SFO Touring Day 2, Part 2

After our refreshing pints at 21^st Amendment, we got back on the road.  The pace of our touring may have me remembering things a little bit out of order.  We headed directly across the peninsula, through the Haight District, past the Panhandle, and then to Golden Gate Park. 

There is a small island there that Brian enjoys visiting, and he wanted to show it to us – plus it was convenient to the Beach Chalet so we could stop in there if needed…which we did.  The feature of the island is a collection of wildlife, including raccoons, squirrels, and a host of birds, perhaps including the “Wild Parrots of San Francisco,” but we didn’t see any that day, neither up in the Presidio nor in the Park.

We took some time enjoying the botanical displays and the old windmill, and headed over to the beach.  The Chalet was too crowded, so we headed up the hill to the Cliff House, which I had visited with Brian back in 2010.  We walked down from the new parking lot and visitor center at the top of the hill, above the Sutro Bath ruins.

It just happens that the ruins are one of my favorite sites in San Francisco, and I was glad for the chance to look them over.  Brian and I had spent a couple of hours checking the place out in 2010 – there’s an old blog post here:  http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2010/07/sutro-baths-ruins.html.  If memory serves, we also made our way down to the Cliff House for refreshments that time as well.

We grabbed a spot in the café and had some beers and Popovers(!) – I think all three of us share a passion for this pastry.  The Cliff House is one of the few places I know us where they are always available, so we had some.  Also, since Mary likes to make them from time to time, we picked up a pack of their mix – Brian had sent us one a while ago, and we had them for breakfast…now we have a pack at the ready for another batch sometime!

Refreshed, we rolled out to our next stop, Coit Tower, a must-see tourist sight.  Traffic was a little backed up, so Brian let us out while he waited in line for parking, and we walked up.  We enjoyed the view, but didn’t take the time to check out the restored murals or go up in the towers, since we’d seen them before.  Seriously, the view is enough to make the stop worthwhile, and Brian arrived just in time

after we’d finished a walk around the summit. 

It was getting on towards dinner time, and we’d planned to drive down to North Beach to take a walk and then enjoy one of the restaurants there.  It was a beautiful evening, and diners and strollers were out in full force.  We chose a place and had some wonderful pasta dinners, then walked a short way for dessert at an espresso joint.

There are lots of shared memories about North Beach, Mary and I had been a few times and remembered the espresso place from one of our visits.  Of course, Brian has been to many of the places up there, so we enjoyed talking about fun times there.

Dusk was upon us, and Mary and I needed to get back to East Bay.  Brian offered to drive – much appreciated – so we got to go across the new Bay Bridge (hey, I even have a post on that – right here:  http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-new-bay-bridge.html

There’s an old saying that San Francisco is everybody’s second home town.  As far as American cities go, that is definitely true for Mary and me, and we’re lucky to have friends there who call it their actual home town! After a full day of sightseeing, we had fully refreshed our memories of the place, and at last the vacation was over – all that was left to do was to drive down to San Jose the next morning for our flight home.

SFO Touring Day 2, Part 1

The neigborhood garden at Portrero Hill.

Busy work week last week, but now I’m back to finish up with a final few posts about the trip Mary and I took to Northern California in May. Today my post will follow-up on the two days we spent touring around San Francisco – I wrote about the first day already, and I’ve also posted about the fine breakfast we had to start day 2, which we spent under the oversight of our most excellent tour guide, Brian. 

Brian and I were stationed in Berlin together during our Air Force days.  He also keeps a blog, and although I’ve linked to his post about the day we spent together before, I’ll go ahead and refresh our rememories here:  http://breakfastatepiphany.blogspot.com/2014/06/dotties-true-blue-cafe.html.  A read of that post will let you know that he is a skilled and experienced tour guide, and however much we paid for the experience it was well worth it, and I’ll have to recommend him again for any touristas that would care to join him.

After Dotties we got on the Streets of San Francisco for some sightseeing in earnest, and made our first stop at a fun building that doubles as an art project.  The structure was rendered unstable and unoccupiable in the 1989 earthquake, and the owner has never made the seismic upgrades that would be needed to put it back into use – at least that is our theory.  There are installations of furniture on the exterior walls, perhaps stuff that was left behind inside of it, and Brian tells us there’s always something new.  This time it was a sort of frieze of old piano parts.

From there we went to the Portrero Hill neighborhood, where there is a street that is just as crooked, but less well traveled, as Lombard Street.  We took a look around, and discovered a fantastic community garden at the top of the hill.  We spent a lot of time admiring the garden patches – and a fantastic urban view of the Mission and Castro districts.

Our next stop was over to the Mission District, by special request.  Our friend Cathy used to live in the neighborhood there, and she hosted us a few times in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, so we asked to drive through the area for old times’ sake.  We stopped at the house for a minute and then walked over to Mission Dolores Park, and we checked out the Golden Hydrant.

Surprisingly, Wikipedia doesn’t have an article about the hydrant, so I want to make a note of it here.  Apparently, the pipes connected to it didn’t break during the 1906 earthquake, and it was used to save the neighborhood and mission.  It’s worth a stop for the view across the park and to pay respects, so we did just that.

By now it was past noon, and we’d begun to feel the need for refreshment.  Brian took us down to the 21^st Amendment Brewery – again, by special request – and we sat outside to enjoy a pint of Hell or High Watermelon, an occasion that I dutifully recorded in a previous blog post here:  http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-norcal-brewery-tour-part-3.html

As I am writing this, I am recalling how indulgent Brian was as a host, and there are a few more stops I need to write about.  I guess I’ll stop here for the day and pick it up here tomorrow!

Dottie's on TV

I wrote about Dottie's True Blue Cafe this morning, and as I mentioned in the post, Mary's and my visit was not the first time I'd been there.  I was in San Francisco in the summer of 2010 and met up with Brian for breakfast when Dottie's was located in the Tenderloin District.  Here's a link to Brian's post from that trip.  http://breakfastatepiphany.blogspot.com/2010/07/dotties-true-blue-cafe.html

Now, the place has also been featured on the Food Network - also at the former location.  In that episode, they showed how the chili was made - and the dish that comes out at the end looks great...may have to get by there for lunch sometime!  Here's a little YouTube snippet:

Back to Dottie's

I reckon I still have four or five posts left to make from our vacation to the west coast back in May.  So today I'll check off one from the list - after our drive up to Mendocino and our first day back in the Bay area, we'd arranged to meet one of my Air Force friends, Brian, for breakfast and sightseeing.

Brian keeps a blog called Breakfast at Epiphany's about his exploits at unique breakfast joints in San Francisco.  On the one hand, having ready access to so many fine venues is great, but on the other, there are so many great venues so it can be hard to choose which one to go to...in the end, I recommended that we join him at one of his favorites, and one I'd been to with him before - Dottie's True Blue Cafe.

Dottie's is famous for a couple of things - great breakfasts are the primary one, and there are menu items and daily specials on a big board.  It also was famous for its location in the Tenderloin District, although it has moved to a new location recently - still in the Tenderloin.  Finally, it's notable for the long lines outside - often people will wait for an hour or more to get in for breakfast there!

When we arrived via a short walk from the BART station, Brian was already waiting in line there.  So we had maybe 20 minutes or so to wait until we could be seated.  I was really impressed with the new location - more seats, looks like a bigger kitchen, and all that.

The line outside is still a colorful experience, too, although not quite as entertaining as it had been before.  I suppose that is going to strike some people as a good thing, and some as a bad thing.  Different strokes!

After we were seated and had started catching up, Brian gave us the orientation briefing about the menu and the board.  He's written so often about ordering the specials that we all did just that - Mary and I both chose the Sweet Potato Tart, and Brian picked the black bean cakes (I think they are a favorite).  Money shots follow:

Breakfast at Dottie's simply doesn't disappoint.  I'd go there quite frequently if I lived in San Francisco...I think I might even make excuses to have business meetings there on weekdays.  And as a matter of fact, Brian has already been back there on his rotation since we made our trip to Dottie's together!

Meanwhile, here' a link to his blog post about the day - I'll have another post about the rest of our activities together soon.  http://breakfastatepiphany.blogspot.com/2014/06/dotties-true-blue-cafe.html

SFO Touring Day 1

With the sole business activity taken care of, and with the excellent ferry ride across the bay behind us, Mary and I set off on foot for some sightseeing in San Francisco.  Although I was worried that we might be biting off more than we could chew, we decided to head over to the Marina District with a side trip up to the Presidio.  It turned out to be a good route and I estimated that we walked around 8 miles total, in town.

A lot of the waterfront in San Francisco is part of the National Park Service's Golden Gate National Recreation Area.  Most of the walk was down in this area - we stopped to have a look at folks doing open water swims in the Aquatic Park and agreed this was insane.  Just a little further and they were setting up for the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon (they ferry you out to the island and you swim back in) - the details of this event also didn't make much sense to us either, but we wish all of the racers well anyway!

At lunch time we turned south and inland, passing through the Palace of Fine Arts, a place I'd only seen from a tour bus before. Since walking through the triathlon set-up already had me on a theme, I kept recalling Sean Connery's movie "The Rock," which included establishment scenes here.  (Gratuitous Amazon link to The Rock DVD:   The Rock (The Criterion Collection))

After some photography, people watching (a busload of tourists disembarked and started photographing the place from the sidewalk outside of the buildings - they weren't going in!), and a few chats with people who were reminiscing as we were, we headed on through the park and on to Chestnut Street, where we found an excellent little sushi place, Asa Sushi.

I'm going to have to go ahead and recommend Asa, so here's a link to their website:  http://www.asasushisf.com - if you want Yelp! reviews you'll have to find them yourself.

From there, we turned north and walked into the Presidio.  Now, the movie connection to that place starred George C. Scott, in case you were looking for me to misidentify that one as a Sean Connery movie.  See for yourself at this second gratuitous Amazon link:  Presidio, The

The redevelopment of the Presidio is a pretty amazing story, and several friends have had the opportunity to work on it from the National Park Service side.  It was a pleasant walk that really tested our endurance, but it certainly had its highlights between the glimpse we had of the old pet cemetery that they are preserving, and then there was the Wild Parrots of San Francisco sighting in a pine tree near the entrance.

For more information, I'll link you to the authoritative Breakfast at Epiphany's blog, where there are no less than 53 posts with the aforesaid label:  http://breakfastatepiphany.blogspot.com/search/label/the%20Wild%20Parrots%20of%20San%20Francisco
Now, since I am going to link to the Breakfast at Epiphany's blog again in tomorrow's post, I should mention that I consider it authoritative is because of it's exhaustive coverage of excellent breakfast spots in San Fancisco.  If you want the serious low-down on a place to have breakfast - as opposed to brunch - on some weekend morning when you happen to be in San Francisco, well you'd be well served to check in at Breakfast at Epiphany's first.

Early in our walk we thought we might be able to make it as far as the Golden Gate Bridge.  But somewhere up in the Presidio we both had a meltdown and we decided to turn back for the sake of our marriage.  We headed down hill to continue our walk in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area facilities, and happened to catch this excellent view of the bridge from there.

As we continued this walk, we enjoyed seeing all the locals who manage to come down to these areas and use them on a daily basis - families, bike riders, runners, swimmers, and dog walkers. Dog walking in San Francisco is a pretty serious industry, and I have seriously begun to think of it as a retirement job.

At this point, we were a couple of beaten down tourists, so we headed on back to Pier 39 for the ferry ride back.  We worked in some caffeinated refreshments while we waited for our boat.

A pretty solid day of touring altogether.  It left us hungry for the Vietnamese food we enjoyed in Oakland that night, and only barely prepared us for the activities we would experience on our second day of touring in SFO!

The New Bay Bridge

We stayed in Oakland for the Bay Area portion of our trip.  I'd stayed in a reasonably good "motor inn" in the Jack London District when I was out in 2010, and I thought Mary would enjoy it, even though the neighborhood was "edgy."  It did turn out to be convenient for the most part, and it definitely saved us a little money staying in East Bay for the three nights.

I had a meeting on Friday morning near the federal building, and our plan would be to circle back and catch an early ferry across the bay to San Francisco.  This little excursion costs about $6 one way - it's a tourist bargain that everyone should know about.  Plus, if you happen to geek out on great engineering, this gives some great views of the Bay Bridge - the topic of this post.

Of course, I have my panoramic image above of the bridge, taken as we pulled into the berth at the Ferry Building in San Francisco.  We continued on to Pier 39 - and as it turned out, we finished our day early enough to catch the ferry back in the evening, so I snapped the photo below of the new span, on the east side of treasure island.  I'm pairing it with a morning shot of demo in progress of the old span.

If you want to geek out further on this topic, there are some really good YouTubes of the construction and demolition.  I've got a couple of them embedded in the post below:

Checking off the Bucket List in San Francisco

This will be the final post from my recent trip to Yosemite Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. Looking back on the posts and considering the work we completed during the actual business parts of the trip, I’d have to say it was a great success. Today’s post centers on a “bucket list” item for me, walking across the Golden Gate Bridge.

Ever since I first flew over the Golden Gate Bridge, in May 1980 – flying from the San Francisco airport down to the airport at Monterey, where I would attend the Russian language program at the Defense Language Institute – I have wanted to check out the experience of walking across the bridge. By some stroke of luck, the sun was shining brightly on the bridge that day and its bright red glowed against the sparkling waves below. It’s an image that has stuck with me now for 30 years.

So with found time on my hands, I set about the errands to end the business portion of my trip last Friday and then to go over to San Francisco and join the thousands of other tourists discovering everyone’s “second home town.” I checked out of the hotel and back in, so that I could expense one night (funny, I ended up with a better room at lower cost, thanks to Hotels.com!); and I turned in my rental car two days early so that I wouldn’t incur the extra two days rental as a personal expense. Then I walked the three blocks over to Oakland’s Ferry Terminal and took a boat across to the Marina District.

The photos of the Bay Bridge and skyline were taken from the boat.

I decided to rent a bike and ride around town. There are tons of little stands that offer this service, and by skirting along the bay from the marina, you can stay on relatively flat terrain all the way over to the Bridge – and if you’re up for it, even over to Sausalito and Tiburon. I thought about riding to Sausalito and catching the ferry back, and figured I could decide later, after I crossed the bridge.

I started out at lunch time, so after I got out of the bustling area around the piers my first business item was getting lunch somewhere. I soon decided I would never come back to San Francisco in June, the main tourist season – it’s too crowded and the bunch of us were very dangerous for each other – Mary and I usually come here in September or October. Henry had suggested that I try to find the Buena Vista during my sightseeing, and lo, there it was just as I veered off the bike route!

I stopped in for an Irish Coffee made with Tullamore Dew – just like the ones at the Irish Harp in Berlin. The place was too crowded to eat there, and I was worried about the bike, so I decided to walk around the neighborhood to look for something. I ended up in the café at the Argonaut hotel, a Kimpton establishment (we have a couple of these boutique hotels in Alexandria, too – you can count on a good meal there).

After a nice Albacore sandwich, a green salad, and two Flat Tire ales I hit the road. I encountered this idled cable car, and then this view down the hill to the Bay and Alcatraz Island – we’ll take that in on some future, less crowded visit. I pedaled back down the bike path, and rode along some of the small parks that make up the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Crissy Field, the Presidio, and Fort Point, stopping here and there to try and get a good photo of the bridge (finally got the one above in Crissy Field).

At last I was at the bridge and dismounted. I walked the bike across – my goal was to walk across, and every time I’d set out before with friends or colleagues we had turned back before the first tower. I went all the way across this time…it’s a long walk, almost two miles from end to end! When I stopped at the north observation area, I decided not to go on to Sausalito, and rode back across down to the Marina District.

The bridge is one of America’s favorite symbols, and I’d rank it far up there on my list. After thinking about this little excursion for thirty years I was glad I could finally check it off. Over the years, with a dozen vacations there, a year in nearby Monterey, and four business trips here, I’ve been calling San Francisco everybody’s second home town for a long time – so this was one more thing I’d gotten to know personally about the place.

San Francisco's Golden Fire Hydrant

After breakfast at Dottie's, on our way out of town I asked Brian to go by Mission Dolores and up to Church Street, which is at the nexus of Noe Valley, the Mission, and Castro districts.  I had a couple of objectives for this little side trip - first, our friend Cathy used to live up here and I wanted to take a look at her house and the view I remembered, and second, I wanted to check out the little fire hydrant here that somehow managed to keep working after the 1906 earthquake, saving much of the Mission District from the fires.

It was easy to find the charming house up on Church Street - here is a photo of it - and the skyline view above is from the street in front of it.  We had some wonderful visits there, and I always remember my first BART trip over from a trip I made in 1998 whenever I am here - I stayed in Oakland that time also.


Slightly down the hill and a half block away is the fire hydrant.  It is marked with a plaque, and Brian told me there is an annual celebration of it.

Here's a link to an article about the hydrant:  http://geology.about.com/od/historicearthquakes/ig/SFquake2006/goldhydrant1.htm

The Sutro Baths Ruins

I have a few items left to post from my business trip to Yosemite and the two days of personal travel in San Francisco, so I'll be putting those up for the rest of the week, starting with this entry about the Sutro Bath ruins on the west side of San Francisco.

The Sutro Baths were a large privately built swimming pool facility that opened to the public in 1896, right next to the Cliff House (as shown in the first photo), which had been around since the early 1800's on the cliffs overlooking the ocean in that part of the city.  The Cliff House has its own unique history, which includes a visit by Mark Twain, which you can read about on this site:  http://www.cliffhouseproject.com/

Both of these sites are part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA), an affiliation of several National Park Service assets in the Bay Area.

In looking at the pictures and other records of the Sutro Baths, I am fascinated by how large the facility actually was - inside the building, apparently there was a choice of seven swimming pools - six salt water and one fresh water.  There were galleries and arcades, and the swimming area was surrounded with stadium style seating.  Read about it on Wikipedia here, but there has been an article or two in National Geographic as well:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutro_Baths

Apparently, the baths were built as an attraction at the end of the street car line, as were many amusement parks in that era.  All that remain now are ruins of the old concrete works, which are fascinating to explore, after a fire completely destroyed the buildings in the 1960's.  At the time, the baths had been converted into a skating rink.

Brian and I took a walk around the ruins, including walking through one of the tunnels where utilities and water collection activities happened.  After 100 feet or so, you come to an abrupt stop at a cliff, with great big seaside rocks filling your view. 

The Cliff House has been renovated over the last decade and its appearance is designed to look like it did in the 40's. Earlier versions, including a grand Victorian building, were destroyed by fires. 

This was my third visit to the ruins, which don't cost anything to visit and there is ample free parking nearby.  The scale of this development and the - for lack of a better word - folly, of building something like this with the powerful Pacific Ocean right there ready to take its vengeance, are something I simply find fascinating. 

Catching up in San Francisco

I've said it before, I was really lucky to have the chance to travel to Yosemite last week on business.  I was also lucky to be able to find time to visit some good friends along the way, including Brian McGowan, who was stationed in Berlin with me way back when.

Brian keeps a blog, which is in the blog roll column to the left, called Breakfast at Epiphany's (link:  http://breakfastatepiphany.blogspot.com/2010/07/dotties-true-blue-cafe.html) - he's already got a post up there about our trip to one of his favorites, Dottie's True Blue Cafe.  If you are planning a trip to SFO the blog is something you need to check in advance to make sure you start the day right with your most important meal.

Brian was a great sport and we had fun catching up on old times while sightseeing around the city - more to follow.  But first, let's get down to business. 

Brian referred me to the specials board for some choice breakfast selections - he picked the Portobello Frittata, and I had the black bean cakes with two eggs over easy.  I expect food to be good in San Francisco and have rarely been dissappointed there - and Dottie's delivered and then some.  Categorically, those were the best black bean cakes I have ever eaten!

Using his trademarked Glen Bacon scale, Brian gave his frittata a high rating of 7.5 - I gave my black bean cakes a 7.1.  It was truly a good breakfast and prepared us for the grueling trip to Sausalito and Tiberon to follow!