But as soon as we'd parked the car, the skies cleared and the rain ceased.
Our trip to San Francisco took a couple longer than we anticipated. Fortunately we'd scheduled a tour of Alcatraz for later in the afternoon in order to give us time to get into the city and eat some tasty Italian food for lunch.
So, we ended up sharing a $12 personal size pepperoni pizza in the San Diego airport, rushing over from the airport rental car lot to the correct pier for our Alcatraz ferry, and enjoying some snack bars while waiting in line to board.
I believe my food intake for the day consisted of: an egg & cheese biscuit from McDonald's (in the airport), 1/2 of a personal size pepperoni pizza (in another airport), a Kashi bar, and a bread bowl of clam chowder (from Boudin Bakery).
Alcatraz is morbidly fascinating. I hear the evening tours are better because they let you see some places on the island that most tourists don't get to visit, but I intelligently determined that what with the time change and all the flying and waking up at 4 a.m., I would not be energetic or enthused about a tour on Alcatraz that began at 6:30 in the evening.
And it all turned out great! I enjoyed our tour without all the extras.
Day two involved some hiking around Muir Woods, which is beautiful. I believe the sequoias are the tallest trees to be seen in California, but we didn't go that far north. The redwoods we saw, however, were pretty impressive.
As were Muir Beach and Stinson Beach.
The car ride through the hills full of switchbacks and altitude changes was not impressive. In fact, all that driving up and down and around and around made me sick...but not until we were almost back to the hotel, so it was all good.
We took a ferry over to San Francisco that night, ate at Scala's Bistro(a restaurant I highly recommend - pricey, but we were celebrating 8 years of marriage that day and it was worth it), and attended the Giants game. I think at the time the Giants were in first place playing a team in last place and we figured it would be a great game.
The Giants lost. Plus, the stadium is right on the bay and it was COLD and windy. Thankfully, we'd been warned and were prepared with coats, gloves, scarves, and hats. The stadium itself is great with beautiful views of the bay.
We slept late the following day. Because apparently we're old and staying up until 12:30 a.m. just takes it out of us. We did, however, manage to make it back over to San Francisco before 11 the next morning so we rented some bikes and took our lives into our own hands by cycling all over the city.
Well, not all over. After the first relatively mid-grade roadway we attempted to bike up, we carefully scrutinized our route so as to avoid even the most moderate of road grades. It was flat in Amsterdam. Rainy, but flat. We are not so used to the hills.
We biked out to Golden Gate Park, took a break to walk around the Japanese Tea Garden, cycled through the park to Ocean Beach, and then made our way back to the piers where we had rented our bikes.
It pretty much took all day. Probably because we are not professional cyclists and there were hills. And there was the getting lost in Golden Gate Park, which didn't help. That park is 3miles long and 1 1/2 miles wide, and maps do not adequately convey all the little paths and roads that intersect the place.
In an effort to save our energy, we opted for public transportation to take us to dinner at L'Osteria del Forno. This tiny Italian place on Columbus Avenue is awesome!!! They're known for their foccacia bread, and it is to die for! We ordered a couple foccacia sandwiches along with some cauliflower gratin...MMMM! Another restaurant I highly recommend...just bring cash if you go - they don't take credit cards.
Day four was Point Reyes National Seashore where we saw evidence of the 1906 earthquake, tramped 308 steps down and back up again to visit a lighthouse, and viewed dairy cows, deer, sheep, sea lions, and elephant seals all within the span of our visit to the seashore. Fabulous!!! (If you look close, those things all over the beach are elephant seals.)
We went to Mulberry Street Pizzeria for dinner because the Food Network recommended their "For the Love of Mushroom" pizza. However, John doesn't like mushrooms and I felt like having red sauce on my pizza rather than white sauce, so neither of us ordered the famous menu item. It was still good - not the best pizza I've ever had, but I believe I've mentioned before that pizza might be one of my favorite things so I definitely enjoyed my meal.
We spent our final day walking across the Golden Gate Bridge, taking in more of Golden Gate Park, and driving around different parts of San Francisco (the hilly parts that were off limits on our bike ride). The city is fascinating and beautiful - I loved it! We ate at Le Mediterranee for dinner, out at a table on the sidewalk watching folks walk by. Their Moroccan Mint Tea, which I'm certain was about half sugar, hit the spot. We shared a dinner for two sampling of many of their menu items, and I seriously could have eaten their Baba Ghanoush all night! Go there on a nice evening and eat at one of the outdoor sidewalk tables. The atmosphere reminded me so much of Europe.
Speaking of Europe, what with all the volcanic ash last week, it was a good thing we didn't decide to take our anniversary trip to Europe! We might still be there! Which would be fun, but pretty expensive.
In summary (because I feel after such a long, detailed post a summary is necessary for some reason), I give San Francisco 5 out of 5 stars. Just be sure to bring warm clothes when you go. It might have dampened my spirits to be freezing the entire time...or to have to buy $40 sweatshirts from the tourist shops. I'll bet those tourist places make 80% of their money from selling sweatshirts, sweaters, and jackets - there's a captive audience of tourists who assume all of California has the same warm, balmy weather all year. We have more pictures of the trip posted on flickr.
Whew. After a week at home now, I think I'm finally almost caught up with laundry, groceries, etc. Back to real life.
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