One of my favourite trip so far has been one I did last year to San Francisco. I was lucky enough to meet a lovely friend through Instagram. It all started while I was living back in Monterrey, Mx. I received a message from Jaclyn (@lejaclyn), a San Francisco based designer. She told me she was in Monterrey for the weekend, because a friend of her was getting married there and she wanted for us to meet and go photo exploring the city. It’s weird, as not many people travel to Monterrey, so I immediately accepted and we met for a photographic adventure around town. She was really eager to see where I found all those pastel places in my town, and perhaps she was a little disappointed to see that my city is not as colourful as my photos, as it is a very industrial city. Nevertheless, we explored around and I showed her my favourite spots. She soon had to leave, but this experience was amazing, meeting people from different cities through an app is something that still captivates me. After she left we kept in touch and continued to email each other updating us with our lives.
At that moment I was having a rough patch and had to make a lot of life changing decisions. I had just recently applied for a scholarship in London and I’ve received a negative outcome, which made me feel very anxious about my future and my life path. I was feeling overwhelmed and needed some time and space to clear my mind from everything and figure out what was my mission in life. Jacyln suggested me to come visit her to San Francisco, she told me it would be good for me, as she could introduce me to her friends and show me around SF. I don’t know why, but I immediately accepted and started looking for flights. People thought it was a radical decision of me to go to a city with a friend I just met once through an app, but for me, that friendship felt as natural as if we had meet since childhood.
So the day came to take my flight, and I can not express how well organized Jaclyn is, she had already planned everything out. She had a calendar with different tours, instameets, concerts, dinners, everything! She introduced me to so many talented people from San Francisco and they organized different activities to show me around.
Sometimes I wonder if I had been afraid of having this type of adventures, I would have never met so many talented and inspiring people in my journey, and I would have never discovered that part of myself which is an eternal wanderluster. I learnt many valueable things from all the people I’ve met in San Francisco, they made me see the possibilities in life and I learned to see the world in a different perspective. I became more open to uncertainty, and instead of being afraid by it, I made it my ally, I started embracing uncertainty as a form os multiple possibilities, open for me and for my greatest desires. Sometimes we just need to trust our instinct and follow our gut, and let life take us on this amazing journey of discovering the world and why not? discovering ourselves as well.
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I took these photos while wandering around the Mission District.
We then visited the
Priime HQ, and I was able to met the amazing team behind this app. If you have not downloaded it, just do it, it’s one of my favorite apps and love all the features it includes. The team behind this app is
Loren,
Artur and
Adrienne (click to see their IG accounts) they are extremely talented and very passionate on what they do.
Next day Jacyln organized a roadtrip together with
Eza and
Cameron, and we headed to Sonoma California to a Hot Air Balloon Festival. I loved how free spirited and how open to adventure they are. After the festival we drove all the way to Point Reyes and also explored the suburbs of San Francisco where I found the most amazing pink house. It is just so fun to understand each person by their instagram profile and knowing exactly what will captivate their eyes. I remember how excited Jaclyn shouted to Cameron to just stop the car, sha have just seen a pink house that she knew I would love.
Exploring China Town…
Painted Ladies of San Francisco…
I was able to meet
Courtney and her lovely pup Charlie. Courtney is an amazing author and artist and knows some of the bests art galleries in San Francisco. She took me to a cool restaurant called
20th Century Cafe, where we ordered the honey cake. I think Charlie was a little sad we didn’t leave any cake for him.
Then I met
Jeanette, a very talented stylist based in SF. We met at the
Tartine Bakery, which is amazing by the way. We then went walking around Dolores Heights and we obviously had to do a quick stop for ice cream.
Bi-rite Creamery was our place of choice, we had to queue but it was definitely worth it.
Then I continued exploring SF, this time in Noe Valley, and
Henry got to show me around, although I was a little sad
Zory couldn’t come with us this time. We stumbled upon a WV van, and I immediately feel in love with it. I must confess I climbed to van just to get some pictures, I’m just glad Henry didn’t took pictures of the climbing process, but I supposed the neighbors had a good laugh. I also found some cute dogs on our way, and I couldn’t help but photograph them.
This day I met the amazing photographer
Arnaus, we had long chats about photographic equipment and just the magic of travelling the world and documenting it. He is that kind of person who just inspires you to travel the world and discover new perspectives. We went to Mount Davidson, followed by the Golden Gate Point View. After we said good bye, I’m sure we both felt this unsatisfied feeling of travelling the most unexpected places on Earth, I’m least I’m sure he did satisfied that feeling, because if you go to his IG account you can see him traveling from Russia to Mongolia.
This day I met
Kevin a designer from SF (have you seen some of the new iPhone ads?, his pictures are there!). We went to visit the
Conservatory of Flowers, and we took so many pictures and exchange Instagram tips and editing tips. I’m surprised at how much he knows about photo editing apps, if you ever find yourself in SF and want some really good tips on editing your images, he is the one to contact. This place is amazing, once you are there you can feel the stillness and beauty of being surrounded completely by nature. I will definitely will be showing more photos of this place in another post.
Wandering around Embarcadero, the Ferry Building Marketplace and the Financial District.
This day I met Jordan from
Oh Happy Day! I was so excited to meet her, as i have been following her blog for quite a while and she just recently interviewed me for her blog
here. Her studio is super cute and she is a very kind and lovely person to talk to. She gave me a tour of her studio and I was able to meet some members of her team (such a a creative team!). After that we went to
Samovar in Mission and had a delicious traditional masala and an almond butter toast over a very nice talk about travelling the world and personal desires.
On the same day I took an Uber to Fisherman’s Wharf. They recommend me to visit the Musee Mecanique, an antique arcade game place, which was really cool. After that I went walking to the
Exploratorium, San Francisco’s science museum. Every Thursday night they do these events called After Dark. Here you can visit the museum at night and have a beer or wine in the meanwhile.
On this day I met
Maria, a very talented photographer. She gave me a lot of insight of the photography business in SF, she is just such a fun person to talk to, I hop ewe get to collaborate in a near future. I wanted to walk around Castro District to find the rainbow crosswalk, and when I found it, I almost fainted it, why aren’t all crosswalks like this one?
After this I went to the HQ of
Social Print Studio, where I was supposed to meet
Sherese for an instameet with
Sneakers. Jaclyn introduced me to her and I felt we clicked immediately, she also loves to travel and if you see her IG account you can see her recent travels of South America. This day was so much fun, as we met some other instagramers and we just walked around taking pictures of this beautiful corgi. He was so well behaved and apparently he loves being photographed. He even let us throw him some confetti.
My last day in SF… Walking around with Jaclyn and carrying around some beautiful flowers.
I do miss San Francisco and all the amazing people I was lucky enough to meet. I want to post here all of the accounts of the people I met, as I find them so inspiring and talented.
Teresa,
Jeffrey,
Cyndy,
Connor,
David,
Daniel,
Ted,
Kelsey,
Alice,
Lucy, Hope I can go back soon.
