San Francisco

[divisionsandprecisions]

A month or so ago we went for our first trip together up to San Francisco.

It was my first time there. We only had a three day weekend and the forecast was for foul weather, but it was our anniversary and we didn't know when we would get to go if we postponed the trip, so we went. We knew we wouldn't be able to see much in under three days, so we figured we would focus on having fun rather than maximizing the number of sites checked off on a list.

 

Arriving downtown via BART from SFO, we rented a car. First stop, getting ice cream at Bi-Rite. We got a little tired of the Mexican chocolate as we went along, but the salted caramel is at least as good as its reputation. Grabbing some food across the street, we headed across the Golden Gate Bridge. I am sure the view is amazing when you aren't in dense fog and driving rain. We were heading to Muir Woods to see some redwood trees. It is astonishing that crossing the bridge takes you from downtown San Francisco to a completely rural area with little winding roads. We wandered along the boardwalk through the redwoods at dusk for a mile or so. We took a longer route back and stumbled into the parking lot in the dark (mainly to uphold tradition). The slog through the rain was made more exciting by a massive integrity failure of a pair of boots.

We headed for Ubuntu in Napa for dinner, mainly because people on Chowhound seemed to think it is the best vegetarian restaurant within a thousand miles of San Francisco. I am ready to believe that it is. Luckily the menu on their website is a few months old, so I can see a few of the things we had, like "local corn grits smoked with hickory with fried Brussels sprouts and apple barbecue". Frying Brussels sprouts cut in half creates something stunning. The "cauliflower in a cast iron pot" was possibly the most delicious food of any kind that I have ever tasted, and I don't really like cauliflower that much.

The next day was the only decent weather predicted, so we spent much of the day wandering around. We wanted to absorb some sense of the city (a small part of it, anyway). We strolled around Nob Hill and Russian Hill (stopping for a slice at Za) really enjoying the buildings rebuilt after the 1906 earthquake, both the grand hotels and the individual houses. I know we were in a particularly wealthy part of the city, but we still got the impression that San Francisco is a walkable city. Perhaps it is the only city on the west coast where it is possible to live comfortably without owning a car. We also visited the cable car museum, which seemed more interesting to me than riding a cable car, which we didn't do. We headed back to the hotel via the Embarcadero, which is kind of awful.

Because it was our anniversary (and this was the first anniversary in a couple of years that we could really celebrate), we wanted to experience something unforgettable, so we had plans to take the BART over to Berkeley to have dinner at Chez Panisse.

It was a Monday, when the restaurant has its least fancy menu. I have a palate which stubbornly resists any attempt to educate it, but I think that the food was truly worlds beyond almost anything I have ever eaten. The highlight was the salad: Pacific cod, potatoes, leeks, and black truffles.

The next day had ferocious rain, and we got soaked many times. We started off by going to the market in the Ferry Building (Mt. Tam triple cream cheese on sourdough bread). There was a lovely overcast view from the Ferry Building.

Then we went to see the San Francisco Federal Building, designed to be a green building. It is covered with metal shades that open and close automatically and has outside air moving through ducts to cool it off. In a bit of social engineering, the main elevators only stop every three floors, so that people are encouraged to walk up a flight of stairs once in a while. About halfway up (call it the 9th floor) there is a three-story hole in the building called a "sky garden" that offers a place to sit in the open air and take in the view.

With only part of a day remaining, we spent a few hours at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The collection was enjoyable, if not huge. The odd interior design of the building though is an interesting contrast that shows just how smart the design of the new interior is in MOMA in NY. We took BART to SFO, where we got to wait. And wait. Amazingly, the terminals at SFO are registered museums with exhibits in cases. We saw a very interesting display of kitchen implements of various sorts from the last 300 years or so. People used to be really into jelly molds. And I bought a copy of American Gods to while away the rest of the extra time.