Twin Peaks Sunrise

This day started at 5:20am and went until 2:30am the next day. After another one of our famous fort rumpuses in the empty upstairs room, Meghan, Barrett, Corinna, Amy and I awoke to our alarms at 5:20 to get up to Twin Peaks to watch the sunrise. We got ready, putting on many layers, met Chelsie, Maria and Nick down in the kitchen and sleepily left the house to walk around in the morning chill and find the van. We piled in and made the drive up to Twin Peaks. Obviously when we parked and got out of the van it was still dark, so we made our way up the rest of the hill on foot in the freezing wind hitting us. We had to wait about eight minutes (though it felt like an eternity) in the dark, and just when we felt like we wanted nothing more than to head back to the warmth of the car, the first glimmer of the suns rays were visible behind the hills, beginning to light the whole dark city below. It was like nothing I can describe in words and pictures cannot do it justice. It was however, one of the most revered moments of my life: sitting on a hilltop with good friends all around me, watching the sunrise in the quite morning air, lighting the city I've come to love so much with a soft warm glow. That is a hard moment to beat.

Left to Right: Meghan, Me, Corinna, Barrett, Amy, Chelsie, Maria all on top of Twin Peaks.

Corinna, Me and San Francisco!

Cliche, but I love this pictures series. Especially us dancing. Funny thing is, we had no idea Nick was taking these. Now that is capturing the moment. :)

After the sun had risen, we decided to explore more parts of the early morning city. Our next stop? The Cliff house! We made it off the beaten path a bit and ended up climbing down the cliffs to some tide pools and caves.

But not before Barrett and I had the chance to fight on the Cliff House balcony. Typical...gotta love our roommate relationship.

The discover of several very neat caves made it onto our agenda...and this was all before breakfast! Amazing!

Since it was only 7:45, we decided to head over to one of the most popular pancake spots in town. They always have a huge line out the door, but they open at 8, so we were able to get a table. Cute little place in the Mission with delicious lemon blueberry pancakes, amongst other things. Funny side story: As I was eating, I began looking at the artwork on the walls. Much of it seemed to have the same qualities as the artwork I see at The Arc everyday. I looked over to pleasantly be surprised by a name of an artist I recognized, and they were from The Arc. This pancake place was sponsoring artists from The Arc and helping sell their work, which I later read on a place that was on the wall. Totally made my day (as if this day could have gotten any better).

We decided it was time to get the van back to the house in case it was needed for more important things. Also, we weren't sure we were really supposed to be joy riding around the city in it.

It was about 10 by the time we got back and we were all still going strong, so the next stop on our list? The hair salon for some feather extensions. Never thought I'd participate in something so on the hype, but Barrett, Meghan, Becky, Amy and I all agreed we'd get them together before leaving the city.

As we were coming back from getting our feathers, we were taken by surprise by Merna, who had seen us get off the bus and hidden on some one's front porch so she could jump out at us (have I mentioned how much I love the Urban staff? haha). Anyway, we talked to Merna for a while and then decided it would be best to go get some lunch. So, after lunch, I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty difficult to stay awake. But, it was already almost 3:00, so we decided it wouldn't be wise to fall asleep at that point. The park was our solution. We headed over to bask in the sunshine and try to get some home work done. All it resulted in was us talking, looking at the clouds and drawing thins on each others limbs. A very hippie reminiscent SF afternoon if I do say so myself. We we again greeted by Merna who as walking by and saw us. She hung out with us for a bit, until the sun began going down and it was getting too cold to stay outside. We headed back to the house for dinner and to see what our next activity would be. Silent Disco anyone?
That's right. Our evening plans consisted of a Silent Disco. For those of you who may not know what that is, it does not mean people awkwardly dance with no music. Everyone is given a pair of headphones to wear and the DJ plays the same thing on everyone's headphone station. Pretty great idea. However, we thought it started at 10, but it actually began at 11, so we had about 45 mins to kill. We ended up wandering into a small diner that has been on Market St. since 1916. We ordered some sodas and put a quarter in the juke box to request some songs. It felt like we'd stepped into the past for a while.

We eventually made it to the silent disco, which turned out to be a blast! Hilarious when you'd take off your headphones and the whole room was quite with a bunch of people dancing about like they're in a club.

We got home around 2:20 and all fell into bed, exhausted. Meghan didn't even make it to her bed, but spent the night curled up next to me on the foot of my bed.

Another best day to add to the list. I felt like this picture of our shadows was a good ending point. This was when we drove into Golden Gate Park to see the buffalo before breakfast that morning.