San Francisco Day 4

From California 2010

Lots of walking today but not as many destinations.  Jose and I went to Golden Gate park and saw the Academy of Sciences - really great museum.  Aquarium, a four story rain forest with butterflies and birds, we did the planetarium show which was great...

Then we Yelped around the area looking for lunch and we settled on a Thai place for something light... Soi Gow Thai.  I got lettuce wraps and a cup of coconut shrimp soup, Jose got duck fried rice.

We drove up to Lands End and walked around up there and the Sutro Baths ruins before he dropped me off at the Palace of the Legion on Honor before going to rehearsal.  I checked out the art at the museum and the holocast memorial and then I walked alllllll the way down to Geary and 22nd... holy crap my knee hurt.

I took the bus from there to Presidio street and then another bus back to the Marina district again for dinner.  I Yelped around there for quite a while before getting pizza at Amici's - a delicious mini pizza with roasted garlic, mushrooms and carmelized onions.

While eating the pizza, I Yelped dessert and went to Crepes a Go Go and got the most amazing giant crepe - the King Lias crepe:  Nutella, bananas, coconut, almond powder and whipped cream.  Smashing!

On the way back to the house I picked up a red velvet cupcake for Jose and burned a few of the calories from that crepe by walking home.

Tomorrow I'm thinking harbor cruise, bay aquarium... and I think I'm having dinner with my friend Dante.

iPhoning in San Fran

Musings on my iPhone:

One thing I've learned:  Yelp is one of the best things in the world.  Not only can you find just about anything near you, but you get the reviews.  I definitely would have had a different dining experience on this trip without it.

My iPhone was absolutely invaluable as a GPS system.  My big walk on Monday would have been much harder without it!  Yay Google Maps!

Why the hell doesn't Foursquare work properly in San Francisco?  My phone worked fine for data, although I am dropping calls a lot... I've heard AT&T sucks in San Francisco.

San Francisco Day 3

From California 2010

This morning Jose and I got up pretty early and drove down to Carmel-by-the-Sea.  The main downtown area is pretty touristy, with nice, upscale shopping and dining.  We had brunch at this quaint place called The Cottage.  I had a delicious meal - the Cottage Special - little pancakes, "bangers" - English sausage, eggs and a side of toast.  Jose wasn't as thrilled with his eggs benedict - he said the hollandaise was very vinegary.

We drove along "Scenic Drive", stopping a little along the way, with nice views of the ocean, beaches and rocks.

We took route 1 out to the Point Lobos Ecological Reserve, which was absolutely breathtaking.  Sea lions basking on the rocks, rock arches in the water, little hidden beaches, a cypress grove... you could spend all day there but we only saw one side of it.  Jose even took a little nap in the car while I explored China Cove.

We wanted to see Monterey and Jose had rehearsal tonight at 8, so we headed there... it wasn't as compact and pretty as Carmel, but we had a very pleasant snack on Cannery Road and drove around a little bit.  We weren't all that impressed, didn't have time for the aquarium, so we headed back to San Francisco but took route 1 most of the way.

From California 2010

So many of the views on the way back were so beautiful, and we were approaching sunset so the light was great.  We stopped at a couple places along the way, most notably Pigeon Point lighthouse and Pescadero Beach.

Jose dropped me off downtown on his way to rehearsal, and I took the bus toward the house.  I stopped off at the Marina district and had a great dinner at Ristorante Parma, where they had carbonara that was not made with cream.  It had a definite chicken stock flavor but it was really good.  I also had some chocolate raspberry cake for dessert.

People in the restaurant were kind of weird (not the staff they were great - the patrons).  The guy next to me literally asked for a custom pasta dish, specifying all the ingredients.  The woman next to me wanted a seafood dish with different seafood but they didn't have shrimp so she couldn't have what she wanted, but she talked about how she wanted her shrimp.  I don't understand why people to go restaurants, wanting something really specific.  I have no idea where they were from.

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.

San Francisco Day 1

Jose and I arrived in San Francisco around 5:30 pm local time, picked up our rental (free upgrade since they didn't have any more compacts), and then dropped our stuff at the house we're staying at near the Presido.

From California 2010

We drove down to Fisherman's Wharf, walked around for a little bit and after a couple of long waits, settled for a short wait at Pompei's Grotto where we had some excellent food. We shared a crab appetizer - crab bruschetta, a baby crab cake and a half cracked dungeoness crab. I had a full dungeoness crab which is chilled and so sweet. It was delicious and reasonably priced. I was very full by the end.

We walked around a little more before going back to the house and going to bed.

Double Hike: Connecticut

From Connecticut

Continuing my exploration of Connecticut, today I drove down to Southford Falls in Oxford, CT.  It's a nice park although the "falls" were not much more that a trickle - I've seen brooks with more action.  I had a nice walk/hike on the trails that loop around the park and saw lots of chipmunks.

I think I heard a bear up near the watchtower, and later I saw what appeared to be bear poop, too.  Not really loving the idea that I might have been near a bear.

I had planned to have lunch in Litchfield and then take back roads home.  On the way, I SWEAR I saw signs for a Garlic and Harvest festival, and followed the following signs to a vineyard where there was no garlic, so I left.  I am not a huge wine person and was pretty hungry at this point.

I got to Litchfield and ate at Aspen Garden and I had a delicious cup of chilled apple and butternut squash soup, and an OK greek salad with spanikopita.  I poked around the shops in the cute little downtown area and then took off for my slow drive home.

When I got to Simsbury, I saw what looked like a monestary on a mountain and I immediately thought, a la Liz Lemon, "I want to go to there."  So, I kind of just drove toward it.

From Connecticut

I found Talcott State Park and Heublein Tower (it's not a monestary).  I hiked my butt again up to the tower, took in the 360 degree view from the observation deck and hiked my tired butt back down.

I heard a woman who was on her way up with some kids say "It's so much easier on the way down!"  LIAR!!!  She should have her kids taken away for lying to them like that.  I jest.  Mostly.  I was tired.

I continued on back roads home until I drove by a southern/cajun joint in a plaza and picked up some dinner:  ribs, cornbread, corn, rice and candied yams.  OK, at this point I had food so I hopped on the highway for the rest of the trip home.

My feet are tired, but it was a great day and I'm going to sleep well!  I burned a lot of calories today and enjoyed the fresh air.

I'll think of it as prep for my trip to San Francisco with Jose which is coming up!

Trying out the local stuff

From Connecticut

So I've lived in Connecticut for 8 years and I hardly know it.  I've been to somewhat unusual locations throughout the world, but I have not seen much of the US, so I've been using my weekends to explore the area around me.

I made some half-hearted attempts to find a traveling companion but decided to go it alone like I often do when traveling abroad while Jose's rehearsing.

I had heard from a friend of mine who was CEO of a tourism board in CT that Essex was a nice, quaint town, so I drove down and checked it out.

It was nice, but really small.  The one main street had some little shops and galleries and a lot of expensive cars parked along the road.

I did, however, book a cruise on the Connecticut river on the Mary E. which is based from the Connecticut River Museum.  I grabbed a quick lunch at Olive Oyl's - crab cake and a shrimp thai pasta salad.  Then I had perfect weather on my side and me and a boatload of older folks had a nice, relaxing time on the river.

Lots of really expensive houses, an island for sale ($1 million with a house), osprey nests... one bird of prey we couldn't quite identify.  A biplane flew over us... People on the river in speedboats, though, are not very considerate.  I saw one little boat almost get bowled over by the wake of a speedboat.

From Connecticut

Someone on the boat mentioned Gillette Castle, so I decided to head over to there after my sail.

The castle itself is a little weird looking - very craggy - and I didn't pay to go inside, but had a nice walk around the grounds (there are trails) and down to the river near the ferry.