No Reservations: Best First-Come First-Serve Camping in NorCal

As a kid, camping trips just magically happened, but now that I’m an adult it turns out there’s actually planning involved, including making campground reservations. And most of California’s popular spots fill up six months in advance, so it’s nearly impossible to find an open spot for a short weekend camping trip.

For those that are also shit at planning their summer activities in advance, there are plenty of campgrounds that do not take or require reservations to cater to last-minute campers. You can always take your chances that a reservation will cancel, which happens frequently, and you can snag a spot. If you’re wary of that gamble, some parks level the playing field by offering first-come, first-served only sites. Plan to arrive early Friday for weekend trips, as these sites still fill up fast during peak season.

The winter storms did a lot of damage to state parks and recreation areas in Northern California, so many places will not be open until late July or later. [Read more…]

Restaurants Serving the Best Veggie Burgers in the Bay Area

There’s just something so satisfying and comforting about a perfect cheeseburger that even veggie lovers like myself can’t escape. After my quest to find the best veggie burgers at the supermarket, I was craving one that hadn’t spent some time in deep freeze. I wanted to try the burger that’s gone viral for bleeding “just like meat.” Turns out it’s more rare than I expected (excuse the pun).

From super fancy date night spots to quick and cheap, I’ve tracked down the best restaurants in the Bay Area to get a fresh, handmade veggie burger. [Read more…]

Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of The Summer of Love at These Events

The Summer of 1967 was a special time in San Francisco. Already a haven for weirdos of all stripes, that summer the Haight-Ashbury district became the gathering place for hippies, beatniks, and everyone else disillusioned with mainstream society. It was the most idyllic time and place to be a hippie in America, away from the race riots happening across the rest of the country, before hippies became targets for their opposition to the war in Vietnam. The Grateful Dead was still a relatively unknown local band.

Thousands of people gathered in Golden Gate Park near the Conservatory of Flowers and Haight Street, an area which eventually became known as “Hippie Hill.”  [Read more…]

Free and Cheap Things to Do on 4/20 in San Francisco

Thursday marks 4/20, the stoner’s high holiday celebrating all things marijuana. The real origin story of 4/20 isn’t all that glamorous, but let’s be real, getting stoned is fun and that’s all the excuse we need around here. Playing hooky to get stoned in the park on a Thursday is just the kind of Ferris Bueller-esque, life-moves-too-fast kinda shit I’m down for.

San Francisco is the quintessential place to be for an awesome 4/20 experience. From food truck munchies to psychedelic film and music, we’ve found the best places to have a safe and fun 4/20 this year.

Don’t say I didn’t tell you so — though recreational cannabis is legal in California, it is still illegal to smoke it in public. No matter how you celebrate 4/20, please be safe, take public transit or Lyft instead of driving, and don’t be a dick. [Read more…]

How To Make the Most of Spending Spring Break at Home

Don’t let FOMO ruin your week off. You, too, can have an awesome time at home.

I never took a proper spring break vacation during my entire college career. Most years, the week off meant the opportunity for more hours at work, and any break-like activities were planned around shifts. Now that I’m out in the “real world,” I’m learning adults need a mid-spring break, too.

The mental mindset of a “spring break” can be like a giant reset button on your life. It can be your chance to get out of your routine, change your environment, explore what’s in your own backyard, reconnect with old friends or make new ones. There’s no better place for a staycation than the Bay Area. We’ve got you covered with plenty of things to do if you’re on a budget during spring break. [Read more…]

Adventures in #Adulting: I Think I Have Health Care?

I consider myself an intelligent human being, but the mere concept of insurance goes right over my head. Premiums, deductibles, countless initialisms, none of it makes any sense. Especially with health insurance, where — if you’re healthy — it feels a lot like paying for something you don’t need.

I am a stereotypical Millennial; at 26, I am unprepared for the rest of my life. My savings account may as well be a sock under my mattress. I don’t manage my own car insurance or renter’s insurance. The only reason I know my disastrously low credit score is because my landlord mentioned it to me when my roommate and I signed our lease. My cell phone is still on my parents’ plan, and my dad files my taxes every year. In short, I am terrible at adulting.

When President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, I was grateful I would be allowed to stay on my parent’s very swanky plan through my dad’s company and therefore not have to think about it for a while. [Read more…]

Inauguration Events You Can Attend Around the Bay Area This Weekend

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

-Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail, 1963

Friday is Inauguration Day, the day when Donald J. Trump officially becomes our 45th president.

The Trump presidency promises to be unlike any we’ve seen before. I could go on at length about fighting the normalization of Trump, but if you’re reading this you probably know what I would say anyway. Now it’s time to do what the Bay Area does best: protest.

The main event this weekend is the Women’s March, happening all over the Bay in conjunction with the Women’s March on Washington. [Read more…]

What Makes It News?

Over the weekend I read this article in The Washington Post about a proposed 24-hour wait period on tattoo and body piercing in Washington, D.C. The proposal is part of a package of draft regulations by the city health department, a ploy that the article states is an attempt by the city to clean up some of its more socially liberal tendencies. Officials state that the waiting period is intended to prevent “serious health risks.” The article quotes a handful of shop owners and patrons who do not support the proposal, as well as a spokesman for the mayor, Vincent C Gray, who does not have high hopes for the proposed regulations. 

This article contains several news values, such as:

• Relevance — body art and body modification is a big industry in California, especially popular among younger people.
• Novelty — this story has uniqueness because waiting periods for body art are so rare. Tattoos are also still somewhat considered to be an act of social deviance, especially among the baby boomer generation.
• Human interest — the proposed waiting period goes against a long-held ideal of America being The Land of the Free, where people are allowed to do what they want with their time and money. It also pings a more personal ideal of body agency, of being in control of your own self. Just like the 16 oz drink regulations in New York, this is seen as reaching beyond regulation in the interest of public health and into the realm of parenting by the state.

To localize this story, I would look into already existing regulations for tattoo and body piercing in California and San Jose. I would get opinions from artists and their patrons, to see how it would affect business practices and purchase habits. I would also look into getting a statement from the public health department to see if they had any thoughts on how the public would or would not benefit from such regulation.

Finished 9/10

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