We
thought we’d share our travels with you since you enjoyed hearing them
last year. This time
we’re in San Francisco. What
a great city. We love
it!!!!!
The
first thing we did was orient ourselves with the city.
We got really lucky when we picked our hotel.
It is very centrally located. One
block from Union Square, which is where many of the shops are and where you
catch the cable cars. We
purchased a “Passport” which is a weekly pass which allows you to ride all
the buses, cable cars and street cars in the City.
Between all of them we’ve figured out how to get all over town.
And believe me – we’ve been all over town.
The best part is riding the cable cars – yes we did the touristy
thing and hung off the sides!
In addition to riding all over town we’ve walked many, many, many
miles. It would be
interesting
to know exactly how many miles we walked.
We’ve gone to Fisherman’s Wharf and had clam chowder. We’ve seen every inch of sidewalk between Pier 45 and Pier 39! The sea lions were the best part of Pier 39. I’d like to go back and see them again. We’ve shopped in most/if not all of the shopping centers – and boy are there a lot of them!
We
rented a car and drove to Sonoma Valley earlier in the week.
We chose that valley because it’s less commercialized than Napa.
It was nice. Much
smaller than we expected but none the less a very nice day.
You basically follow one road and stop all along the way at the various
wineries. We packed a cooler so
we could supplement the wine samples with little things to nibble on!
Yes we purchased a few bottles of wine to bring home!
On
the way back Ron called one of his friends and it just so happened he lived
right on the way back to San Francisco so we stopped and saw him and his
family for a while. Who
would have guessed he’d live so close to where we were staying.
This
morning we took a walking tour of Chinatown.
It was lead by a man who has lived in Chinatown his entire life.
He is a movie “star” too – he’s worked with the crew of Nash
Bridges for the past few years (he was the Chinatown liaison) and can be seen
in many of the episodes (you’ve probably seen him Mom!)
We went all over including a fortune cookie factory.
Two people make 20,000 fortune cookies a day.
Did you know that if you don’t fold the cookie as soon as it comes
out of the oven you can’t ever fold it.
In fact, you can buy cookie “errors” all over Chinatown.
Another interesting tid bit – they also make X rated fortune cookies!
Our tour included lunch so we got to sample many different Chinese menu
items.
We
took a tour of Alcatraz. The
tour itself was really a great tour.
The jail itself is very depressing but all in all we were glad we went
on the tour and would recommend it to other tourists.
The
variety of food is unbelievable.
Whatever you want to eat – you can find it fairly easily.
One things for sure – we’re not going hungry!
Last night we ate on the top floor of the tallest building in the city.
This was pretty interesting since we were so high up we were literally
eating in the clouds – the fog was rolling in as we ate.
After we ended the night in a bar atop the Hyatt Hotel.
The interesting thing about this bar was that it revolved – 360
degrees in 45 minutes.
A
great way to see the city. We found a great little breakfast place near by – breakfast consists of enough
food to last a person a few days! We’ve
eaten there twice and made sure we’ve walked extra on those days. We took
the ferry to Sausalito and shopped and dined.
Another great day.
The
weather here is unbelievable – we didn’t pack enough warm clothes and had
to buy some while we’re here.
The low’s are in the low 50’s and the highs in the mid 60’s.
Today the temperature hit 71 and it was the warmest day we’ve had
yet. Whenever we’re
by the water it’s freezing!
Yes
we’ve purchased chocolate from Ghirardelli Square.
Thanks Dad for the tip on the Irish Coffee – we’ve visited The
Buena Vista 3 times already! The
Irish Coffee is Ron’s new favorite evening drink!
There are many different
“neighborhoods” in the city – we’re not far from the Theatre District.
We saw a play earlier in the week – Dirty Blonde.
It was pretty good – a play about May West.
The best part – the theatre is right across the street from the
hotel. We have plans
to go see another one on Friday.
We’ve been keeping very busy –
usually out by 9:00 or so and returning around 11:00 at night.
When we get back we’re tired!
That’s all for now.
We will be returning late Saturday evening.
Sunday we’re going to rent Escape from Alcatraz and try to find some
reruns of the Streets of San Francisco!
Love to all.
Pam and Ron
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