Weeks 18 + 19th (Highlights)

There is too much to say about my recent visit to the Bay Area. Here are my top five highlights:

On my first night, in Oakland, I played for the second time at a lovely cafe called the Actual Cafe. It was touted as a Ukulele Love-in, and it lived up to its name. It was hosted by a lady that I'm so glad I got to meet and share the stage with, Ms. Tippy Canoe. She started off the show with a ukulele lesson, then led everyone in a jam after my set. It was so much fun! After the show she shared a brownie with me and gave me a ride back to my hotel.

In Sacramento a couple days ago I tried Afghani food for the firs time. It was amazing!

This was the first tour that I brought the auto-harp out for, so I was really happy to not have to miss playing it. All six of the shows I played in the area went really well (what are the odds?).

I stayed in and got to explore five neighborhoods: Temescal (in Oakland and bordering Berkeley), downtown Sacramento, Sunnyvale, and Golden Gate Park and North Beach in SF. I especially liked getting to experienced more of North Beach, a neighborhood where I have stayed before. It's an Italian neighborhood, home to Golden Boy Pizza, the best pizza ever, and many other places that were popular haunts of the Beat poets. I took a whole Beat tour there, starting at Golden Boy, then going to the Beat Museum, followed by City Lights Books, a Beat-centric bookstore, and ending at Vesuvio, a bar that the Beats reportedly drank at often.

Finally, the best of all for me was having my "weekend" (two days off in a row) with one of my close friends, Kim, and her awesome boyfriend Jake. They came to see my show in SF, which made it even more special. Then on the weekend, Kim took me all over SF: we went bar-hopping in the Mission, hung out in Dolores Park, and ate fresh fish down at the Fisherman's Wharf and toured the penny arcade museum there. Jake took us all to see the new Batman movie, which was very entertaining. Thanks Kim & Jake! See you guys next time!