Tuesday, April 23, 2013

If I could wish upon a star, I would hitch a cable car...Won't you save me, San Francisco?

Had a heck of a birthday vacay in the city by the bay.  Here's a few highlights:

Transportation.  We hit all the kinds.  Taxi, BART, CalTrain, PediCab, walking, biking, ferry, Cable Car.  Each was a different, authentic look at the city.  My faves were the PediCab and the Cable Car.  Almost got my ankles swiped by a crazy driver standing on the outside of the Cable Car, but I guess that goes with the territory.

Riding bikes across the Golden Gate Bridge
Food.  Burgers and local beer in Sausalito.  Homemade pasta in short rib ragu in Little Italy.  Authentic Mexican brunch (I know you don't think of Mexican as breakfast food, but they do it right).  Chowder in a sourdough bread bowl.  Ghiradelli cookie-bottom sundae.  Late night pesto pizza.  Polish sausage from a street cart.  Yummm!
Polish Sausage with Sauerkraut and Red Onion Relish
Touristy things.  The Golden Gate Bridge.  Fisherman's Wharf.  Pier 39.  Ghiradelli Square.  Union Square.  Alcatraz.  Lombard Street.  We pretty much did it all.

Felon in Cell Block D
Giants game.  Those folks love their World Series Champions.  While I felt like a poser in my just-purchased Giants' t-shirt, I had a blast cheering for the home team.  Hot dog, beer, churro, sunshine, nail-biter game won on an RBI double in the bottom of the ninth.  Did I mention they put on a fireworks show for my birthday?  Strong work.

Happy Birthday to Me!
Wine.  Our tour was cut short by a driver who called in sick.  But we still managed to hit a few wineries and sample our fair share.  The hands-down highlight was Homewood Winery.  Killer food pairings, uber-friendly staff and volunteers, and AMAZING wine.  The Barbera was to-die-for.  The Chardonnay was good enough for me to buy two bottles, and if you know me, that's a big deal.  Among the 4 of us (I'm not counting Brad and Rachel because they were too poor to buy any), we walked away with 50 bottles of wine.  Not joking.  I was the responsible one and only bought 10, and half were for Dad.  But that tells you how much we liked them.

Sonoma Valley Vineyard
And there was my five days in San Francisco.  Made complete by a turbulent landing in Denver that had me sick enough to warrant the paramedics.  Awesome.  And now I'm watching the snow continue to fall and add to the 3 inches from yesterday.  Welcome to April in Colorado.  Bottom line- San Francisco is a great city.



3 comments:

MJ said...

Awesome. I just booked my flight to SF for next month's training camp. Maybe coach will let me see the bridge at least.

Laura Zaps said...

like your jail bird stripes. totally jealous about the food more than anything.

Jim Z said...

A great city...to visit!

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