Current Addiction: Pokémon Go

Back on a previous trip to the San Francisco Ferry Building's restaurant Gott's, I happened to look out the window while ingesting their amazing brussels sprouts and the special of the day lobster burger.

The meal in question.

And I saw three LED billboard trucks parked on the Embarcadero. Lo and behold, I see Pikachu — turns out those trucks were for PokémonXP, the fan event running alongside the 2026 Pokémon World Championships in San Francisco... that piqued my curiosity, because I hadn't opened the Pokémon GO app since 2019.

The trucks that did it.

That was the last time I played it with my childhood friend before he moved to Ohio. He used to drive around while we'd catch them — I'd hold both phones and throw the Poké Balls, and we'd get out of the car to do raids with other “trainers.”

Having the game open, I started spinning PokéStops in the vicinity of where I was eating, and if you know San Francisco, you know there's no lack of those. Ended up getting some stamps for the local event, and with that came the opportunity to catch a spacesuit Pikachu with a San Francisco background... and that right there sparked my rekindled addiction to this game. What turned out to be a ferry ride and a meal at the Embarcadero ferry station ended up getting hijacked by Pokémon. I had a few family members with me, and I ended up “gently” suggesting we go for a walk after the meal to help with digestion. The reality was I wanted to go spin more PokéStops and catch more Pikachus. An hour of walking up the Embarcadero later, we returned to the ferry departure station and I had 150 Pokémon in my account. Just like that, I was back in.

The one that started it all.

At this point it's been about a month and a half since I started playing again. I've gone to a couple of in-person raids with my community ambassador, got a couple of free gifts from them, some codes for ingame items, and I've participated in a few Community Days. I've even been purchasing the monthly pass for this. Anyways, I just wanted to share how I picked up this game again — and it's forced me to walk a little bit more. I'll share more down the line on this game, as I have an active rivalry with some neighbors since I'm Team Mystic and, well, they keep trying to take over my local gym.

Game on.