Vacation Part II: San Fran and Sactown

Monday (continued)
With Vegas memories behind us, we made our way through McCarran Airport where they have an impressive operation corralling people through security checkpoints. Very impressive. We had a little over an hour to kill before our uneventful flight into San Francisco's SFO airport. Arriving in San Francisco, we caught the BART to a station in the financial district from which we walked about eight or nine blocks to our hotel. We stayed in a Pricelined Hilton which basically sat on the border between the aforementioned financial district and San Fran's famous Chinatown.

Oddly, during our walk to the hotel, I realized that at some point I had tweaked a tendon or a gizzard in my foot and was having some trouble walking. Intense low-ankle/bottom of foot pain. Undaunted, I downed a few ibuprofen and we struck out on the town. It was lunch time, so thanks to some articles forwarded from Kristin, we chose a nearby dim sum house called the Hang Ah Tea Room. The food was great, and super cheap. We had some pot-sticker dumplings, barbecue pork buns, a plate of bok choi that was bigger than my head (which is big), some shrimp dumplings, and curried beef rolls. Awesome tasty cheap fun house for you!

The 'Traz

From there, we took a self-guided walking tour suggested by our trusty Lonely Planet and were not disappointed. The tour took us through Chinatown, into the North Beach neighborhood, and up Russian Hill for some fantastic views of the bay, Alcatraz, and the city. A few highlights from the walking tour included a stop in the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie factory, and a pint of Anchor Steam (decidedly NOT my favorite beer) at a charismatic bar/cafe frequented by Jack Kerouac called Vesuvio.

We continued ambling around and made it to the waterfront in the highly touristy Fisherman's Wharf area. We made the obligatory stop at Ghiradelli square, where we happened to stop into a wine shop and struck up a conversation with a nice guy named Tom who ended up hooking us up with some free tasting coupons at a few Sonoma wineries. We had the "world famous" Irish Coffees at the Buena Vista and then met up with our good friend Willie C who currently spends his Mondays in Berkley just across the bridge.

Absolutely Nothing to do with Our Vacation

We made our way over to the Fort Mason area for a great dinner at a vegetarian place called Green's. I ordinarily wouldn't be thrilled with such a blatant dearth of protein, but the company, the gorgeous sunset, the wine, and frankly the excellent, creative cooking made it a very worthwhile stop. We lingered for a long while just chatting and catching up. After dinner, Will dropped us off at the hotel where I learned of Eliot Spitzer's transgressions before nodding off to sleep.


Tuesday
We awoke Tuesday with plans to explore more of San Francisco before hitting the ricky road to Sacramento to spend a few days on Willy's turf. We spent our morning ambling towards the Ferry Building where there is a Tuesday farmer's market, and an array of fantastic food shoppes, butchery, fish mongering, and the like. I was left pining for access to a fully stocked kitchen. After getting our fill at the Ferry Building, we took the BART to Union Square and continued ambling and people-watching.

Eventually, we made our way to the Avis where we picked up shiny Ford Fusion and hit the road...to the mission district where we sated ourselves on some of the finest tasty tacos from a mostly nondescript taqueria mentioned in the literature from Kristin. From there, it was across the Golden Gate to a brief respite at Muir Woods National Monument. The Woods was a nice change of pace from our recent city tramping - it was quiet, beautiful, and the trees are spectacular. Unlike any east coast trees I've seen.

From the Redwood Forest...

From there, we hopped in our Fusion buggy and set a Northbound course on I80 for Sacramento. We arrived at Will's place shortly before he arrived home from work. It was just great and dandy catching up, and we were excited about our good fortune to have a few days in each others company. We went to the Bonn Lair straight away for some catching up and a pint before hitting the Safeway to buy the raw materials for fish tacos (for old time's sake). It was just a great night spent talking, cooking, laughing, and Will examining my feet, knees, and gait (in light of my earlier mentioned foot problem). We finished the night by watching the first two-thirds of the awesomely atrociously awful Live Free or Die Hard.

...to foot exams

Wednesday
We woke up early on Wednesday as Will had to get to work. After finishing the cinematic abomination of the previous evening, we hopped on some bikes and toured Sacramento. We followed a winding path tracking along the American river and terminating in Old Town Sacramento. Old Town was a nice touristy area with a railroad museum, restaurants, and shoppes, but was utterly dead mid-morning on a Wednesday. So I bought some candy and we continued on our merry way annoying the business lunch crowd by riding bikes straight through downtown.

Approaching Sacramento

For the middle part of our day, we drove back down I-80 towards Fairfield and the Jelly Belly factory tour! But first, there was something on my agenda - yes friends, I am referring to In-N-Out Burger. We stopped in Davis where I had a sweet cheeseburger (animal style) with fries and a root beer. The pump was primed to sample some fine jelly bean delicacies.

Burger

The Jelly Belly tour was fun and/or exciting. Sharing the highway exit with Jelly Belly was a large Budweiser brewery. We had no choice but to stop in for a tour to learn how watery crappy corporate beer is made. Given the timing of our arrival, we were urged to join an in-progress tasting before the tour. There was definitely something...ironic...about a fancy glass tasting flight of Bud, Bud Light, and Bud Select. After our generous tasting, we considered the time and punted on the actual tour. After all, having visited Miller in Milwaukee (both of us), and Coors in Colorado (N), we already knew how watery crappy corporate beer is made. We nonetheless enjoyed our time at Budweiser... We also sampled a heinous new product that they are test marketing called something like "Chelada" which was Bud (or Bud Light) mixed with Clamato juice. Can you say "barf"? I can!

Beans

To cap off our journey, I navigated our Ford Fusion into a piece of blown-out tire shrapnel and ended up with our own flat tire. I jacked up the car, put on the donut tire, and set a course for the Avis in Davis to exchange our shiny Fusion for an inferior Malibu.

I-80 Mishap

By the time we made it back to Sacramento, Willy was home from work and ready to hit the road to Loomis. We drove out to Will's friend's restaurant (Cafe Zorro), had a nice dinner, met Will's lovely lady friend, and generally enjoyed hanging out. Returning to town, we returned to the Bonn Lair for late night pints, darts, and more banter. Returning to the house brought to a close our very satisfying visit with Will.

Darts at the Bonn Lair

In the morning - wine country!

To be continued...