I'm really getting slow at writing these blog entries...I've been working on this one for two days now, so this will now cover San Francisco and Half Moon Bay...Friday was a fun adventure into “The City” as they prefer to call it; I also learned that it’s taboo to refer to the city as Frisco, but whatever. I started the day off with a walk up to the Cal Train Depot after a quick bowl of cereal to start my day off right and have energy for the list of things I had on my list. As I walk up to the platform to the station the train was pulling in and I thought great! I’m just gonna cruise through the day, so I go purchase my ticket and as it is printing the train pulls away without me. I was thinking come on that wasn’t even a full 90 seconds…30 seconds more and I probably could have been on the train and comfortably seated. I ended up going to a coffee shop around the corner to catch up on the morning news…nothing too exciting or weird, but I had about 30 minutes till the next train. The ride up was pretty relaxing like my other train rides were and even though it was about an hour and twenty minutes I had a map of the city I could study and some trip planning I could still do, so it seemed to breeze by.
My initial itinerary was to first start off with a trip to the chapel of St Francis of Assisi for mass and then peruse on up through the city to the wharf and rent a bike to get a quicker look at the whole of the city. (Ok maybe just the area closest to the land because the hills out here are nuts and I haven’t exactly been well disciplined lately about exercising). Then I was going to hop on a ferry boat ride in the bay and see the different sights up close and then perhaps get a nice meal and check out the aquarium and other tourist traps around Pier 39. Well it didn’t exactly go down like that much to my chagrin.
First off the chapel was closed for the day so there was no mass but I did end up checking out the Nuova Porziuncola right next door, which is a three quarters replica of the chapel that Saint Francis rebuilt by hand out near Assisi. Since August of last year it’s the 5th Papally declared Holy Place in the world, so that was a plus! I then scooted up to the famous Pier 39 and got a sourdough bread bowl of clam chowder at the famous Boudin bakery. Apparently the conditions with the air and the fog around the bay make the perfect conditions for sourdough and the bread was mighty tasty. I then realized that I wasn't going to have time to rent a bike and tour the city and go on the ferry boat ride around the bay, so I of course chose the better of the two and took a boat ride around the bay. I had found out how cool the weather was as I got close to the bay, but getting on the ferry and heading out into the bay and under the Golden Gate bridge I REALLY got a feel for the title of this entry and how cold it can get out in the middle of the bay. It was a really interesting ride however, it was narrated and spoke about the history of the city, the key infrastructure, people, and different eras the city experienced. After the ferry boat ride I went down to the Fisherman's Wharf and cracked me some fresh crab (apparently from Alaska and not from the Bay the Bay only does crabs in May and June) and it was pretty good. I still prefer to have my Crabs on a big ole table covered in newspaper and the Blue Crabs covered in Old Bay so when I get a cut I really feel the burn and then alleviate my war wounds with a nice cold beer!
I then did some window shopping around the city and stuck mostly to the bay side of the city. I made it through Soma, Union Sq., China Town, the Financial District, North Beach, and Telegraph hill...it was quite an evening of walking around and then I hopped on the train and made it back in around 1030 and ready to sleep.
Saturday I had a hard time deciding if I wanted to Muir Forest and Napa Valley or if I wanted to go to Half Moon Bay and a winery that was near there. I decided that I could make more of the day by going to Half Moon Bay and I'm a sucker for little fishing towns, so Bryan joined me on that adventure and we made it into town just before lunch. We walked through the Historic Downtown and into a couple little shops that made me feel a bit like I was walking through Occoquan and then into this really cool Art Gallery that I got a few pictures of the surfing style artwork that I really liked. The farmers market was also open and we got to sample some of the local fair...I had to try some of the peach and ended up coming away slightly disappointed I want to be able to find something that compares to the one I had in Seattle! Afterwards we went into this little bakery down the street that was just over flowing with people even at noon....I guess they sleep in late out here...but I got the hankering for a cup of coffee and a doughnut and Bryan wasn't resisting either.
As we're waiting in line for about 5-10 minutes this small group of people come in behind us with a pretty distinct New York / New Jersey accent and start referring to the place like it's just out of Seinfeld. Bryan does a better job of telling this story b/c I was a little more wrapped up in trying to decide what doughnut I wanted, so I'll tell it from his point of view. One of the ladies gasps and goes (the story is better if you imagine them talking like George's mother from Seinfeld) "oh my gosh this is just like the bakery in Seinfeld"...awkward pause to think...and then the woman next to her says, "no your thinking of the Soup Nazi." First Woman: "Oh YEAH, the Soup Nazi....Oh NO! They're almost out of the doughnuts"...another pause and a tap on the shoulder..."you boys weren't thinking about gettin cream filled doughnut weres ya? Cause theys bad for yas" I actually wanted a crueler that the guy in front of me snagged, but Bryan had been eyeing the Bavarian Cream doughnuts from the moment we walked in and being that he grew up on Long Island he had no hesitancy to enter into the conversation with them and be as super honest and straightforward like any good New Yorker is and told them how he was planning on getting one of the last two cream filled doughnuts. As we're ordering the man in the group hears Bryan order his doughnut and if you can imagine in a Jerry voice the man said "Hey! He took my doughnut. That was MY doughnut!" Bryan turns around and says "So what part of the Tri-state area are you from anyways" The guy sarcastically says..."what do you mean..San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angelis? ... No I'm from Manhattan!" Bryan whips back with "I know that....I'm from Long Island" The ladies then began to inquire as to what he was doing way out heres and Bryan says he's studying Theology and as we're leaving the store you can over here one of the ladies going "Oh he is such a nice boy"
Later we made our way up to the fishing pier and saw a couple families crabbing, which was really cool and then took in some air before heading up to Barbara's Seafood Parlor and getting some amazing fried seafood baskets. They had quite the variety in them too....Fresh caught Rock Fish, Calamari, Scallops, Prawns, Octopus and a side of fries. It was quite delectable and I would recommend you stop by if you're in town for maybe the Surf competition that happens just north of the docks. On the way back we dropped in at a winery that I wanted to stop by since we weren't going to go up to Nappa Valley on this trip and I wanted to get a bottle or two of wine for some very generous people back home who had requested some. The store front was unique....they had a little area for boccie ball, some tents to just hangout and sip wine, flower gardens to roam through, a glass blowing shop where they would teach you how to make glass, and then of course a wine tasting building where you could buy stuff. Well we were just gonna buy a couple bottles of wine and make our way with how packed the place was but the lady behind the counter convinced us to try out the wine and I'm really glad she did. I took a sip of the Merlot and felt like I got punched in the face with how strong of a flavor it was and then Bryan tried out the Syrah and commented on how strong that was too and then we switched and determined that the Merlot was ridiculous, so we just stuck to getting one bottle of the Syrah and nothing to take back home...I really didn't like the Merlot.
We then made our way back to Santa Clara and a friend of Bryan's came over and we did dinner, talked for a while, and of course had to finish off the night with watching some Seinfeld. Another great evening of friends and food.
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