We got into San Francisco late afternoon on the 30th March, 2007. Grabbed our bags and headed down to catch a cab. Crap, forgot to get bus passes. Tanil goes in to secure those. Too bad we didn't get our full value out of them, but oh well. Cabbed it down to our apartment for the weekend, yeah thats right, no hotel, an apartment, in this sweet Victorian, set right on historic Alamo Square. Word!Well that afternoon didnt consist of much but walkin to the nearby organic mart, and across the street for some beers and wine to fill the frig. On the way back we spotted a lil Nepalese restaurant. After droppin off the goods, we walked back to the cafe and got a late bite to eat. Capped off the night with some wine.
Saturday mornin found us walkin in towards town and then hoppin on a bus which took us all the way, or at least a few blocks from, the recently renovated Ferry Building. Great market there with tons of people watching, and plenty of wild folks to help take your money. Caviar bar, bathrooms, and over priced oysters, but damn were they good. North Coast Brewing Comp. beers on tap, thats a plus. Strolled on up and meandered our way into North Beach via the Peter Macchiarini steps.North Beach, cool. Tanil got some time in Chinatown dollar store, her heaven on earth next to TJ Max. Caught a relaxing tea shop heading out of the madness that is Chinatown. Short stroll with a stop to write in the journal, and then a cable car ride on the California line all the way to Polk. Polk holds a longtime friend of San Francisco, Swan Oyster Depot. You'll just have to go to understand what this place holds. A sizable line on the street while you drink a brew, waiting for one of the 15+ seats at the bar. Yum Yum Yum. So far, we have walked, eaten, walked, drank, eaten, drank, walked. Not a bad day. After a nice stroll into the sunset back to the apt., we huff it even further around the block to lower Haight to met up with some friends at Toronado. Seeing good friends in great places rocks, and this place has more beer than you can dream of. After a good while here, we needed to split and head to another Friends house before we made our way over to the Fillmore Auditorium to see MOFRO. Vacation and catchin your favorite band. You can't beat that.
Well the night was long and the show was great. Included were some great walks to and fro the club, chatting up things and havin a cold brew on the cold cold streets of California. The next mornin consisted of the usual fair of breakfast and a rendezvous with our friends at Alamo Square. A quick chill and recovery time here, some goodbyes, and Em gives us a lift down to Hyatt Embarcadero to pick up our ride for the next 7 days. The Suzuki Vitara would prove itself barely worthy of the terrain we were about to encounter. Brake odors, engine odors. What is this thing a V2. Anyway, we hopped in the car and cut our way back and forth until we got over near Fort Mason/Marina District and caught a view of the Wave Organ. Nestled out on a jetty past one of the yacht clubs, the wave organ has great 360 views of the city and the bay and the bridge. The great thing, no one goes there, and from the initial drive-by, no one was gonna be there we we arrived. Landing the Vitara at the end of the park located in between the Marina District and the Presidio, we walked west towards the end of the jetty. It was nice day with a bit of wind. Hazy. As we neared the end of the jetty numerous small sailboats were headed out for a regatta. Well guess what, all their friends and families were headed out to the wave organ to watch the regatta unfold. It really didn't matter for there was a small beach facing the Golden Gate and numerous wildflowers and rocks to explore. The extra crowd didn't dampen a single spirit. After a nice walk around the Presidio we headed back to the car and then for a place to park it near the apartment. How bout the luck to find one right in front on the street. Sweet!
The remainder of Sunday afternoon found us perusing the shops along upper Haight, with a one block detour to let Tanil contemplate 710 Ashbury and to pay my usual respects. The Grateful Dead - the embodiment of Americana. More shopping and an espresso/chai tea stop. I hit Amoeba Records and about lost my mind at the enormity of it all. Thankfully Tanil came to my rescue and reminded me that we had been wanting a burger joint since about noon. We walked on up to Cole/Carl and kicked it for a while at Burgermeister. Yummy! A nice walk home and that purty much put a cap on the night.
I've been sold on San Francisco, its probably my favorite city in America, and my top place that i would wish to live. Too bad the living conditions cost a fortune. Tanil was evenly impressed with the city on her first visit and is full bore, ready to return. Nice.
Tomorrow mornin' we'll get the tires warmed up for a trip north through wine country and furthur into the Redwoods and the Lost Coast.
Now that you made it through that, you can click here to go straight to pictures of the San Francisco leg of our trip. Login information is at the top of the screen.
-Trey
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