San Francisco - Day 6

This was also a pretty quiet day.  I slept in a little and then took the F-line over towards the Embarcadero Center (Pier 1 area).  Stopped at Starbucks for a morning mocha and some reading and then did a little bit of shopping.

On my walk back over to the Ferry Building (near Pier 1) I stopped at the Boudin Bakery for lunch.  I had Grilled Cheese on sourdough along with their homestyle tomato soup.  I wasn't a huge fan of the soup but the sandwich was excellent.

I was originally planning to walk but they day was quite cool, foggy, misty and rainy so I caught the F-Line back to the hotel around 2pm.  I was frozen and buried myself under all the covers for a nice cozy nap.  :)

Once DH returned from his final conference day we had planned to walk to the Golden Gate bridge. We both decided it was way too cold so decided to take the bus to the Haight area instead.  We ended up waiting for a bus for about 40 minutes because of first choosing the wrong bus, then buses being too full etc etc.  Finally we were able to get on.  This bus was fun because it drove through the Presidio area which is fancy.  The houses actually have yards here and are surrounded by very large trees.  I thought it reminded me of a campsite.  Narrow twisty roads with little spaces here and there which would normally be campsites - but were houses instead.

Haight Street.  We were expecting hippies and trendy shops/cafes.  There were some of those yes - especially toward the end we were dropped off on.  There was also a lot of....altered people and downright crazy yelling people there.  I'm glad DH walks around with his "talk to me and die" face on while on vacation.  LOL  It would not be a place I'd want to visit by myself and was a stark contrast to the atmosphere in the Cow Hollow area.  :)

I did buy myself a souvenir though:

Because they are purple.  :)


















Back on the bus we went back to our hotel.  We had supper in the restaurant below the hotel - the Blue Mermaid again.

This time we started out trying Crab Cakes and moved on to their amazing soup in a sourdough bread bowl.  Both were really good!

One good thing about all this mist is that it brought my curls back:

Ok...so you can't really tell...but they are there!!


















Grand Total walking today was 10337 steps or 7.1 km.

The next day brings a tour to Muir woods and changing hotels (work paid for this one so we are moving downtown and cheaper).

San Francisco - Day 5

After far too much walking lately, I decided that this day would be a lazy day.  I drifted in and out of sleep for a while finally hauling myself out of bed around 8 (yes that's sleeping in).  I made myself some mocha and had a yogurt.

By 9:30am I was at Pier 39 again.  The first time we were there we didn't take the time to look into all the shops so I wanted another look.  Since the shops didn't open until 10am I spent some time watching the sea lions push each other around.    They were a lot feistier than last time and were doing a lot of barking and grunting.

I then wandered through and window shopped to decide what to see when the shops opened.  Saw this outside of Bubba Gump's restaurant:

Because life is like a box of chocolates....

















Found some funny greeting cards, some pens from the Left Handed store and some weird socks.  I stopped for lunch at a casual hot dog place (Hook & Crook) and read by book for a while.

After lunch I made by way back to the hotel - stopping at a candy store on the way (It's Sweet) to get some headphones for my son (half price!).  Had a great nap but woke up all confused.  :)  

Once DH got back we caught a bus into the Cow Hollow area for our anniversary supper at Betelnut.  Cow Hollow seems to be 80% inhabited by women.  All the stores are beauty parlors, organic grocers, dog groomers and yoga/pilates studios.  Very odd to see so many woman walking dogs with no guys anywhere around.

I started off with a drink whose name I forget but it had strawberries and basil in it.

It did not taste very good.  :)
















Instead of having a heavy meal we decide to share a few appetizers so we each enjoyed 1 skewer of satay, half a green onion cake, a couple potstickers, some green beans and some rice.  The green beans were fabulous - they were Szechwan green beans.  Very crisp and very tasty.

It was only a half hour walk from our hotel so we decided to walk back.  We walked along union street and decided to turn back toward our hotel at Lombard Street.   Well there is a reason that Lombard street is so steep on the Wharf side...it's because on the other side there is a giant hill to climb up.  Climb we did - so glad I wore boots with heels on them.  LOL  DH took a great picture of the slant:

Once we reached the summit though we got to walk back down the hill on the twisty famous Lombard street side which was fun.

Finally we decided all that walking justified dessert so we walked back over to Ghirardelli Square to the Ghiradelli Ice Cream shop to have a hot fudge sundae with crushed almonds, whipped cream and of course, a cherry on top.

The chocolate sauce was heavenly....


















Grand total steps for my "lazy" day ended up being ~16200.

San Francisco - Day 4

I started off this day by walking over to Ghiradelli Square in search of some breakfast.    I ended up at Lori's Diner.  Two diners in one vacation - really living it up aren't I?  I really liked the diner here.  It wasn't too busy, the view was spectacular, the food was good (for diner food of course) and service was very quick.

I tried to read my book while eating but kept getting distracted by the beautiful view.  I decided when I finished to go wander the paths that I could see from the window.

The first thing I found was a teeny tiny beach that a few tourists were splashing away in and a couple brave souls who were swimming to the docks beyond.

I followed the path and flow of bikes, joggers, strollers and dogs down a long dock and then up a big hill which also gave some nice views....

then back down the hill into the marina area

finally coming to a boardwalk with the best view of all.  I sat down and meanly sent this photo to a bunch of people.  Pretty sure with all the enemies I made this morning that I won't be able to return to work.  I'm ok with that though...that particular spot created one of those rare moments where you are in exactly the right spot at exactly the right time and feeling completely at peace with the world.  Everyone reading this should go there now!

I decided to turn and head back so that I could drag DH down this way when he returned from his convention.  On the way back I stopped at safeway to pick up something for lunch and get some breakfast items for tomorrow.  I took some pictures of some things to show the kids:

Once DH got home I took him over to Ghiradelli Square where we ate at The Pub.  I had found the listing on Urban Spoon and it had ratings in the 90% zone.  They talked us into trying their famous "Tommy Tots" which are tator tots that are sweet and spicy with blue cheese.  So very weird but strangely tasty.  I then got the pulled pork which came with 3 sides: Mac n Cheese, cornbread and zucchini and Jay had the Rib/Sausage combo with potato salad, corn bread and bacon beans.  Everything was delicious.

We wrapped up with an hour long walk along the same places that I went in the afternoon...pausing for a moment to watch the sun set behind the Golden Gate bridge.

All in all, I logged 13.26km on foot yesterday - 19221 steps....which still stops short of breaking our walking record in Toronto a few years ago.  Here it's just not possible - nothing is flat!!

Here is a quick pano that DH took with his phone:

San Francisco - Day 3

17436 steps yesterday - 12.03 KM
Yesterday was around 16000 steps.  Good thing I like my shoes.

Yesterday I hopped the cable car and headed down to Union Square for some shopping.  Without DH there to reign me in I had full control of the VISA.  Mwa hah hah!!

So...Old Navy, Macy's, Forever 21 and the Container Store came first.  I say came first...but these 4 stores actually took 3 hours.  LOL  Macy's is really big!!  Did some shopping for the kids, bought a pair of jeans, a shirt and some PJs.

I stopped for a breakfast...umm...brunch....ummm...snack mid morning at Starbucks.  I found a quiet table, read my Kindle and people watched around Union Square.  While I was there I spotted the alternate Melanie.  She appeared to be single - don't ask me why - she just did.  She chatted confidently on the phone while waiting for some complicated drink.  Leaving Starbucks she stopped at the flower stand and bought a bouquet of wildflowers for her small (but with a great view) apartment where she planned to spend the day making oddly shaped appies for her friends who are stopping by after work.  She planned to squeeze in a couple hours of writing for her latest novel.

Anyway...

Came back to the hotel, had a nap and then headed to Pier 33 where we took the Alcatraz tour.

Riding the ferry was fun - we rode up front where we'd catch the occasional spray.

someone from the second level even came down to warn us that we were in the spray zone.  LOL...

There turned out to be very little spray and by the time we reached the island the deck that we were on had gone from 4 people on it to about 30.

Again most of the pictures of the tour are on the camera and I'm not downloading anything but phone photos until I am home.  The tour hadn't changed much since i was last in San Francisco back in 1997. The most remarkable change was that we no longer had to carry around walkman's.  Everyone now gets a little MP3-like player  to carry around.

Got some great views of San Francisco and the Golden Gate bridge at sunset.

Once we returned to Pier 33 we walked back toward out hotel and stopped at Cioppino's for supper.

I had the Margherita pizza and it was FABULOUS - so fresh tasting. 

Jay had the ravioli and it was also to die for.

The service was fast and attentive and it wasn't too crowded.  Would highly recommend this place for a casual Italian meal.

San Francisco - Day 2

DH is off to his convention so I thought I'd write up a quick blog entry before heading off for my day.

We started off the day riding the cable cars to Union Square.  It's too bad the photos don't capture the depth of the hills here and the stomach tilting sensation you get when you top a big hill to find that it's just as steep on the other side.

After convention registration we stopped at the restaurant Mel's Drive in for breakfast.  I love diners.  My scrapbook room is diner themed so I'm pretty happy whenever we get the chance to see more diner decorating.  The breakfast potatoes were fabulous and the service was the fastest I have ever seen.  The omelette though - not so much.  I didn't pay attention to the menu description when it said that I had a choice of cheeses.  She didn't ask - I didn't clarify so I got an omelette filled with "cheese product".  I always thought that would taste fine to but now that I've tried it...ummm...no.

Next we caught a bus over to the Ferry building and begun to walk back along the Piers.  This is a great walk and I highly recommend it!  This view came of the Bay Bridge came from Pier 1.

There were a few shops in behind and we stopped in Sur La Table hoping to find a zombie cookie cutter.  Although I came up empty handed in that quest - I did find a cookie pan for pumpkins, ghost and skulls which I had to buy.  Halloween addicts anonymous strikes again.

Continued along the piers...Pier 7 has a great boardwalk in it.  That picture is on my camera and will have to uploaded later.

Then I got it in my head that we should walk up to Coit Tower.  I wonder if someone has counted how many steps go up this hill.  Get an idea here and then add more because we took a round a bout way.  Many panting breaths, aching muscles and dirty looks from my husband later we reached the top.

The views were worth it (and I thought the steps were fun despite their torture...cute little walkways and garden areas).

We hitched a ride on the bus back down the hill (we bought a week's bus pass which has worked out really well!) to Pier 39.

When I was here last in 1997 - all of these platforms were covered in sea lions.  Apparently because of the time of year and the fact that they have found a couple other favorite spots - this is what's left.  Not as loud as I remember them being, it could be because they have enough room to spread out and not spend their time pushing each other off to get more space.

We wandered Fishman's Wharf and a few shops inside.  Didn't shop - but might have to go back to get a couple things for the kids and to visit the Lefty Store again.

We stopped at the Musee Mechanique during our walk back to our hotel and I took great pleasure in beating my husband at car racing...twice.

At the hotel we rested our feet for half an hour while making a dinner reservation and then headed out for Chinatown.

The stores in Chinatown were fun to poke around in - all sorts of weird "treasures" to be had.  It is an experience that shouldn't be missed. Here are a few of the things we spotted in the stores:

We rounded off the night by eating at Brandy Ho's....

After eating here we decided it deserved 3.5/5.  The pot stickers and egg rolls were really good.  The peanut sauce was out of this world delicious.  The other dishes were just ok.

We stopped at a store called It's Candy on the way back to our hotel.  Cereal box size containers of Nerds, giant twizzlers etc.  Fun.

Well - off to enjoy day 3.  It's shopping day and I'm looking forward to it.  :)

San Francisco - Day 1

Good morning everyone!

It's early on day 2 in San Francisco and I've just woken from what I think is the best sleep I have ever had.  Our bed is the MOST comfortable bed ever.  It definitely helps that its a king but the mattress is that perfect combination of firm with a soft top!  Based on that alone I'm in love with our hotel.

Every person we told about going to San Francisco told us that we need to go try their clam chowder.  I have never tried clam chowder before at all mainly because it has the word clam in it.  Have I also mentioned that I haven't tried clam - ever?  Although I went through a phase of eating all seafood in sight while I was pregnant with our son, the instant he was born I went back to not liking lobster, crab, shrimp and therefore by relation: clam.  

Fast forward to yesterday around 8pm.  We hadn't eaten since 7am and had begun to eye up passerby's as possible sources of food. Enter the Blue Mermaid Chowder House & Bar.  During our 20 minute wait for a table we sat at the bar and quizzed the guy beside us on what he was eating.  Emboldened by  a glass of Sailor Jerry and coke on a very empty stomach I weaved to our table and announced boldly that I wanted the Chowder sampler as an appetizer.  Eyeballing the many choices of chowda' we finally settled on three: New England Clam Chowder (traditional creamy-bottom left in photo), Manhattan Clam Chowder (tomato base) and waiter recommended Dungeness Crab and Corn Chowder (with bacon!).   All three were excellent!!  I am IN LOVE with the Dungeness Crab and Corn Chowder!!  Before we leave I will be having that one in a bread bowl for lunch one day.  

Back to the hotel...it's the little thing that count.  In the bathroom they have 3 full size bottles of shampoo etc to use instead of those tiny little sampler thingys that are impossible to empty.    Then there is this....

The animal print robes and slipper socks in the closet.  That's just fun.  I tried on the leopard one last night - the one in the photo is a little worn but look what they look like new!  I am tempted by those slipper socks though...

Anyway...it's almost 7am and the city awaits me! Bring it on Day 2!

So I'm chewing again...is that a surprise?

I may have to re-enact my "stop Melanie from chewing her fingernails" contest.  I need an intervention!  Think up some ideas...I'll post the official challenge in about 7-10 days!