Weekend Before Adventure

I was trying to think about what to do for Lilah before the big trip to Japan. I looked through a couple of options, but San Franciso had our name all over its dance card, so with barely a week to go before J-day we were south-bound on an Alaskan airline, part of a three day, two night package from Expedia. This was, by the way, a great deal. Anyone looking into a last minute weekender should check them out. Our hotel had a 32nd story view of the down town San Francisco fincial district that was one of the best veiws we've ever had.

Of course, no trip is complete without a tour guide, and we had one! Enter Jai Jai Peterson, a.k.a. "Jai", a.k.a. "Pete" from my Army days in Fort Wainwright, Alaska. Pete is basically your all American good guy: tall, dark, and well I'm a guy so you decide. He's funny and was a perfect host; and yes ladies--he's single and looking.

Pete took us everywhere for all of Saturday and Sunday. We spent most of our time down in the Wharf disctrict because neither Lilah nor I had spent any time there previsouly, but we also did some time roaming around the Golden Gate area, Little Italy, the Financial District, China Town, and a couple of other odds and ends.

To start our Sunday off we decided to head to the Wharf by cable car. If you, like me, are wondering where the cable is, I was told it is beneath the tracks. Pete told us that there was a bunch of controversy a couple of years ago about getting rid of these and ripping up the tracks. Apparently that wasn't well received because these cars are still in use. The trip from the begining to end was about 20 minutes, and the wait to get on the train was about the same. Come to find out, if you just go up about two blocks you can usually jump on the car right away because the attendants don't fill the cars to capacity at departure. These cars are still used by many locals as a means of transportation and so this lesser known to tourist method of getting on the cars is a good trick to learn.
Once the ride starts it's a series of ups and downs the way only San Franciso can offer ups-n-downs. The wooden pressure break of the Cable Car starts to offer a smell similar to roasting pecans about the time you cross Lombard street that sticks with you until deboarding right across from The Buena Vista where they serve up to 2,000 Irish Coffees a day.
Needless to say, the views from the cable car are breath-taking and this was such a great way to spend $5.00, we did it twice.

Once down to the wharf, one of the stops we had to make was at Boudin (pronounced "Boo-Don"), which is home of the world famous San Francisco sourdough. The gentleman in the bottom picture is showing off a sourdough crab he'd recently crafted and these things are huge! We would have bought one, but how the heck do you get something that large home, intact? We settled on tasting some of the bread in the shop and sending some home to relatives.

The Boudin store is right down on the wharf, and the often photographed giant ships wheel with the Fishermans Wharf sign is right in their parking lot. Across the street is Alioto's, where we had a scrum-dillicious lunch.

After lunch we continued down toward Pier 39 to see the Sea Lions and shop around. At the end of the pier, adjacent to the sea lions is a stunning view of Alcatraz that demanded a couple of snaps from Pete's camera (oh yeah, he was also our designated camera provider... THANKS PETE!). Alcatraz was the one place that we wanted to visit but didn't have time to see. This at least gives us an excuse to go back again some day. For now, we have to settle for the pictures we took from both sides of the wharf:





It was a short vacation but we really saw a lot of San Francisco this visit. Again, we really have to give props to Jai here, because without him a lot of this would have been us scratching our head trying to figure out what to do. To show our appreciation, we decide to go to The Stinking Rose with him for dinner. Because, really, nothing says "What a Pal" like a plate full of garlic. And I mean that "plate-full" part literaly.
The metal plate you see is full of the good stuff, roasted, and covered in olive oil. The little green jar to the right was Garlic Pesto, and boy did I go to town on that. Unfortunately, no one else did. Oh, I mean unfortunately for them, because boy did it really hit the spot. After dinner we decided to walk through China town and back to the hotel. We even had a chance to stop and get some teas while Jai picked up some new music from one of the merchants playing in front of the tea shop.

Here's some more pictures from that awesome mini-vacation. Sitting here in Japan, it still amazes me how much we did. Anyway, I hope to be updating more frequently now that I'm abroad, so check back more often and leave comments! :j