Golden Gate Bridge – Just Visiting

Friday was quite possibly the perfect day pretending to be a San Francisco local. Not to mention the weather was warm- a rarity in the bay area. After enjoying my usual oatmeal and tea, I went for a walk around the North Beach neighborhood. I spotted an awesome name for a cafe. If you don’t get it then sorry, but maybe you should expand your musical horizons.

Another sign for the cool people out there. I hope this street is named after Chris Osgood!

I ended up down on The Embarcadero, which is probably my favorite word ever. It was about 800 degrees outside, so I stopped in The Plant Cafe for an extremely overpriced, disgusting lemonade. The drink was so tart and sour, it was hardly refreshing. I think it was close to $4 or $5 for about 10oz of what tasted like pure lemon juice. But I’m not one to waste food or drinks, so I sat on the pier sipping on it, people and boat watching near the Bay Bridge.

The heat was really kicking my ass since I was already nearly dehydrated, and the lemonade was soaking up what little water was in my body, so I made my way back to the apartment for some free, and satisfying water.

I found myself at the base of the Transamerica Pyramid, so I snapped this photo looking up.

Then a quick stroll through Chinatown for some souvenir shopping,

and I found myself standing outside of Goodby Silverstein & Partners again. If I were ever randomly offered a job there, I think this is the only agency in the world that I would pack up my things without hesitation and leave New York for. Maybe some day.

I got back to the apartment and soloed on a bottle of pre-dinner red wine from Trader Joe’s. I’ve got an obsession of trying cheap, local wines whenever I travel. This one was decent. Nothing great but definitely satisfactory for the $5 I paid. It was perfect though; watching the sun set on San Francisco as the fog rolled into the bay, enjoying a relaxing beverage while waiting for my friends to arrive for dinner.

Back in the spring, two friends of mine, Jim and Karen, left New York to move to San Mateo. As soon as I knew I was visiting San Francisco, they were two of the first people I asked to meet up. They drove into the city, and we went out to an Italian restaurant called Colosseo. It was absolutely incredible. Service was a bit slow, but the food more than made up for it. At first we were all disappointed by the size of the portions, but then we reminded ourselves that we’re just fat Americans who need to learn portion control. We all left stuffed, after licking our plates completely clean. I ordered the ravioli al formaggio, which was a cheese ravioli in a cheese sauce. The flavor of the different cheeses in the sauce melted together perfectly, and was even better when I dipped bread into it.

Then we went for some tea to help us digest the amazing meal we had just consumed. I ordered a raspberry herbal tea, which had a horrible aftertaste similar to vomit. We managed to snap this semi decent photo of the three of us at the coffee shop, thanks to Jim’s long arms. Well, at least longer than mine.

The digestive tea didn’t really help, so we took a little hike up a hill to look 0ut at the city before calling it a night. Overall, it was the perfect day in San Francisco, and a great evening with friends. I can’t wait to visit again!

Thursday I ventured out of the apartment with no plan or direction in mind. The weather was in the 70’s, so I tried to avoid hills, but after a while that became impossible. I ended up at the foot of Lombard street, which left me huffing and puffing and wishing I had done some warmup stretching. I was moving faster than most of the tourists, but I was also about 30 years younger than them. These extra pounds I’ve packed on during this trip didn’t exactly help get me up that hill.

I took a walk down near the Fisherman’s Wharf, and next thing you know I’m sitting on a boat headed out for a 1 hour tour of the bay.

The boat took us down under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz before heading back to the city.

I met these two guys from Germany on the boat. We dodged waves together as I took 72365 pictures.

After I got off the boat, I stopped by a place called Melt! for something cheesy. I wanted to eat some fondue, but at $30 a pot, I opted for a much cheaper sandwich. I had my first ever croque monsieur, which wasn’t exactly as tasty as I’d hoped. I love gruyère cheese, but it wasn’t as flavorful in this sandwich. Regardless, it was still good enough to try again at another restaurant someday.

I went back to the apartment to enjoy the sunset with a bottle of unopened wine. I ended up catching up on Entourage until 4 in the morning before calling it a night. Overall, a lovely, relaxing day in beautiful San Francisco!