Javi goes to San Francisco with Tripaly

Hey Y’all!

March has come in with a bang! I’m grateful to say I’ve had a pretty busy month and more is to come. My most recent adventures took me out to San Francisco and made my goal of visiting California a reality.

In partnership with Tripaly I was able to visit the golden state. Tripaly is a subscription service that aims to revolutionize the way you travel, with their One Click Trips. I wasn't too familiar with the concept. But after getting in touch with CEO JP Singularity and learning more about the services Tripaly offers. It made a whole lot of sense. My partner and I have thought about traveling more. But we were still trying to figure out a method to save and budget for our trips and this service does just that.

Tripaly’s subscriptions are catered to your travel needs. The destinations to which you travel too are constantly changing. The great thing about Tripaly is that you subscribe, and pay a amount in accordance with how many trips you want to take in a year and the length of the trips.

Traveling with Tripaly was such a breeze! All I had to do was book the trip through their mobile app. Not only did they take care of my flight saving me time, they also arranged for my stay. I had the opportunity to stay at Hotel Carlton during my visit to San Francisco and the spot was pretty sweet. The building had history and tons of character. The location was close to Union Square, and to top it off there was a cute bakery named Mr Holmes Bakehouse right around the corner. I could have not hoped for a better place.

As I landed in San Francisco the sun was setting and the warm tones were embracing the hill tops covered by all these cute and colorful homes. I took the BART from the airport and ended up getting off at the Powel street station. Without knowing I was at Union Square. As I stood there it hit me.. I was like yo I’m not in Texas anymore! After a hasty walk to the hotel we dropped off our luggage and hit the street.

We met up with our friend who just recently moved to San Francisco and decided to visit Mensho Tokyo SF for some ramen. The line was long but the service was great. The spicy lamb ramen was dope and the atmosphere was pretty chill. Even though the line was long outside dining was very chill. and there was no sense of urgency like other ramen places I’ve visited.

The span of our trip gave us two full days in San Francisco. Our first day was spent exploring the Golden Gate Park. We had planned to visit five locations within the park before heading out to lunch, but that was scrapped. Our first stop was at the Conservatory of Flowers. This for me was a real treat! I love plants and to be surrounded by all those different species was such a delight. As you entered into the different wings of the conservatory. You instantly felt the temperature change and with it the plants. My favorite spot there had to be the butterfly room.

The room had water fountains and pollen pads scattered all over in which butterflies would just chill. The space was so peaceful and and relaxing. In amazement both Vickie and I gazed at all the beautiful butterflies flying and having a great time. They even had a space in which you could see cocoons as butterflies began to emerge.

After visiting the Conservatory of flowers we made our way to De Young Museum of Art. To our surprise we found succulents growing in the middle of the park. Now thats an unusual sight!

As an Artist I get drawn to museums. So the De Young had to be one of our stops. We viewed the work of Dany Lyon and was blown away by the amount of photographic work the exhibition included. I was personally drawn to the work Danny made during his trips to the south to participate and document during the Civil Rights Movement in 1962. The images were bold and depicted the state of the nation during this time.

The rest of the exhibition was really good and covered a wide range of subjects. Looking at art is no doubt a time consuming activity. So we actually had to visit the contemporary work, and Latin America sections and decided we needed to move on to stay on track. So we didn’t get to see everything but we did go up the Hamon observation tower and got a 360 view of San Francisco. Now that was a sick y’all!

Once we wrapped up. We headed to grab some lunch and explored the streets for a little while. Snapping a few pics of the residential homes.

Our first day in San Francisco concluded with a visit to the Golden Gate Bridge. By this point we were on the cusp of the evening and the weather was a bit wild. Our whole visit to San Francisco was accompanied by a overcast sky with sudden appearances by the sun. But things got bad when we got to the bridge. We snapped a few photos and before we knew it the wind was blowing and umbrellas were getting flipped. I knew I had to set my foot on the bridge so we made our way onto the bridge walked on in for less than a quarter mile and said nope.. Not doing this! Our first day had escaped us and we were exhausted from walking and running around.

Our Second day would hands down be my favorite day in quite some time. We planned to visit the Mission District, eat Mexican food, do some shopping, check out the San Francisco MOMA and visit the Lombard St.

We had some grub at La Taqueria. A Mexican restaurant thats very well know and has quite the reputation for a must stop while you visit the Mission District. I was a bit bummed they did not have barbacoa. But the quesadillas were super dope and made up for the lack of my favorite meat. It had a real authentic vibe and the staff spoke Spanish. Which is always a plus in my book. We got there early and there was already a line that wrapped around the stores interior.

Once we wrapped up we headed up Valencia St. to visit a cute shop called Little Paper Planes. The shop really reminded me of Austin with its cool airy vibes. I spotted some rad pins. For the rest of our visit to the Mission District we played it by ear stopping at several more shops.

One spot that was marked on our to do list was visit Dolores Park. I will say that both Vickie and I noticed how there are more public spaces in San Francisco. Lots of Plazas and parks for people to hang out. Reminding us of Mexico and its public spaces. Dolores was absolute joy to be in. At this point the sun was out the sky was a beautiful baby blue. I looked at Vickie and said were in San Francisco, we made it! Life could not be any better in those moments. Everything was perfect. I was with my best friend in California and my passion had taken us there. I’ve come a long way and still have a ways to go! But it was was such a great feeling to see and know that all my efforts and hard work these past several years since graduating college had led me here.

As we sat there in the sun soaking up life. We knew we had to make a call. Did we stay in the Mission District or head to the San Francisco MOMA? We were already close but only had about an hour and a half before it closed. Fuck it lets go! Were picked up by a Lyft within a few minutes and yes I do miss Lyft in Austin.

Upon arriving at the museum I was already blown away by the interior. The center of the museum has a huge space occupied by a mobile piece that hangs down the center. Leading your eye to the ceiling of the museum that has a bridge on which you can walk on. We paid for our tickets and proceeded to our museum marathon. a Covering pretty much 3 floors before we were out of time. Yet, I did manage to check out Dan Flavian’s work and Ellsworth Kelly and spent a good deal of time people watching. Im always intrigued by the way people engage with art and how its consumed in real life.

As the museum wrapped up and folks were being escorted out by the museums gallery assistants. The sun was reaching prime golden hour stage. As we proceeded to Lombard street. The sun pierced through the city, casting beautiful shadows that broke and fragmented the architecture. I had seen photos of the Lombard street and was not let down. This windy street is such tourist spot and I loved it! Everywhere you looked people were snapping photos and everyone was super chill about it. People driving through it were setting up shots, it was such thing. As we approached the bottom I took some pics as we looked upon this windy road.

At this point we had reach the end of our trip. We had hit most of the spots we listed but already knew we had to visit this beautiful city for a longer stay. I can see why people think of Austin as mini California now. But we need more cute dogs y’all. I swear every where you looked there was a cute dog. Anyway I’m gonna stop here y’all. I could go on and talk more about the trip but nah.. Shout out to you if you made it this long. Trust me my attention span is sorta low. But I do have some cool news to wrap this piece up. For a limited time. If you reach out to Tripaly and mention my name you will receive a ten percent discount on your subscription. Hit them up at the following email subscriptions@tripa.ly and if y'all need any help just let me know!

Quite frankly y'all I think this service is a good deal! Especially if you are one who travels a lot or someone who's looking to start traveling more often. I know we were skeptical but after researching and comparing prices we concluded it was a good deal. Traveling with Tripaly was convenient, easy, and fun. I definitely recommend. Id like to also thank JP and the team at Tripaly for bringing me onboard, and entrusting me with taking over their account Instagram account.

Thanks for reading peeps!

-Javi