San Francisco Extravaganza - Day Two - Part One

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Saturday morning bright and early at 6:00 am, I woke to the smell of fresh coffee wafting through the room. At first I thought Troubadour might have risen early and was brewing the in-room coffee, but then I realized he was still sleeping. Apparently smells carry through an old building. The kitchen on the main floor (3 floors down) was gearing up for breakfast and was brewing multiple pots of coffee and it was gently permeating the many floors above and waking the inhabitants. Well, not all inhabitants. Troubadour swore he could never smell it. It did manage to wake me every morning by 6 am though, and made me hungry so I couldn't go back to sleep. On the heels of the coffee smell was smell of fresh baked goods and even fried onions.

We got up and got ready for the day and headed down to breakfast. We never did take the camera to breakfast. Always so many people and too much to carry - plates and coffee mugs. They usually had sausages and quiche with sausage as their main fare. Luckily they had fresh fruit and a crock pot full of oatmeal as well as homemade pastries and scones. Oh, and they had toast and cold cereal too.

We made sure to take the handy map with us when we left the hotel at about 9:30 Saturday morning. We'd researched bus schedules and were going to walk to the corner of Sutter and Stockton just a few blocks away and catch a bus to the wharf. Our plan was to wander and see a few things on our list such as the Exploratorium, Presidio, Maritime Museum and Golden Gate Park.

It seems that we weren't the only ones having trouble with the bus schedules and which bus stop was for which route. Everyone we saw with a map in their hand at a bus stop had to ask a local if they were at the correct stop. After a little waiting and not much patience Troubadour made an executive decision: We both had two feet and a heartbeat so we could walk. And walk we did.....

We started walking along Stockton through the tunnel and found ourselves on the edge of Chinatown by the Financial District. There were a lot of people walking around and the sidewalks were full of fresh produce and other goodies. It was a good thing we'd already had breakfast because the bakeries looked particularly tasty. We didn't get to stop for pictures of the markets as the most crowds were gathered there but I did get a few pictures as we stopped on the corners to wait for the walk symbol.

(Chinese United Methodist Church)

Then I decided to take a few pictures just to show how many people were milling about on a Saturday morning.

And we kept seeing massage signs.....

Soon the fresh markets gave way to cafes and it appeared we might be in Little Italy. On one sign post there were even green, white, and red stripes painted from the Italian Flag. I don't know if it was an official Little Italy, but there were a lot of little cafes and Italian restaurants. Again, good thing we'd already eaten breakfast.

We walked a little further and I took a picture of this interesting church. If you know me, you know I am no fan of any church or religion, but I do think they have some of the best architecture.

At this point we could see Coit Tower off to our right up Filbert Street and the Filbert Street Steps.

We decided we might as well make the climb while it was still early and we were full of energy. From the top of the hill on the sidewalk we looked at where we'd just been.

A quick step into the street for a better view.

There was an empty lot towards the top that afforded a different view of the city.

Once at the top of the hill we realized there were stairs to get to the tower.

We noticed a parking lot on the other side of the tower. It seems not everyone was as energetic as we were first thing in the morning. Cheaters! In the parking lot was a statue of Christopher Columbus.

This plaque was hiding in the shrubbery just outside of the parking area.

Me sitting in front of the plaque.

We decided against paying the fee to get to the top of the tower. It was a foggy morning and we knew the view wouldn't be great.

We decided to head down towards the Embarcadero and take the brick stairs as seen in "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill". We saw no parrots. Sad panda, but we did see hummingbirds.

We weren't sure how many stairs we walked down until we saw this sign.

We took a few pictures at the bottom.

(One of my favorite pictures out of the over 1000 we took)

From there we went down some more wooden steps leading towards the Embarcadero. It was interesting to see so many apartments and condos along the stairs.

We popped out at Sansome Street and Levi's Plaza where I saw something I never thought I'd ever see......

....a Starbucks closed on a Saturday. Sadly it wasn't the only closed we saw that day. I could have really used an iced latte by this point too. We then cut through the plaza and passed a fountain. Deserted on a weekend.

We made it to the Embarcadero and took a look back at Coit Tower.

Thus concludes Part One. Up next Part Two - the Embarcadero, Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf, and maybe some food porn.

- Au Revoir

"A vacation trip is one-third pleasure, fondly remembered, and two-thirds aggravation, entirely forgotten." ~ Robert Brault

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Lordy Lordy......

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.......look who's 40.

It has been mentioned before that I would be turning 40 soon. Well, last Friday on the 26th was the day. When Troubadour turned 40 last January we made a weekend trip to Las Vegas. This year we thought it would be fun to either go to Victoria or San Francisco. I chose San Francisco.

Back in June we researched hotels and also found a great deal on airfare to save us from driving. We booked a nice room at the White Swan Inn. An English Style Boutique Hotel owned by the Joie de Vivre Company. It describes itself on their website as follows: "With the ambience of an English country inn, the White Swan Inn is a romantic and atmospheric bed and breakfast in the heart of San Francisco."

We also reserved airfare with Allegiant which meant we'd fly from Eugene to Oakland and have to take a shuttle and the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) into San Francisco.

SAN FRANCISCO EXTRAVAGANZA - DAY ONE

Friday arrived and we were able to sleep in and take our time getting to Eugene - the closest airport for flying anywhere of note. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 2:15 pm so we knew if we made it to the airport by noon we'd be fine. We stopped at Starbucks here in town for a birthday latte and headed out.

We arrived in Eugene almost an hour early so figured we'd best find something to eat as it was going to be a long afternoon. We decided to try a sushi place that our friend Tim previously recommended called Izumi Sushi & Grill.

We each ordered a lunch special Bento box.

(Troubadour had the Fish Katsu - breaded snapper)

(and I had the Teriyaki Tofu)

It was pretty tasty. With our bellies full we headed to the airport. Found parking, received our boarding passes, breezed through security and sat down to wait. The incoming plane arrived on time, but there was a problem with a light on the landing gear indicator so we had a half hour delay while a mechanic was called to change the bulb. We ended up arriving in Oakland an hour late but it was without incident.

We found the shuttle, and figured out the ticket machines at the BART station. I was smart enough to print out our directions before we left home and had it all in a file folder in the carry-on. We got off the BART at the Powell Street Station and proceeded to walk a few blocks uphill to the hotel.

Check in was also easy and we arrived in our room on the 4th floor. Well, they call it the 4th, I call it the 3rd. They were calling it 4th because they were including the basement dining area.

(Our room was to the right of the fire escape -middle set of windows)

We reserved a luxury king room, so it had a separate vanity/walk in closet area as well as a nice gas fireplace.

When you walked in the door the vanity/walk in closet area was to the left:

And to the right was the restroom:



A little further into the room and the mini kitchen was to the right:



And the gas fireplace was to the left in the great room/bedroom:

There was also a wall of windows but the picture didn't turn out great because of the backlighting. The room felt almost as big as our whole house.

Because we'd made it to the hotel in time for the evening hoers d’oeuvres in the parlor, we headed down. We caught the tail end, which meant a few slices of baguette, some veggies and a little bit of artichoke dip. They were nice and put out a wedge of Havarti and a wedge of Swiss so this, added to a cup of coffee, supplemented our snacking. After relaxing in our room for a bit and perusing the handy map provided by the front desk we decided to go for a walk and maybe find a place for a late dinner. We decided to take the elevator as we'd read online about it. It is still the original one with the sliding doors and cage.

For the rest of our visit we only took the stairs. Gluttons for punishment we are. That and they were quicker than waiting for the elevator.

We ended up walking through Chinatown. Well actually it was just a portion of it. Stores were mostly still open selling knickknacks and other things. We saw a lot of souvenirs and San Francisco t-shirts for sale. There were quite a few restaurants open but after having sushi for lunch we thought we'd wait and see what else we could find.

We took a few pictures as we wandered.....

We eventually wandered back towards Union Square. Being Friday night it was quite busy. Macy's has a Cheesecake Factory on the 8th floor so we thought about stopping for some birthday dessert. They have a special elevator to take you right to the restaurant. Unfortunately the line was huge and my patience was wearing thin by the time we arrived, about 10 pm. We decided to meander back to the hotel and eat a few almonds we'd brought with us.

The hotel was nice and provided cans of soda and bottled water complimentary in the little fridge in our room. Very nice since most hotels charge for those types of things. They also have complimentary homemade cookies in the lobby area every day; a different variety each evening.

We snatched a few cookies and made our way back to the room. Took a nice hot shower and headed to bed anticipating a busy Saturday........

- Au Revoir

"A vacation is like love - anticipated with pleasure, experienced with discomfort, and remembered with nostalgia." ~ Author Unknown