San Francisco, California

---

For my birthday weekend, we planned a three day trip to San Francisco, California. We had visited the city previously five years before on our road trip down to Southern California; however, we were only in the city for a few hours and didn't venture much past Fisherman's Wharf. On this trip, I wanted to make sure to do the city justice by seeing all of the important sites and eating at many wonderful restaurants. Our trip occurred from Friday, August 3rd to Monday, August 6th, 2007.

Day 1 (Friday, August 3rd, 2007)

Our Alaska Airlines flight out of Seatac was scheduled to leave at 7:30 PM, but was delayed about an hour, which was irritating. The flight itself was quick, although I was agitated for a good portion of the ride. The young boy who sat behind me was constantly click, click, clicking on his pen as he completed a crossword puzzle; it was highly annoying. We didn't arrive in Oakland until about 10:30 PM.

From the airport, we took the AirBART shuttle bus to the BART Coliseum/Oakland Airport station (BART stands for Bay Area Rapid Transit). As it was late out (around 10:45 PM), there was only one other person on the bus with us. On the way to the station, we drove past the Oakland Athletics baseball stadium, which Mike enjoyed seeing.

We arrived at the sketchy BART Coliseum/Oakland Airport station about ten minutes later and there was practically no one around; it was definitely not the safest of areas. As we struggled to figure out the ticket machine, a man walked up to us and was able to help us out. We gave him a few bucks in appreciation for his help.

We waited for another ten minutes for the BART subway train to arrive; from there, we rode until the Powell Street stop. While we were awaiting the arrival of the train, I began to think of how difficult it must be for travelers to get around in the United States. With the exception of San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and some other cities on the east coast, most of the large cities in the United States have little to nothing on the public transportation front. It's almost impossible to travel in this country without a rental car; the train systems and bus systems are not plentiful enough nor are they generally reliable. It is such a stark contrast to traveling in Europe where one needs a rental car very infrequently as trains, buses, and boats are readily available and super efficient.

We got off of the subway at Powell Street, which led to the Union Square area where many of the cities hotels were located and most visitors stay. Even though it was late out, the streets were filled with a ton of people. We made sure to head straight for the hotel and right to bed; we had a busy day planned for Saturday. We were impressed with the Chancellor Hotel and our room. The historic hotel was filled with charm, the staff were very friendly and helpful, and our room was decorated nicely with modern decor. We paid $170 per night, which was more than we would normally spend, but was considered a bargain by expensive San Francisco hotel standards.

Day 2 (Saturday, August 4th, 2007)

Having arrived later than expected the night before, we were anxious to get an early start for our first day in San Francisco. We woke up early, and for efficiency purposes, decided to eat breakfast at the small restaurant located inside the hotel called Luques. Mike ordered the eggs benedict and I had some sort of french toast dish.

After finishing breakfast, we bought the three day Muni Passport , which allowed unlimited rides on the cable cars and on San Francisco's Muni system and cost $15. Usually, the rides on the cable cars cost $5 each way, so the $15 card was quite a good deal.

Lucky for us, the Chancellor Hotel was located directly across the street from one of the cable car lines. However, we soon realized that we had arrived in the midst of tourist season; therefore, almost all of the cable cars were constantly full and most had lines of people at each stop waiting to get on the car. It didn't seem to matter which stop you were at; there was always hordes of people!

We lucked out that morning and somehow managed to find two spots on the first car. We got off just a few minutes later at the end of the line on Bay Street. From there, we walked a few blocks to Blazing Saddles Bike Rentals. One of the things I had most wanted to do on our trip to San Francisco was to rent bicycles and bike over the Golden Gate Bridge and into the city of Sausalito, before finally returning to San Francisco via a ferry. As excited as I was for this activity, I was also just as nervous as I hadn't ridden a bike in over ten years! I rode my bike constantly as a child, so I figured and hoped that I would catch on again quickly.

We were each fitted with an appropriate sized bike and helmet, and then given a brief tutorial on our planned route to Sausalito. They also gave us a map of the area to assist us if we were to become lost. The only portion of the directions I managed to remember was the number of miles the journey would encompass; I began wondering what in the hell I had gotten ourselves into and hoped that Mike was absorbing the directions as I was definitely not.

We took a few trial runs on the bike before heading out. Much to my dismay, my many previous years of bike riding experience were not coming back to me as quickly as I had hoped. I was extremely uncomfortable on the bike and felt completely out of control as my wobbly legs couldn't seem to find a good balance. As scary as it all felt, I eventually got to the point where I felt somewhat comfortable riding while Mr. "All Sports Related Activities are Easy for Me" (a.k.a. Mike) had absolutely no problems riding his bike.

As we began riding down the streets of San Francisco, I realized that along with trying to focus on pedaling the bike, I was also going to have to be mindful and cognizant of the many people, animals, parked and moving cars that were all around me. I was very frightened and had to stop multiple times in order to calm myself down. After a few minutes, we reached the Fort Mason Center, which was a large, level, and expansive park located in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. I felt much more comfortable riding in this area as most of the ride occurred on a very level sidewalk.

From here, we were just barely able to see the Golden Gate Bridge through the shroud of fog. Eventually, the flat sidewalks led into a park via downhill streets; very intimidating and frightening for me. For some reason, the feeling of riding a bike downhill was so incredibly scary that it made me feel completely out of control; at one point, the fear I had made me slam on the brakes so hard I nearly tipped over.

By this time, we were very close to the beginning of the bridge. We took lots of photos in between trying to bike our way through the crowds; there was a ton of tourists everywhere! After posing for the obligatory pictures, we began the trek across the bridge. The Golden Gate Bridge had several lanes of traffic and sidewalks going in both directions. One of the sidewalks was specifically designated for walkers while the other side was open only to bikers. I was very thankful for this separation as I knew it would have been impossible to pedal the bike in between the massive number of people that were walking across.

I would guess that probably about half of the people riding bikes were experienced, local bike riders while the other half were tourists just like us with little to no experience, and thus, much slower. For the most part, I generally felt okay during the 8,981 foot ride across the bridge as it was mostly even surface. There were times however when I felt extremely claustrophobic as some of the more experienced riders went zooming past me.

It took about 20 minutes to ride across the bridge, and we found the sun greeting our arrival at the end of the bridge in Sausalito. Unfortunately, this was also the point where we began to get very confused from the lack of clear and concise directions we had (we must not had listened well enough back at the bike shop!). We weren't really sure which direction to go as the road diverged two ways. However, we trusted our instincts and followed the other tourists. In hindsight, this would have been the most appropriate opportunity to turn around and go back the way we had came, but more on that soon...

The ride down to Sausalito was much different than the relaxed and leisurely ride I had imaged. Basically, the way it worked was that bikers rode on a freeway with cars driving right along side them at 60 MPH; not exactly the safe sidewalk riding I had envisioned. If riding downhill wasn't scary enough for me (remember the out of control feeling from earlier) the fact that I was riding in a tiny little lane with cars on my left and a cement barricade on my right made my insanely claustrophobic. I was so incredibly scared that I would lose my balance at anytime, which would cause the bike to tip over and thus, have me fall over into the oncoming lane of traffic. Eventually, I made the decision to stop, get off my bike, and walk alongside the bike instead. I felt this was not only in the best interest of myself, but also for the other riders and all of the cars on the road. At this point, Mike was so far ahead of me that he didn't initially realize that I had stopped riding my bike until he turned around to look for me and of course, didn't see me. When I was finally in his range of view, he asked why I was walking. I told him I was absolutely terrified and concerned I might injure myself, so walking seemed to me the safer option. He then also got off of his bike and walked with me the rest of the way into the downtown area of Sausalito.

After experiencing a very stressful ride, it was refreshing to walk the streets of the cute and charming town, which was filled with picturesque homes, small cafes, small local businesses, and way too many tourists. We had wanted to stop in at one of the restaurants for lunch, but the huge crowds made it impossible to find a place to secure our bike, let alone find a table to sit at. Instead, I bought two slices of take-out pizza, and we quickly munched on that. I'm sure the small town would be much more enjoyable on a weekday, but not so much on a Saturday afternoon in August.

From here, we walked the bikes to the ferry terminal, where we didn't have to wait long as the next ferry was approaching Sausalito. There was a tremendously long line of tourists with bikes waiting to board, but somehow, we all managed to fit ourselves and the bikes on the boat. This was probably due to the orderly system the ferry had created on the lower level of the boat. There had to have been close to 100 bike racks! The major downside to the boat however was the fact that we were unable to unload the bikes at the same door that we had entered in. Instead, we each had to carry our bike up a flight of stairs to the second level, where the exit doors were located. This didn't make much sense to me, but luckily, Mike was able to carry both the bikes up the stairs at the same time!

Upon our arrival back in San Francisco, I had wanted to visit the Ferry Building, which housed an upscale, gourmet marketplace. Unfortunately, I had not thought-out the logistics of this plan very well as there was no where to store our bikes (unless we wanted to risk having them stolen) and we couldn't bring the bikes with us into the market. For some reason, I guess I had assumed that the drop-off location for Blazing Saddles was located nearby the Ferry Building, but that was actually not the case.

Instead, we had to bike through downtown along the piers, which of course included being in close contact with five billion people, cars, animals, and too many other distractions to name. I attempted to ride on the rather wide sidewalk, but this proved to be too challenging with the number of people everywhere. Instead, we had to resort to riding in the bike lane, which was once again located right next to the main road, and thus, a ton of passing cars. Not knowing how far down the street the drop off location was, this portion of the ride seemed to go on forever and was excruciating for me; I felt as thought I was practically hyperventilating by the time it concluded.

Feeling exhausted, stressed-out, hot and hungry, we dropped the bikes off and began contemplating how we were going to get back to the hotel. Five minutes after we began walking in the direction of the nearest cable car stop, something flew into my eye. Of course, whatever that "thing" was, I was unable to get it out as I had no mirror on me. The pain I experienced in my eye was terrible and we were quite a distance from the cable car stop, and even further from our hotel. We tried to hail a taxi, but none were to be found, so we continued to walk as my eye became worse. I couldn't differentiate which pain was worse; keeping my eye closed or open. My eye began to turn red, and I started crying, which only exasperated the situation.

About 30 minutes later, we finally made it to the trolley stop, only to find that all of the cable cars that approached the stop were completely full and there was literally no way for us to fit on. So, we continued to trek along, with it seeming that the only possible way for us to reach the hotel was by foot. Nearly one hour after the unknown item entered my eye, we were finally able to get on a cable car. The operator of the car took one look at me and asked what was wrong (I'm sure my red face, bloodshot eye, and watering face looked just lovely). Mike explained that something had flown into my eye awhile ago, and that we needed to find a drugstore ASAP. Luckily, the operator pointed out a drugstore that was located just one street over from the hotel. At this point, I was more than desperate for eye drops, so I grabbed the first bottle I saw and also bought some sunglasses, to help prevent this situation from happening again in the future. We walked back to the hotel where I immediately attempted to flush my eye with the drops; it helped slightly, but I was still in immense pain and looked like a wreck. I was completely exhausted, so Mike recommended that I nap. I wasn't too happy with this as I knew we were missing what would probably be our only opportunity for a clear view of the bridge, but I was a mess and needed to rest.

I awoke about two hours later, my eye feeling much better, not 100%!,(MISSING) but at least I could function. We decided to find a place in Chinatown for dinner, settling on a restaurant called Brandy Ho's. We were both starving, so we ordered several different entrees of food. In fact, we ordered so much that the waitress looked at us with disbelief, shook her head, and said, "no, too much food" and walked away. We ended up receiving all of dishes we had requested (even with the waitresses disapproval) and the food was amazing! It was probably some of the best Chinese food we have ever eaten, tied with Legend Seafood, a restaurant we ate at several years ago in Waikiki. We left feeling ridiculously full and took a cable car back to the hotel.

Day 3 (Sunday, August 5th, 2007)

We awoke in San Francisco this morning to a gray, foggy, and drizzly day. We decided to eat breakfast at a restaurant located near our hotel called Sears Fine Food, which came highly recommended in both the guidebooks we had. Mike had a combination of traditional breakfast food while I opted for their "World Famous 18 Swedish Pancakes". Eighteen pancakes may seem like quite a bit, but these were only the size of silver dollars, so they were very small and manageable to eat. I was very excited at the prospect of eating Swedish pancakes as they are one of my favorite foods; I love that they are generally thin (like a crepe) but very moist, unlike the rather dry American-style pancakes that I detest. Unfortunately, the so-called Swedish pancakes at Sears were actually more more similar to their American counterpart, so I was not impressed. The restaurant however did have great ambiance and the other food options were probably much more promising.

After breakfast, the plan was to take a cable car from the hotel down to the waterfront, where we would walk to Pier 33 in order to catch the ferry ride to Alcatraz. Unfortunately, after waiting at the cable car line for nearly ten minutes and seeing cable car after cable car pass us with no room for additional passengers, we realized that if we wanted to catch our tour time, we would have to take a taxi. Luckily, the taxi ride was short and we arrived at Pier 33 with plenty of time to spare.

Prior to our trip, while I was researching I had read that those who were interested in visiting Alcatraz must reserve the ferry tickets ahead of time as the tours often sold out days in advance. This was hard for me to believe, but sure enough, when we arrived in town the next available tour was days after our departure. Luckily, I heeded the advice and purchased the tickets ahead of time. The interesting thing about visiting Alcatraz is that there is actually no entrance fee to visit the island. However, there is a charge for the ferry service to and from the island which is supplied by a private company called Alcatraz Cruises.

When we arrived at Pier 33, we were ushered into a line for our tour time. There was a massive amount of people everywhere, most standing in the appropriate line for their applicable tour time.

The ride over to the island took about 15 minutes. It was not necessarily enjoyable as it was cold, windy, slightly raining, and the smell of diesel fumes were everywhere. I was glad to get off the boat once we arrived at the island.

The ferry tickets that we purchased automatically include a free audio guide of Alcatraz, which we obtained upon entering the building. I was immediately struck by the eerie feeling and chilling atmosphere of the prison; you could sense that many bad things had occurred on the premises and that many bad people once walked the floors. The audio guide was excellent; extremely informative and very interesting, with lots of experts from actual prisoners, which truly made the place come to life. We also had the opportunity to walk through the cells of solitary confinement, which I really didn't enjoy. After touring the interior of the prison, we walked around the island, and eventually made our way back to the ferry.

From Pier 33, we walked down to the touristy Fisherman's Wharf. We had visited this area of San Francisco during our quick visit several years prior. Much to our surprise (not), we discovered that not much had changed. The area was still filled to the brim with a ridiculous number of tourist and tacky shops catering to their needs. There is really nothing authentic about this area; in fact, I would recommend that most steer clear ahead and focus on other areas of the city that are much more interesting and a true representation of the city.

From Fisherman's Wharf, we continued walking along the waterfront until we reached Ghirardelli's Chocolate Shop in Ghirardelli Square, where we stopped in for some ice cream desserts.

Afterward, we began the trek back to our hotel, first walking up the insanely steep hills of San Francisco. I thought the streets of downtown Seattle were steep, but they've got nothing on them compared to San Francisco. We eventually made our way to Lombard Street, known by most as "the crookedest street in world." The road has eight sharp switchbacks and were designed in 1922 as a necessity to reduce the hill's natural 27%!g(MISSING)rade, which at the time was too steep for most vehicles to safely to drive up. The street has one-way traffic traveling downhill at 5 MPH and is choked with tourists and hundreds of cars waiting at the top to drive down. Seeing this for myself was interesting, but I thought the whole notion was slightly absurd, especially for the poor residents who live in the nearby homes.

We eventually made our way back to the hotel, where we relaxed for a bit before finally heading out for dinner. We had decided upon a French restaurant called Cafe Claude which I had read many good reviews of. We had been desperately crazing authentic French food since our trip to Paris nearly one year prior, and based on what I had read, this place seemed to fit the bill. The owner of the restaurant had bought many of the furnishings from a bistro in Paris that was to be closed, so the atmosphere of the building truly felt as though we were in Paris. We each ended up ordering Onion Soup for an appetizer, for the main dish I had my favorite Coq au Vin (chicken cooked in red wine), while Mike chose Paleron Sauce Poivre Vert (flank steak served with an amazing sauce), and we both ordered Crème Brulée for dessert. The entire meal was incredible and one of the most delicious we have ever eaten. It's probably one of the best French restaurants we have ever been to, those in Paris included. I was so happy to have found this restaurant but was also sad that we couldn't bring it back with us to Seattle.

Day 4 (Monday, August 6th, 2007)

On the morning of my birthday, we decided to eat at one of the highest rated breakfast places in all of San Francisco, called Dottie's True Blue Cafe. It was within walking distance from our hotel, but we made sure to head out early at 7:00 as we had read that lines began forming shortly after that. I was shocked by the tiny size of the restaurant; there couldn't have been more than ten tables, all of which were packed full, so we opted to sit at the bar so we could be served faster. The food came out quickly, and was delicious, cheap, and filling. It's definitely a place I will come back to on our next visit to San Francisco.

After breakfast, we headed back to the hotel, where we received assistance regarding public transportation for our day of sightseeing. We knew we would have to take a combination of trains, trams, and buses, but weren't sure on exactly how to do this, but the staff at the hotel were able to help us.

Our first stop was at Mission Dolores, (also known as Mission San Francisco de Asís) which is the oldest building in all of San Francisco, having been built from 1782-1791. The old mission church sits next door to the beautiful basilica, which was built more recently in 1918.

Afterward, we took a bus to Alamo Square, which is best known for it's "Painted Ladies," made famous in the opening sequence of the sitcom Full House. Painted Ladies is a term that is used to describe Victorian and Edwardian houses and buildings that were painted in three or more colors. The colorful Victorian houses that can be viewed from Alamo Square were built between 1892 and 1896. In addition to the Painted Ladies, we were rewarded with beautiful views of the San Francisco skyline from the top of Alamo Square. It was refreshing to be in this part of the city as it was far away from the hubbub of the more touristy areas of San Francisco. In fact, we didn't see many people at all in this part of town.

From Alamo Square, we traveled by bus again to the massive Golden Gate Park, which consists of 1017 acres and whose size is actually larger than the more famous Central Park in New York. The large park has a huge array of sights and scenes to visit. As our time was limited, we decided to stop by the Conservatory of Flowers and the Japanese Tea Garden.

Unfortunately, although we could view the exterior grounds of the Conservatory of Flowers, the interior of the building was closed as it was Monday. I was disappointed, but still managed to enjoy the beautiful grounds and architecture. The conservatory, which was modeled after the one found in London's Kew Gardens was erected between 1878-1879 and then opened to the public. The conservatory has had a long and difficult history, and it is quite unbelievable that it still stands today. The building managed to survive a major earthquake and fire, before being closed in 1933. It was reopened years later in 1946, and remained opened until 1995, when it had to be closed due to a heavy windstorm that shattered 40% of the glass. It finally reopened again in 2003 after a campaign raised over $25 million dollars to help rebuild it.

From the conservatory, we walked through the park until we reached the Japanese Tea Garden. The park was created as part of the World's Fair in 1894 and is the oldest public Japanese garden in the United States. The gardens were manageable to visit as they spanned only five acres and were filled with sculptures and bridges. We both had a good time walking around the gardens.

From here, we headed back to the hotel as we had an 18:00 flight departure out of Oakland. Prior to leaving, we decided to eat lunch at an Italian restaurant located across the street from the hotel (I can't remember the name). We both ordered a pizza, which was okay, but with San Francisco being such a foodie town, we figured we probably could have received a better lunch at many other places.

We took the BART train and AirBART shuttle bus to the Oakland airport, arriving around 16:00. Much to our dismay, when we looked at the departure board shortly after arriving, we saw that our departure time had been extended by an hour. I was quite irritated with this news as I would have preferred to spend that additional hour of time in the city instead of the airport. Unfortunately, my feelings of irritation with the situation only escalated as the flight ended up being delayed two times more through the night. We didn't end up taking off until around 20:30, so needless to say, I was not too happy to have spent an extra two and a half hours more than I had planned in the tiny and boring airport of Oakland. The worst part for us though was when we realized that our flight ended up taking off after the flight was originally supposed to have arrived in Seattle at 19:51.

Aside from our negative experience with Alaska Airlines and the Oakland airport, Mike and I both had an enjoyable time on our weekend trip to San Francisco. Although the weather wasn't always cooperative, I wasn't too bummed out as I had read that the weather was completely unpredictable. Aside from seeing all of the great sites, our favorite part of the trip was the phenomenal food we had at nearly every place we ate at. I had done a lot of research prior to the trip on highly recommended restaurants, and it definitely paid off. We were rewarded with some of the best food we have ever eaten. Since San Francisco is a quick plane ride away from Seattle (less than two hours) I know we will come back again soon to experience more of the fine dining it has to offer. In addition to visiting the city again, I would also like to spend some time away in the nearby countryside, including the wine country of Napa and Sonoma.

---