San Francisco

We took a long weekend before the start of school to get away and spend some time together.  Stephen thought he'd like to see the ocean, and he had never been to San Francisco, so we decided to make it our destination. We flew into Oakland and stayed in Burlingame at a hotel on the Bay, overlooking the San Francisco airport.  I asked Stephen if Burlingame is where San Francisco keeps its hotels, and he said, "It's where they keep the affordable hotels."  It turned out to be a good choice, because it was very quiet and there was a lovely path about a mile long next to the bay where I could walk in the morning while Stephen slept in.  It was a short drive into the city, and we took a different route each time.

our hotel in the background

the walking path

On our first day, we just drove into the city and explored a little bit, then had dinner at the hotel.

Saturday morning we headed out to Golden Gate park, where it turns out we could have spent a week and still probably not have explored the whole thing.  We were there for most of the day, saw less than a third of the park, and didn't even scratch the surface of what was there.  We managed to see the Conservatory of Flowers, an amazing dahlia garden, some of the paths and wilderness areas, an art show, live jazz, and the Japanese Tea Garden.  I would love to go back sometime and go to the science museum, art museum, and Botanical Garden.  We could have taken a Segue tour or rented bikes, definitely activities to consider for the next visit.

the conservatory of flowers

the conservatory, inside

 Ironically for this vegan, the special exhibit at the Conservatory of Flowers was this one:

Live jazz!  These guys were good, and the acoustics in the tunnel were great!

dahlia garden

Seque tour.  Doesn't this look like fun?

Art

 We found lunch at an Indian food truck, and I had a delicious channa masala.  I loved SF at that moment -- yummy vegan food from a food truck!!! 

bike rentals

   


After lunch we went to the Japanese Tea Garden.  It was very beautiful and orderly and minimalist compared to the English style perennial gardens I had in Schuylerville.  There were large koi in the ponds, occasional statuary, and carefully tended plants.

When we were tired of walking, we left GG park and drove South on the Pacific Coast Highway to look at the ocean.  In spite of the amazing culture, architecture and food in San Francisco, I was really glad that Stephen's company is located in Albuquerque and not SF, because even though it was August 1st, it was COLD, damp, cloudy and foggy the entire time we were there.  I completely understood the quote attributed to Mark Twain: "The coldest winter I ever saw was the summer I spent in San Francisco."  So you will understand why this is the closest I got to touching the Pacific Ocean on this trip:

 I joked to Stephen that a good argument against Intelligent Design is the fact that there are nice sandy beaches in cold damp places like San Francisco and Maine, but the warm sunny weather is in Albuquerque where there is no beach at all!  He refuted that by reminding me that there ARE beaches in warm sunny places, we just weren't intelligent enough to go there.  :-)

After our PCH drive, we returned to Burlingame where we had dinner at an Afghani restaurant.  I had a tasty cauliflower-based dish over jasmine rice. 

On Sunday it was Stephen's turn to pick the destination, since we did lots of flower/garden/walking activities the day before.  He chose the harbor and the Maritime Museum.  I was glad to find out that there were outdoor exhibits (old ships you can explore) and that there is a famous gourmet vegetarian restaurant nearby.  On the way, we drove up Russian Hill to see the Coit Tower and to explore some of the crazy streets and check out the interesting architecture.

 There are little parks scattered through this neighborhood, but they are on terraced levels with stairs and ramps connecting them.  Fantastic!

This was my lunch at Greens Restaurant in one of the Fort Mason buildings which are old warehouses re-purposed for shops, theaters, and restaurants.  This was definitely the best food I had, and one of the best meals I have ever had.  The grilled veggies are covered in a poblano chile sauce.

Greens Restaurant

A container ship enters the harbor near one of the historic sailing vessels.

This craft is being restored.  Stephen loved the wood shop area and wished that our dads were there to see it.  He talked with a guy who is working to restore a three-masted schooner, and they had a long conversation about one particular piece of wood.

 My favorite part was the interior of the oldest ship where there were excerpts from sailors' diaries to read and explanations of what life was like aboard these ships.  The contrast between the captain's quarters and the tiny hard bunks where the sailors slept, practically exposed to the elements was very interesting.

Those are bunks on the side, right next to the chain gear!

Captain's quarters.

Harbor seals!

We had dinner at a brew pub/ wood-fired pizza place in Burlingame.
On Monday we were headed toward Chinatown when we got a message that our flight had been cancelled.  We had to reschedule, which involved leaving from a different airport, and that meant we had to change the drop-off place for the rental car.  In all that excitement, we ran out of time to do more than just drive through Chinatown, so we don't have pictures.
The weekend was very enjoyable, reasonably relaxing, we didn't get too bent out of shape about the driving although it seemed at times like all of California is one giant traffic jam.  We would love to go back and experience some of the many activities we didn't have time for on this trip.