San Francisco

Kayla and Brettley and I toured San Francisco a bit last week. Just enough to really make me want to see more.

We stayed at the beautiful Sir Francis Drake Hotel in Union Square. It is the grande dame of “boutique hotels” you can lodge at in San Francisco.

There is even a red velvet clad doorman to welcome you when you get there!

He incidentally pointed us toward the most fabulous restaurant a short walk away called Cafe de la Presse.

There will be more about that in a later post. AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS!

The inside of the hotel was SO ….Downton Abbey meets Buckingham Palace.

We got there on Friday and toured Chinatown (previous post about that –click here). Later before dinner they had a complimentary wine pour that was fun! We sat on velvet settees and quoted Violet Crawley lines from Downton.

Friday night we ate at Brothers, a Korean BBQ joint that was delicious! More on that later too!

PS – where is Waldo the cell phone in that picture?

P.S.S. Did you know when you go to a grill at the table Korean BBQ place that you need to wash your clothes, hair and any other thing that absorbs odors when you go back to your hotel?

Saturday we spent much of the day at the Ferry Building (at Fisherman’s Wharf) located along the Embarcadero at the foot of Market Street and it is all about the artisan food community in San Francisco.

Did I mention we were basically drowned rats because it pretty much rained the entire time we were there?

The Ferry Building is full of interesting shops, eateries and the like. And there is a good view of the Bay Bridge that connects San Francisco to Oakland also!

Also outside there is a farmer’s market happening Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

There were so many places inside that I wanted to try.

We started out with a biscuit from Biscuit Bender, a small niche shop inside the door.  Also –  Bacon Bourbon Jam to spread on it. Seriously?

We were prepared to wait in line for this – some really FOR REAL clam chowder from Hog Island Oyster Co.

So already, one-half hour before it was open, we got in line…and we were second in line but we were happy and eating our biscuites!

This place was a food-lover’s dream. There was Blue Bottle Coffee, Cow Girl Creamery, El Porteno (empanadas and alfajores from Argentina), Acme Bread company, Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream, Delica (Japanese sozai or small dishes) and more!

As if that wasn’t enough for one day, we walked almost 2 miles along the piers (again, in the rain) to Pier 39, stopping on the way for a few pictures like this one of the girls in front of Coit Tower.

Finally we reached Pier 39.  And I’m not gonna like..we were there purely to see these guys.

The Pier 39 sea lions are worth the walk. They are hysterical. You’ve seen puppies crawl all over and sleep on top of each other?

These 220 pound mammals do the same thing, all the while roaring (hence the name lion?) in annoyance at each other, knocking each other off and clambering up again!

The two on the corner of that dock…so cute!

Oh also! There is a live web cam if you miss them after you’ve gone! (Click here to see)

The Pier itself had lots of other cool shops to look at and some food places as well.

However at this time, we were stuffed full so we just looked around and tried to think happy thoughts, as if we weren’t water logged and extremely weary.

And then we called an Uber drive to get us the heck out of there so we could get ready to make the 4 hour drive back to Northern Cali where my daughter lives.

San Francisco, we loved you!

Except for trying to drive up this street when our tires spun on the wet streets and we almost rolled into the car behind us.

The end.