If You're Going To San Francisco

Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.  I left my heart is San Francisco.  Um...let's see...what other songs are there about San Francisco.  Oh yeah, "Rice-aroni, a San Francisco treat.  Ding, ding!"

I had such a great time in San Francisco.  I don't know where to begin.  I guess I could start with the fact that I almost missed my flight.  I set my alarm, but after it went off, I thought I would lay in bed for an extra 5 minutes or so.  Well, 5 minutes turned into a half hour.  I probably would not have waken up had my mom not called.  I made it with time to spare (but not as much as I would have liked).  I had a few stops to make along the way.  I had to change planes in Albequerque.  I also had to make a stop in Las Vegas (I didn't get off the plane, though).  When I finally made it to Oakland Airport (Southwest doesn't fly into San Francisco), I was greeted by my parents, Sonia's friend Angie, and my grandpa.  That was a nice surprise, because I didn't know that he was coming.  We then drove to our hotel in a suburb of SF, near the SF airport (where everyone else was flying into).  Mike and Sonia were already there.  After getting settled in, we headed for Downtown San Francisco; my parents and Gramps in the van and us in the "clown car" (we took two vehicles because we would be going our separates ways for the evening entertainment).  So the clown car, as we so lovingly referred to, was this tiny red Suzuki Aerio hatchback.  It just looked really funny, especially with Mike driving.  So we headed for Fisherman's Wharf (the touristy part of town).  We ate a late lunch (or an early dinner) at this nice restaurant that overlooked the bay and Alcatraz.  It was interesting to watch the fog roll in.  I never realized how foggy it would be.  It's because the warm weather in the vallies draws in the cooler air from the ocean.  Where the two meet, creates the fog (a little meteorology lesson for you all).  After eating, we walked down the Wharf a bit to Ghiradelli Square.  There were so many vendors selling all sorts of things, from fresh seafood, to art, to jewelry, and all sorts of things.  There were many different street performers.  We saw the nearly famous "Bushman".  He's a guy that hides behind some branches and tries to scare unsuspecting bypassers.  He's been doing this for 25 years and has even been sued a few times (but never lost a case).  Later, we took a little drive up Russian Hill (the steepest hill in SF) and down Lombard Street (the crazy zig-zag street).  After that little adventure, it was time to head to the ballpark for the Giants/Padres game.  SBC park is a beautiful stadium.  We had pretty good seats along the 3rd base line.  It had turned quite cold by then.  We left after the 7th inning.  The Giants were losing anyways.  It was back to the hotel after that.  Angie and I got in the hot tub to warm up and ease our sore muscles. 

Thursday morning started out with breakfast at the Millbrae Pancake House.  We then traveled to Palo Alto, CA to see the campus of Stanford University.  This is a very beautiful campus.  The church is gorgeous.  I got a Stanford t-shirt from the campus bookstore.  After Stanford, we headed north, across the Golden Gate Bridge, to Sausalito.  You could barely even see the bridge because of the fog.  Sausalito is a quaint little town with a lot of shops and art galleries.  It reminded me a lot of Charlevoix, MI.  Next, we headed back into town, to the Wharf area and Pier 39.  We met up with the last two members of our group, Brian & Michelle.  They didn't arrive until late Wednesday night.  We ate dinner at one of the many restaurants in the Wharf (one that had more than just seafood since I'm not its biggest fan).  After dinner, we went to Alcatraz.  This was really cool - one of the many highlights of the trip.  Since the tour was at night and it was really cold and foggy, the tour was a bit creepy.

Friday started with another trip to the Pancake House.  After breakfast we headed to Napa, CA and wine country.  This is where we parted with my parents and grandpa.  They went on to Sacramento, CA.  We toured two vinyards and wineries - Robert Mondavi and Beringer.  We tasted wine at both.  I tasted the wine that was included with the tours, but I didn't particularily care for any of it.  I did get to eat a couple of the grapes during the Mondavi tour as part of a demonstration.  I think Sonia and Angie may have had a bit too much wine at the Beringer Vinyards.  I do have to say that both vinyards, in fact, the whole valley was absolutely beautiful.  We ate dinner in North Beach (the Italian part of town) at a restaurant called Firenze By Night.  The food was excellent. 

Saturday (our last full day) we paired off and did our own things.  Angie and I explored downtown San Francisco.  We first walked around the farmer's market located on one of the piers.  Then we took a trolley tour around the city (it sure beat walking up and down all those hills).  The tour started out at the Wharf, then made its first stop at the Palace of Fine Arts/Exploratorium.  The gardens there were absolutely beautiful.  It felt like walking through some ancient ruins.  There were atleast three wedding parties taking pictures and one actual wedding.  Our final stops were at Fort Point and the Golden Gate Bridge.  Unfortunately, due to the heavy fog, you could barely even SEE the bridge (even when standing right next to it).  The last half of the tour was spent driving through all the different parts of the city:  the Presidio, the victorian homes of Pacific Heights, Union Square (the Rodeo Drive or 5th Avenue of SF; i.e., shopping), Japantown and Chinatown, North Beach, and the Financial District.  After the tour, we went to the Wax Museum (we had a 2 for 1 coupon).  Afterwards, we decided to head back to Pacific Heights to explore some more.  We had quite an experience trying to figure out the public transportation, but we eventually made it.  We had quite a workout walking up and down all of the hills (some of which were quite steep), but seeing all the beautiful houses (and a German Consulate) made up for it.  We also saw the house that was used as an exterior set in the movie Mrs. Doubtfire.  We tried to find the row of houses that you see in all the pictures (I believe they are called the "painted ladies".  We asked this foursome that was walking down the street for directions.  They very kindly showed us were to go and gave us a mini guided tour of the area.  They informed us of were some famous people used to live.  We made it to the houses just as it was starting to get dark, took our pictures, then took another bus and a taxi to Chinatown to meet the others for dinner.  We ate at the House of Nanking (supposedly one of the best Chinese restaurants in the city).  But like our tour guide told us, if you asked 20 people what their favorite restaurant is, you would get 20 different answers.  This restaurant was really interesting.  Instead of ordering our own dishes, we ate appetizer/family style.  We had one dish of each: vegitable, seafood, chicken, beef, and pork.  They just kept bring the food.  One dish right after the other.  I don't think I have ever eaten so quickly.  The first dish was the seafood dish (which I didn't know at the time).  I took a bite and it wasn't too bad.  Then someone told me that it was squid!  Ewww!  I did finish my one piece, but I wasn't going to have anymore.  I wish that no one had told me what it was.  The best dishes (in my opinion) were the sesame chicken and the snap peas.  After dinner, it was back to the hotel for a long soak in the hot tub and then to bed.

I had to wake up early on Sunday to head to the airport.  Angie came with me, even though her flight wasn't until 3 hours after mine.  We took the BART from San Francisco Airport to Oakland Airport.  This was the nicest form of public transportation I think I have EVER been on.  It was so clean and the seats were soft and cushy.  I wouldn't mind having to take that everyday.  Sunday was just a long day of airports and airplanes.  I arrived back in Orlando shortly after midnight.

This was our trip in a nutshell.  I had such a great time and can't wait to go back.  I've yet to see Golden Gate Park and would have liked to take a drive down the coast.  Next time :)  Now it's back to work until my next vacation.