San Francisco

My mood has taken a complete 180 from my last post. We're leaving the city now but yesterday and today has just been so much fun!

Yesterday, we all got up and went our separate ways. Gary went to Napa with some of his friends, and Mom and I decided to explore the city. We went to the concierge first and got a map from him, as well as some suggestions of where to go. My friend Alisha also made a huge long comment on my facebook about places to go. I wish I had more time here; it would be so much fun to do!

So Mom and I left our hotel and went walked past (and in) Union Square, Chinatown, North Beach, Fisherman's Wharf, and Ghiaradelli Square. Considering all the hills and different airs and wonderful sights to see, it took us about five or six hours to walk all that. Plus we had some detours along the way.

We spent quite a while in Chinatown, with all the knick knack shops and getting lunch and all. We got lunch at this place called Empress of China, where we had had dinner on a previous visit before. It was so delicious! There was a Chinese chicken salad with this like Ginger/sesame dressing and a "sizzling rice" soup (they added grilled[?] rice paddies to the soup and it made the sizzle sound), then barbecue pork fried rice, almond chicken, and scallops and shrimp in like an egg sauce. It was a LOT of food, and we couldn't finish it all, but it was so good! After Chinatown, we headed in the general direction of North Beach.

I am a huge fan of the show Monk. (For the record, I am very happy about how it ended.) So naturally, I looked up various places where it filmed in the city. Since it filmed mostly in LA, they were few and far between. But one of my favorite shots- Monk crossing a street at night- WAS filmed in San Francisco. And it was somewhat on our route. So I dragged Mom up this enormous hill just so I can recreate this shot. Of course, mine was at 2:30 and his was at nighttime, but it's the thought that counts.

So from there we walked down a little of North Beach, but mainly headed down to the wharf. We were by Pier 39- and, by the way, I still have no clue about what seems to make that one special- so walked past all those touristy shops to get to (in my humble opinion) The Chocolate Capital of the West Coast.

Once we were chocolated out, we took a cab back to the hotel. We had walked a bit more than five miles without really stopping, all over those hills. It was a good kind of exhaustion that we had.

Today we went to this place that I saw on the wharf, but they had a location by the hotel- Boudin Bakery. All I can say is: Oh. My. God. Their sourdough is to DIE for. I had chowder in the bread bowl... I am one full and happy camper right now.