San Francisco Day 2

From California 2010

Jose and I slept well, got up and had some breakfast at The Grove.  The place was very expensive and kind of loud, but the food was good.  It felt like it was trying a little too hard, though.

We drove over the Golden Gate bridge and stopped at the vista point just over it.  I don't know - personally I thought it was cool to be in a famous place but I just don't see the bridge has being particularly nice to look at.  Cool bit of engineering, though.

Jose wanted to take me up the nearby hills, but there was road construction and where he wanted to go was closed off, but we ended up in Point Bonita which was very cool and very beautiful.  Some neat historic sites like the Nike Missile Site and Battery Mendell, along with some really gorgeous views.  We also went to the Point Bonita Lighthouse, and though we couldn't get to the lighthouse itself (it was closed), the trail there was really gorgeous.

We stopped REALLY quickly in Sausalito, because I got in touch with my friend Alex and we went back to have lunch with him in a bad section of San Francisco - at Miss Saigon at 6th and Mission.  The food was good though, and it was great to see Alex.

We did some very quick shopping at the mall near Powell Station and then Jose had to go off to rehearsal.  I got my City Pass and started my big walk.

From California 2010

I walked to Union Square, walked up Grant through Chinatown, looped around Stockton - it's interesting.  Grant is the really touristy Chinatown street and the next street over, Stockton, is the REAL Chinatown where everything is in Chinese and you get the real deal like dried scallops, lop cheung and other dried scary bits.  Walking on Stockton felt like I was back in China.  Hong Kong mostly, because people were speaking Cantonese.

I went up Montgomery, got a really good look at the Transamerica Pyramid, walked up to Telegraph Hill, found an intersection where you can see the pyramid, the Bay Bridge and the Coit Tower just by turning in place.

I hiked up the Coit Tower stairs, took in the view with a bunch of other tourists, and then went down the other side, up Lombard St, including the really crooked section, up Russian Hill, over Polk to Bay and sat in the grass at the corner of Bay and Laguna while making plans to meet my friend Jaycen.

Using my new City Pass, I took the bus to Castro and met up with Jaycen, walked around the area for a bit before having dinner at La Mediterreanee and had some really good chicken with raisins and spices in pyllo.  They had such good service.  Jaycen ordered Kibbeh and only ate half.  He asked to take the rest home, and the waitress came back and said "I'm so sorry.  I dropped your food, so they're making you another one."  They made him another full one!

Back to the house for me, met up with Jose, who got out from rehearsal a bit early, and we chatted with Rick whose house we're staying at and another guest at the house.