Well, for years I have been saying that San Francisco was one of my top four favorite cities. I had only been there once. In remembering my only trip in 1998, I couldn’t put my finger on what exactly I loved about it; I just knew that I did. Well, a few hours there in April 2004 brought it all back. It’s just lovely: beautiful scenery wherever you turn – both natural and man-made; all the cultural offerings one would expect from a large city; and my most important criteria for city-visiting: walkable and pedestrian-friendly. I find San Francisco so unique, and I’m sure it has a lot to do with the topography!
Let’s start off with the hotel, the Petite Auberge. This was a bit of a splurge for Tom and me (just a bit) but since we flew for free (I thought it wise to use my USAirways miles now!), we justified it well enough. Their website boasts a very European feel (true, i.e. small rooms but we expected that anyway), turn–down service (not true), homemade cookies in the lobby 24/7 (not true), and wine and hors d’oeuvres every night from 5:00-7:00 (true, but you better get there by 5:30 to get anything!) Don’t get me wrong, I don’t need all of these things, but if you’re going to brag about these amenities, you better have them! I noted at the front desk one day that we didn’t get turn-down service and the desk clerk replied with, “Well, we don’t leave the chocolate any more because we had an ant problem.” Huh? That explains no chocolate (well, sort of), but what about the actual turning down? The next night, I got the covers turned down and Belgian chocolates on my pillow. Go figure. I will say their breakfast was very good: yogurt, granola, fruit, eggs, baked goods, etc. The coffee was good, too – good coffee during the whole trip, actually. The best thing about the hotel was the location – very close to Union Square.
After our long trip – we connected through Charlotte (hey, it was free) and landed at about 5:30p.m. on Saturday – and due to plans I had made for later that evening, we “shopped” around our hotel neighborhood for dinner. We came across a cute little place called Rue de la Presse – almost like a tabac in France, i.e., magazines, newspapers, books, and sit-down service for food. This place also had live music. One of the first good signs was hearing lots of French-speaking people! Tom ordered an osso buco which was wonderful and I was in the mood for some steak-frites. Standard hangar steak but very good french fries.
That night we went to a performance called “Audium” which I learned about from the AOL travel board. It was called a composition of sound and was very interesting. You go in and sit in pitch blackness with a group of strangers and the composer plays “sounds” for you. Not quite music, but sounds. With the darkness and no sense of sight, you really sort of get swept away by the sounds – very cool.
After breakfast Sunday morning, we walked down to the pier to catch our boat to Alcatraz (bought the tickets ahead of time online at the Blue & Gold Fleet's website). Neither of us had been there (and by the way, Tom had been in SF way more than I) and we had foggy, pretty typical San Francisco morning weather accompany us there. Alcatraz was pretty amazing and they do a great self-guided audio tour; very powerful and made you feel like you were really there. I found it a sobering experience, but there were plenty of tourists posing behind bars and wearing silly striped shirts. Hello, this was not a happy place! But I must be in the minority.
Back in San Francisco, we decided to walk to Chinatown for lunch and wound up at Yuet Lee. We shared the salt & pepper calamari (oh my, I didn’t know calamari could be this tender! Just fabulous.) and a spicy pork dish, which was also very good. We did some more walking, and I knew my calves would be killing me the next day!
Sunday night we had tickets to “The Time of our Lives” at the Act Theatre. We loved this play, about some down and out folks living in 1939 San Francisco – really excellent acting. We had post-theatre dinner at First Crush which I read about online, but once the coupon arrived with the theatre tickets, it was a no-brainer! When we walked in – late, about 10:30 – and were seated next to a band playing LOUDLY, we were a bit concerned. But our waiter quickly informed us that they were just about wrapping up. The deal through the theatre was for a fixe prix 3-course dinner – plenty of choices. I started with some spicy prawns and had horseradish-crusted salmon in mustard sauce. The appetizer was better than the entrée, but it was pretty good nonetheless. Tom started with the Crush salad – greens with bleu cheese, dried cranberries & candied walnuts and apples – yum! He had the better entrée – a stuffed chicken of all things, but free range (got to love that gamey taste) and stuffed with goat cheese. For dessert, I had a modern rendition of a s’more and Tom had a crème brulee. Needless to say, we shared…
Monday morning, we picked up our rental car (no need to haul yourself to the airport; there are plenty of car rental places in the Union Square area) and headed off to Napa Valley to catch the Napa Valley Wine Train. After a brief “tasting seminar” we boarded the lunch train. We loved it! As we both said, it was hokey, but fun, and surprisingly, the food was pretty good. There are no stops at vineyards on the train – you simply dine while rolling through the lovely Napa Valley. After lunch, you can head to the tasting car. We both started with a salad and we both had mixed seafood in a creamy tomato sauce over pasta – unusual for us to order the same thing, but there were not tons of choices which appealed as much as this special. It was all very good. We retired to another car so the second seating could eat and were served our desserts: crème brulee for me (not a bad theme for a trip) and chocolate cake for Tom. Afterwards we tried some Napa wines in the tasting car, where we were convinced the little girl serving us was tanked! The service was great and all in all, it was a really nice experience, and something to at least do once.
Monday evening we wandered around Polk Street, where we heard one could restaurant-shop. I was in the mood for ethnic. It was still early so we ducked into a bar for some wine. Tom had read about a place called “Little Thai” so we set out to find that, but stayed flexible enough in case we got seriously distracted. We didn’t. Little Thai was a little hole-in-the-wall Thai restaurant (obviously) with a few tables occupied with people who seemed to be regulars. Our waiter was teaching a younger girl (maybe his sister) how to wait tables. She was very eager to learn - and to please. We started off with some spring rolls, which weren’t very good, actually; pretty bland and just nothing special. Our entrees, however, were wonderful. A spicy chicken and calamari dish was recommended by the waiter. The crab in a spicy brown sauce, which was a special that night, was served with all the proper utensils (messy, but worth it).
While we were dining, two college-age boys came and sat at the table next to us. They were very loud, particularly talking about their sexcapades. Now I’m no prude, but they were getting a little too specific – not to mention very degrading when they were talking about their female acquaintances. Mind you, the tables weren’t that close – they were just loud. Tom asked them to keep it down because there was a lady at his table. (Who me? ;-)) Anyway, they did and we were on our way shortly thereafter. A nightcap at the Top of the Mark ended a wonderful - and very busy - day.
Tuesday morning we left San Francisco for an overnight trip to Carmel. Tom had been, but I hadn’t and was looking forward to the well-noted drive down Route 1. We took a windy road to start (Highway 17 from 280) and then caught up with Route 1 in Santa Cruz. The windy road was actually pretty and scenic in its own right, but seeing the ocean laid out in front of you was really amazing. We stopped in Monterrey and walked around a bit in the cannery area. Cute, but one too many cheesy tourist shops for me. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)
We arrived in Carmel and went to the Green Lantern Inn where we had a reservation ($59 through the internet.) We were told – somewhat sternly – that our room wasn’t ready yet. OK, as long as we could leave our car, which we did. Then it was off to find Casanova, a restaurant which a friend from New Orleans highly recommended. It really was adorable - cute, cozy space, little rooms everywhere with intimate tables, and very Provencal in décor. Tom had a seafood stew, which was good, but my duck dish with vegetables in a rich red wine sauce was out of this world. I was a little disappointed by the wine list – I thought they would have more selections from Provence or the Languedoc. But we had a glass of Cotes du Rhone each, which was pretty good.
After lunch we walked around some more and enjoyed Ocean Street with its many shops and pretty landscaping. We checked into our room, which was cute (lots of cute things on this trip, huh?) – the Inn itself was nice, too. I guess I am used to really friendly B&B owners, because this one just rubbed me the wrong way. He wasn’t nasty, he just wasn’t all that friendly. None of the “where are you from?”, “what are you doing today?” or giving tips on what to do or see. He just wasn’t warm & fuzzy enough for me, but perhaps he was just having a bad day.
We relaxed in our room for a bit before heading out to dinner, which is a story in and of itself. Part of the reason we came to Carmel on this San Francisco trip was to go to La Boheme. About 5 years ago, I was doing research on a trip to Paris when I came across their site. They had some great Paris links that I used for the trip, and when I looked at their restaurant, it was so cute (here we go again) and sounded so good, I thought I am going to have to go there one day. So we did. The space is also very nice, although different from Casanova but it was replete with the lace curtains and Parisian looking signs. We were seated strategically in a small nook with only two tables. It was strategic because at the other table was a couple celebrating their 25th anniversary (they ate their first anniversary dinner at La Boheme!) but they were on dessert and just about wrapping up. The menu is fixed at La Boheme – no choices – which I actually like. There is little either of us can’t or won’t eat. We started out with a good crème of cauliflower soup; then a small house salad with a very good vinaigrette. The main course was pork tenderloin in a creamy onion and mushroom sauce. Dessert was, you guessed it, crème brulee, as well as a nice apple cobbler. The meal was good, but not as good as Casanova. I was hoping to talk to the proprietors since we all have a love of France in common, but they seemed very busy. We overheard them telling some regulars that they were just about ready to be done with the whole restaurant business. While they were perfectly nice, Tom and I both picked up on the fact that they don’t seem to be having fun doing this anymore…too bad.
Wednesday was to be our last day in California. This time we took the Pacific Coast Highway all the back to San Francisco; the view really is breathtaking. We stopped in Santa Cruz on the way back on a recommendation from a friend who loved the shopping there. We aren’t big shoppers, but we hadn’t really bought anything yet, so we browsed around. We found a great kitchenware store where we picked up some gadgets, a tablecloth and some napkins. The tablecloth was made in Provence (!) but at least the napkins were somewhat local: made in L.A. - the other LA.
We had lunch at a mediocre Mexican restaurant (recommended by the sales clerk at the kitchen store) called Los Pinos. There seemed to be lots of locals there and maybe we didn’t order their best dishes, but it was just very ordinary, run-of-the-mill Mexican American food.
We had made plans to spend our last evening (before catching the red-eye) with an old, dear friend of mine from New York, who lives in San Rafael and whom I hadn’t seen in years. Since we planned on meeting at his yacht club (the Saint Francis) for drinks, we parked the car nearby and walked around that area. I don’t recall seeing the Palace of Fine Arts on my last trip, but it’s a very impressive piece of architecture. We snapped a few pictures before heading off to the club.
We met my friend for a drink and he invited us to stay for dinner in the club’s dining room. The view of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay were stunning, and we were lucky enough to be there at sunset on a near-perfect day. Shrimp bisque (I was chilly on this whole trip, so yes, it was soup weather!) followed by venison in a rich sauce with some spaetzel and chestnuts, washed down with what else? One of the many wonderful California wines, this one from Silver Oak Cellars. Between the view, catching up with an old friend, and wining & dining, it was quite a send-off.
Just a quick note on the San Francisco Airport: the exit for returning a rental car is different from the main terminal exit. Otherwise, the airport was fairly easy to navigate. Our flight was uneventful and we arrived in New Orleans the next morning, with our hearts in tow, but very much looking forward to our next trip to San Francisco.
