Friday, June 20, 2008- SAN FRANCISCO
My trip to San Francisco (June 9-13) was A-MAzing! This was my first trip to this part of Cali and I had some very interesting experiences. I got into town Monday night, after the free shuttle to the hotel had quit running for the night. Luckily, Evan (my hubby) was there to pick me up at the airport and we caught a taxi (twenty-seven dollars for a ten minute ride! OUCH). TIP: if you get there before six most hotels have a shuttle that you can take for free- otherwise you have to fork out the dough if your hotel doesn't run along the metro).
On Tuesday I saw Golden Gate Park for the first time! It took me 2 or three hours to get there... RIDICULOUS! This is because I was trying to save money by taking a bus- it IS cheaper (do NOT waste your money on a trolley pass! The buses run ALL around town & are very frequent in the touristy areas, this was just my first day so I had no idea what I was doing- plus we were sleeping in the San Mateo Marriot- which I highly recommend even if it IS a little out of the way). I also ended up taking this random way there which ended taking me through a sketchy part of town. I had to wait at a bus stop in the sketchy part of town for 45 minutes. Also, I got to sit next to a few gangster kids smoking and swearing up a storm, before another girl showed up talking on her cell phone about how this girl at school got jumped with a knife...she thought this was hilarious! Wow, I am really glad I teach school in rural Utah. No one bothered me though and the gang members (I really think they were from what they were talking about) actually gave me their seat and helped me figure out when the next bus was coming.
Goes to show you can't judge people by appearances and even sometimes by their initial behavior. Anyway, that was interesting adventure. Once I made it to the Golden Gate Park I headed for the de Young art museum, only to find it closed in a few hours. Not wanting to pay fifteen dollars for an hour or so (I was meeting Evan for dinner and had to leave this area of town soon since it was way out of the way), I headed for the Japanese Tea Garden. Four dollars well spent!
I would say the hardest part of my day was figuring out how to get around
without a car. After Evan got off work he wanted me to meet him at 1 Market Street...due to a funny mis-communication, I ended up at 1st Market- not the same thing- a few blocks away from each other- street and we walked back and forth between several streets trying to find each other. Kind of annoying at the time but also very funny! We went to this FANTASTIC Thai restaurant called Osha.
Osha Thai Restaurant
4 EMBARCADERO CENTER
SF, CA 94110
Map to this location
Phone: 415.788.6742
Fax: 415.788.6744
Open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily
No Delivery
I tried my first Thai Pumpkin Red Chicken Curry....DELICIOUS! We also walked around Fisherman's Warf, Ghiradelli Square where we got free chocolate, and we sat by the ocean for a bit. Very fun, the Ghiradelli shop gives out free samples of their newest flavor: Peanut Butter, this time
Wednesday Drew (a friend who was traveling with us) and I headed to Chinatown where we went into some very interesting little tourist shops. We also took a lot of pictures, and played around. If anyone were to go to Chinatown, I would recommend eating at a little side shop rather than a major restaurant. I would say that there is more authentic food, less Americanized. The
restaurant we went to for a snack was set up more like a bakery and the food was DELICIOUS! Too bad we couldn't find it again. They had really good pots
tickers for sixty cents! The restaurant we went to for dinner however was AWFULY DISGUSTING. Save yourself the trouble and go to the Empress of China
if you want a good little sit down place. We ended up spe
nding about what we would have spent at the expensive place. I don't want to give out the name of the gross place because I don't want anyone saying- I remember this restaraunt was on Erin's travel blog... because you might not remember that this was the yucky place. But now I can say I've tried duck and I never have to eat it again :) ... Afterwards we walked around Little Italy, went into a funny shop where we bought Sarah's birthday present, then took the bus and the Caltrain (highly recommended way to travel from San Mateo to San Fran- just make sure you have a schedule) back to the hotel (which was way nice by the way! I love the Marriot! Free Bath and Bodyworks shampoos, very comfy beds and pillows, flat screen tv's in every room, a gym for free & free waterbottles & fruit everywhere...so nice!)
- 1770 South Amphlett Blvd
- San Mateo, California 94402 USA
- Phone:
1-650-653-6000
- Fax: 1-650-653-6088
- Sales: 1-650-653-6000
- Sales fax: 1-650-653-6084
and we all sat in the hot tub for a bit.
Thursday Drew and I had an adventure! We took model shots in the Emporium Gardens,
walked about eight miles to the Golden Gate Bridge, and took a bus to Sausalito (a little town across the bridge, SO FUN!).
In Sausalito, we went to a few art galleries, had a clam chowder bread bowl, and took pictures for an hour or so.
I also got to ride my first real ferry!!!! I've been on ferries that take cars across but this was a real boat! :) For dinner, we met up with Evan and headed back to Little Italy to eat at Magarosa.
Located in the heart of San Francisco’s North Beach dining scene, MANGAROSA is walking distance from Fisherman’s Wharf and only 10 minutes by taxi from Union Square. We are 3 ½ blocks from the Powell Street cable car stop off Columbus and 1 block from the 30, 45 and 15 busses.
Phone (415) 956-3211
Fax (415) 956-3264
Hours of Operation:
Tue-Thursday 6 pm-11pm
Friday 6pm-12am Saturday 5pm-12am Sunday 5pm-10pm
mangarosasf@msn.com MAKE RESERVATIONSThe food was very authentic and delicious...well I thought so, Evan didn't like it. We ordered Gnocchi Romano, which is a potato pasta covered in a veal cutlet tomato sauce. One of my favorites but Evan doesn't really like potatoes. Having lived in Italy for 6 weeks I can attest to it's authenticity. YUM! The service was awful though because they were swamped. The resatarunt was extremely crowded- It took us forever to get anything, and forever to get our check. We also stopped and bought some Gelatto (of course) and Tirimisu! At a little cafe up the street. DOUBLE YUM!
Friday Evan had some time off so we headed to Boudain on Fisherman's Warf and had bread bowls for lunch. I saw the famous seals and we saw a very weird street performer. Evan tried to find somewhere quiet to call a co-worker he was going to meet up with and instead we found a "Got Milk" wagon. They were giving out free milkshakes and taking pictures of people with milk mustaches. A lady from the San Fran Examiner was also there taking pictures for the paper. She took our picture and got our names but the article hasn't run yet. Oh well.
We also hiked up to Lombard Street..The winedy-est road in the US, or the World...I'm not sure. Then we went to Grace Cathedral and looked at some cool art. The flight home kind of sucked because it was totally full and Evan and I couldn't sit together because Jet Blue does nothing to help its customers-but we made it home! :) All in all, a very fun week!!!
Cape Hatteras is an awesome beach to get away from the tourists but I still am a sucker for Nag's Head if you plan on going boogie boarding or body surfing- there's less rocks and shells as you hit so you don't hit as hard. My sis and I were pretty scratched up after Cape Hatteras but we're gluttons for punishment and went back in the water anyway. I LOVE THE BEACH! Be sure to take a break and build a sand castle or creature far from the tide- it'll come in quickly and all your hard work will be washed away before you can snap a pic!
We decided to stop for lunch- which was yummy! I felt bad though because my dad paid for us and the waitress mis-understood him and brought us one of every dessert on the menu. I would have sent them back but he's too nice. They were really delicious though! My favorite was the creme brulee or the peanut butter mousse. MMMMmmmm peanut butter (in Home Simpson's voice).
