What was expected to be a casual afternoon on the Canoe Club patio to celebrate Matt & Jonathan’s Birthdays, Lea’s return, and Linda’s departure to her homeland of Belgium, soon turned into many hours at various patios and concluded with Starfleet-uniform-clad company at Big Bad John’s.  That guy was certainly interesting…

Within half an hour of waking up still reeling, I threw together two small carry-on bags and hopped on the bus out to the Vancouver Island Tech Park.  I met Dylan at his office where we caught a cab to Victoria International airport… and off we were to San Francisco, California, USA.

Dylan had been invited to the first annual Atlassian Summit from Sunday evening through to Tuesday, and with direct flights lasting a mere 2 hrs 14 mins, I decided to play tag-along with my favourite travel partner.  We made arrangements to go the Thursday before his conference began in order to scope as many sights as we could of the big city on the bay for our 6-day vacation down south.

Well Hello, San Francisco…

Upon first arrival we caught the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) from San Francisco International airport to downtown on Montgomery Street, then hiked 4 blocks to our home for the week, the Hotel Triton, located directly across from the gates of Chinatown.  We then wandered to SOMA (South of Market Area) to catch a Canadian punk rock band from my hometown of Winnipeg, MB- Propagandhi.

The venue was wicked, and in it’s day Slim’s Bar has hosted some awesome shows, including NOFX’s 25th Anniversary gig this past February.  The two opening bands mellowed out the crowd, which is the opposite of what should have happened, before Propagandhi hit the stage.  By the time they came on the place was packed tight and scorching hot.  They played for over 90 mins. and pulled off a remarkable set-list comprised of mainly their latest release- Supporting Caste- as well as a number of memorable oldies from Potemkin City Limits and Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes.

Propagandhi was the perfect cap to our first night in San Francisco, next time they tour up north in the BC vicinity I will undoubtedly try and attend.  After the show we grabbed a quick cab back to the Hotel Triton to crash, in order to see what the hilly city had to offer us the next day.