A Quick Trip To The City By The Bay
After the past few months I have had, I was hoping for a vacation. My plan was to spend a few days in San Francisco with Jane and Amanda, and when they went home, go to Las Vegas for the Blog World Expo. It doesn’t look like either is going to happen as Jane’s job is more than a little in peril. So, I guess I will just have to blog about what I would have done.
Jane and I may be tired by the flights from Omaha to San Francisco, but Amanda never is, and she seems to get her dad to get in action right away. I suspect we would have stayed at the Argonaut Hotel in the Cannery. We enjoy the Washington Square Inn, but no elevator, too many steps, and four tired knees rule it out. A trip to Washington Square probably would have been a first afternoon outing for Amanda and I, while Jane relaxed at the hotel. A bus ride, lots of people watching at Washington Square, and a short walk to City Lights Bookstore would have been plenty of activity for me.
Lou’s Pier 47 is a nice restaurant/blues club. We’ve ate there several times before, the food is good, and though the blues club is on the second floor and the restaurant is on the first floor, you can still hear the music performed by good local blues bands. Follow that up with a walk to Walgreens to pick up items we always seem to forget, maybe walk through some of the shops at the Cannery, stop for an ice cream cone, then back to the hotel and some much needed rest.
Joanie’s Happy Day Diner may sound like a silly name for a restaurant, but it is a nice diner with good, reasonably priced food. The food is better than any hotel food and cheaper too. Follow a block walk to Starbucks to pick up a New York Times, walk another block and cross the street to Joanie’s. You can eat outside, but San Francisco mornings anytime of the year are cool enough that I would rather eat inside the diner.
My Korean daughter has a fascination with all things Japanese for some reason, so while Jane stayed at the hotel taking a spa treatment, Amanda and I would take a taxi to Japantown. Coming back to the hotel, lunch might be a bag of In & Out Hamburgers, a fast food restaurant a block from the hotel. Amanda and I would play tacky tourists-we do that well-wandering around Fisherman’s Wharf in the afternoon. That night we would take a taxi to North Beach and eat at The Stinking Rose, where the motto is “we season our garlic with food.” Several years ago we ate there and Amanda had 40 clove garlic chicken. Jane had a garlic braised pork chop, and I had garlic crusted prime rib, which happened to be the best beef I have ever had outside of Nebraska. After dinner, Club Fugazi is just a two block walk. Club Fugazi hosts Beach Blanket Babylon a whacky musical satire that is absolutely hilarious. That seems like a plenty for one day.
The last day of our stay in San Francisco, Amanda and I always get up early and walk out on the pier by Aquatic Park. Few people are up and about when we make this hike, and though is always chilly, the sights, sounds, and smells more than make up for the cold. Several times we have walked in fog, which is fascinating. The Golden Gate Bridge is only a few miles away, and the fog constantly shifts. One moment you might see part of one tower, the next moment part of the other tower. The entire bridge might come into view for a minute then be totally blocked by the fog. Once an ocean going cargo ship came sailed out of the fog for a few seconds, then slipped back into it like a ghost ship. This walk is always our pledge to return to the city by the bay.
After breakfast at Joanie’s, a visit to the Asian Art Museum would be in order. Artifacts thousands of years old are part of this huge collection. After a few hours at the museum, a taxi ride to North Beach and lunch would fit the bill. Amanda loves the chicken at Il Pollaio-and with a name like that the chicken has to be good-so lunch at Il Pollaio. A few blocks walk up and down Columbus Avenue is a good choice after a big lunch, and so is a stop at Washington Square for more people watching. The afternoon would include a ride downtown on the cable cars then back to the cable car turn around, just a block away from the Argonaut Hotel. The wait to get aboard one of the cable cars is often longer than the ride, but the ride is well worth the wait.
I love North Beach pizza, and insist on it being a meal at least once every time we are in San Francisco. North Beach pizza and an in-room movie serve as fairly cheap entertainment. Amanda and I might take a final walk around Fisherman’s Wharf as Jane packs for our early morning flight.
The last bit of excitement on our San Francisco trips comes on our drive to the airport. No, not driving under the Bay Bridge, as interesting as that may be. No, not the already busy freeway. What is exciting is whether or not I make the right turn to the airport to take the rental car back. Two out of our last three trips I have not made the correct turn, and I have heard about it plenty.
Well, it was fun thinking about a quick trip to my favorite city, but instead of taking the place of a vacation, it only made me want to go even more. Darn. Thanks for stopping by.
Ron Speaks Out 