The weekend after our London trip, we found another easy one: San Francisco. A direct flight with a reasonable number of open seats in both direction.

We met after work for our second Friday night date at YVR. We were a couple of hours late leaving due to fog and a ground delay in effect for SFO. It’s unbelievable how much crap the gate agents have to put up with from people. We were sitting nearby and watched them do an excellent job re-routing people with connections as best they could; yet, there were still people getting angry with them and how horrible the airline is. Seriously?! There’s fog at the destination, meaning they can’t use parallel runways and the traffic flow is much slower. What do you really expect the airline to do about that??

It was a short, easy flight, with no timezone change. We got in too late to take the train, so got a cab to the Wyndham hotel just of Market street near Union Square.

Saturday morning arrived with the city still blanketed in fog. We stumbled upon an unbelievably popular (and with good reason) breakfast place “Honey Honey Cafe”.

After breakfast, we were going to take a cable car from Powell Street station, but there was a ridiculously long line up. Who would have thought there would be so many tourists here in October? So instead we walked up and over the the steep Nob Hill – there’d be plenty of opportunities to ride the cable cars later.

We stopped in at the free cable car museum – which is not just a museum, but actually the main power station where all three cable car lines in the city are run from. Fascinating system.

From there, we wandered through the busy streets of Chinatown and hopped on a cable car (this time with no line up – I guess because we were catching it from the top of the hill that no one wanted to walk up) down to the waterfront and Pier 39. By now the sun had burned off the fog, and the temperature was up into the mid-twenties. What a perfect October day!

We walked along the waterfront to Giharadelli square, and wondered how expensive the apartments there were. Stopping in at one of the many restaurants by the waterfront we had a delicious lunch that is probably about as San Francisco as you can get: Clam Chowder in a Sourdough bowl and Fish Tacos. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a yummy lunch, we walked up to the top of the famous Lombard street, then over to Telegraph Hill. We didn’t bother going up Coit tower – there was a big line up; and views of the bay were just fine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We found our way back to the cable car route and hopped on for the trip back to our hotel for a quick rest.

Saturday night, we went out for dinner at Townall – a place in the business district that a friend had recommended. It was probably one of the best dining experiences ever! Great atmosphere and unbelievable food: a duck prosciutto salad – such an amazing combination of flavours; I had the a delicious rabbit and Eva had really tasty salmon. Awesome Napa Valley wine too.

Sunday morning, we stopped in briefly at Target to see what all the hype was about. I don’t get it. Then took a tram (yes – a tram is different than a cable car) to the Ferry Building to try out the Blue Bottle coffee and hang out for a bit. It very much reminded us of Granville Island.

From their, we headed down to Pier 33 and boarded a ferry to take us out to Alcatraz. I’d been to Alcatraz years ago with my parents, but it was still fascinating to see it and wander around again. It was also a great day to be out on the water with the sun and the wind on the bay.

That evening we ate at the Italian A16. It didn’t quite live up to the experience we had the night before at Townall – but it was still a great meal; and it got us out to the Marina District which we hadn’t been to yet.

Monday morning we were up early and onto the BART to the airport – after being hassled by the pesky peddlers at the station. We boarded the 7AM flight back to YVR and I was in the office by 10:00AM Another great weekend and a fun Monday morning commute!