Spring is my all-time favorite season because of the warmth (not so much this year), beauty, and most importantly, SPRING BREAK. This spring break, my mom and I decided to join the Thompson family and go somewhere that is not always warm throughout the year and is not known for their beaches. A new adventure awaited the Thompson’s, my mom, and I as we encountered a new place: San Francisco.

San Francisco was a bit overwhelming. We were surrounded by unfamiliar smells, bumper to bumper traffic, and much more diversity. This trip to the big city of San Francisco opened up my eyes to the “real world” instead of being focused on the small town of Delphi. Here are a few things I learned:

Bring motion sickness pills and headphones

If you have never flown before, my recommendation would be to bring motion sickness pills and headphones. Before arriving to San Francisco, we had a layover in Phoenix, Arizona. The flight from Indiana to Arizona wasn’t too bad. But, the flight from Arizona to San Francisco was quite rough. There was wind turbulence, the plane kept tilting back and forth and side to side, and a baby was screaming the whole way there. Also, some airlines have planes with televisions on the back the seat in front of you. You can watch movies on the plane for FREE.

Homelessness IS a problem

On the very first day, my mom and I were waiting for the Thompson’s to arrive so we decided to walk around downtown San Francisco. While walking around, we saw a homeless man sleeping on a cardboard box, a McDonald’s that would uber food to you, a homeless woman pleading for food, another homeless man that got spit on by someone walking in front of us, and more and more homeless people. I could hardly admire the beauty that San Francisco contains because of all the people suffering, starving, and freezing and knowing I could not do anything to help them. Although we don’t view homelessness as a big problem in our small city of Delphi, San Francisco showed me that it is a great problem in our nation.

People like to use their horns

In a small community like ours, we hardly hear anyone using their horn unless an accident is about to occur or if someone stays at a red light for too long. In San Francisco, they use their horn for everything. “Everything” includes when turning into their turn lane while being 100 feet away, when buses take too long to pick people up on the road, when people are walking too slowly in front of their vehicles, or even just for fun. (We may have joined in on the honking for fun.)

Segways are fun, but dangerous

So, Jon Thompson had the great idea of taking a segway tour. If you don’t know what a segway is, it is that fun automotive vehicle that Kevin James drives in “Paul Blart: Mall Cop.” Now, you would think that driving these segways would be pretty easy, but they’re actually somewhat difficult. You take a trainer course one-on-one with the segway and a tour guide so you know how to operate the segway properly. While driving on these segways, you have to be aware of all your surroundings . . . even potholes. As I drove right over the pothole, I started losing control but quickly regained it once my heart jumped out of my chest. Also, as we were driving, I saw another pothole and decided to slow down, causing Mrs. Thompson to nearly rear end me.  Yes, segways are fun, but if you don’t listen to how to drive over potholes properly, then they become very dangerous. 

Hills are HORRIBLE

San Francisco is known for its very steep hills. For example, San Francisco has a popular tourist attraction called “The Most Crooked Road,” which is pictured below.  While walking around the city, we had to walk up some of the steepest hills. Not only did we have to walk up these hills, we also had to bike up them. If you truly know me, you know exercise is not a priority. These hills made me sweat like never before. But, there’s beauty over these extremely steep hills. At the top, you’d see some of the most beautiful sights San Francisco contains.

“Sam Shockley” – Alcatraz prisoner

Coming into Alcatraz was very exciting. We signed up for the night tour so we were all a little spooked out. Before spring break, my father told me there was a prisoner that had the same last name as me. I found this very interesting and wanted to know more. I looked him up and found out he was one of the influential people that started the “Battle of Alcatraz” and was given the death penalty because of it. While taking our tour, Sam Shockley was brought up a couple times. Maybe we were relatives, maybe we weren’t. I honestly hope we weren’t though.

Golden Gate Bridge [in person] looks like a picture

On our very first day, we took a bike tour around San Francisco. The tour was about eight miles long with numerous hills. The tour consisted of seeing some of the famous spots in San Francisco, like the Golden Gate Bridge. Although the Golden Gate Bridge was very fascinating, all I could think about was how unrealistic it looked. I always saw pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge or saw it in the intro to Full House when the Fuller family drives on the bridge, but the bridge looked exactly like every media image I have seen.

Traveling somewhere new is very exciting. I couldn’t express any more how traveling can impact you as a person. You learn new things about our country, whether that be good or bad. I hope that one day, you’ll get to go somewhere new and experience things that would change your mindset. I couldn’t have asked for a better spring break with some of the most amazing people. My last high school spring break is something I will remember forever.