when I did. I flew back on Thursday - if I had left just a day later, I would have been dealing with snow in Boston delaying flights, and snow in Oregon delaying flights. I don't know how excited I am to be back, though.

Why's that?

This was taken early this afternoon. We've been hit with a lot more snow since then. Essentially, I am snowed in. If we want to leave, we have to put chains on my dad's truck and plan for about an extra hour of travel time. So I'm stuck. Which really messes up my plans - I really wanted to see friends all over the Willamette Valley before I fly back in two weeks. I really wanted to go visit a few of my favorite places and eat some of my favorite food before going back to MIT. I just really need this damn snow to melt. And melt all the way - none of this melt-a-little-and-form-a-layer-of-ice-that-could-be-
used-as-tank-armor-until-you-unexpectedly-crash-through-
and-bruise-your-shins crap.

Oh, and let's not forget the icing on the cake! We don't have power! Well, I guess that's a bit of a lie. My house has a propane-powered generator, so we have a couple of outlets that have power, and our refrigerator and well water pump have power. So I am currently hogging one of those outlets, using my laptop and the nifty little wireless internet card my dad got (right after I left for MIT! How cruel is that?). We also fortunately have a wood stove in part of the house, so we have the wonderfulness that is heat from a fire permeating through the house. This also means that I can flaunt my skills as a Girl Scout by making grilled cheese (perfect grilled cheese with Tillamook cheese, might I add... Oh, Tillamook cheese, how I have missed you...). I'm trying omelettes tomorrow morning for breakfast. Basically, I would have been a badass on the American frontier.

It's a strange feeling to not have work looming over my head. No p-sets? No papers? No upcoming tests? I don't know what to do with my time! I've been sleeping a lot. And sitting on Facebook way more than is healthy. I've also been reading, which I haven't done in a long time. I read all but about 20 pages of Watchmen in a day, and I have a huge stack of other books I need to finish. All while listening to excessive amounts of the Decemberists. (Who, by the way, have a new album coming out on March 24th that I am unbelievably excited for! And you should be too, because it will no doubt be amazing.) While it's nice to relax a little, I am actually excited for IAP and spring semester. I think I learned a lot about study skills over the course of the last term (looking back, I had zero study skills before MIT) and I'd like the chance to prove that I can use them and be successful at MIT. Because now I actually think I can do really really well at MIT. And I suddenly have to motivation to do so. Maybe I just needed to shake the senioritis from high school? Who knows... Regardless, I am excited to get back and get started. Plus, I really miss MIT in general. I think I realize just how much I love the place when I'm somewhere else. Being stuck at home means I'm relegated to AIM conversations with people, and texting or calling them. Which isn't bad, but simply doesn't replace walking across the hall (or Briggs field) to hang out with friends and be with people. I also miss the stress (weird, I know... but I thrive on stress) and having something definite to do every day. Don't get me wrong - I'm happy to be home. I've really missed the people and places here, but it's pretty exciting to have fallen in love with a place that you've made a conscious decision to go to.

I'll make sure to post more about my adventures (or lack thereof) over winter break. Next possible chance for misadventure: I have to go to Salem tomorrow for an eye appointment, and I desperately need to go (things are getting fuzzy, even with the glasses on!). Tomorrow's going to be a long day. And pictures of the snow madness will be coming soon!

Good luck to all of you in Oregon dealing with the snow and ice, and happy holidays to everyone!

"Your Dorm Feels Like OMSI"

Okay, so sorry that I don't have a decent post planned... I'm just kind of writing randomly...

First off, HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I hope you all have had a sufficiently awesome holiday, and I hope you all had delicious dinners! I myself am spending Thanksgiving here at MIT with my friend Joanna, who's visiting from her school in Vermont (I know her from home, though...)! Essentially, I'm super-pumped that she's here. It's kind of amusing to compare our two schools - we have a nuclear reactor, they have some solar panels on their barn. Their dorms feel like cabins, my dorm feels like OMSI (the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry). It's hilarious.

After I was released from the horrors of classes on the day before Thanksgiving (OH NOES! Okay, it was only an hour of 5.111 because everything else I had was canceled), Joanna and I headed to Harvard Square to go to Eastern Mountain Sports. At Joanna's school, they go on some intense camping trips in the mountains of Vermont in December, so she needed some gear. While there, I discovered that everything was on sale! I really needed a better winter coat that could protect me from the ridiculous wind here, so a purchase was soon made, and I am now a warmer human being. They didn't have everything she needed, so it was off to R.E.I., down by Fenway. After spending some time on the T, and walking back over the Harvard Bridge, we were successfully back at MIT. Then we went grocery shopping, which was awesome, because I really needed food.

Today was spent exploring campus, and then we came back to Simmons for a delicious delicious Thanksgiving dinner. The table settings looked amazing, and there were a lot of people there! After dinner and a call home, there was a movie in the MPR (Simmons' Multi-Purpose Room).

Sorry about the crappy pictures, I only had my cell phone with me!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all enjoyed a day off, especially you MIT students - I hope you enjoyed your day off from p-sets! (Please tell me you took a day off from p-sets...)