San Francisco Weekend: March 9 - 12, 2007 Last weekend we flew to my favorite city in the U.S., San Francisco. Although our primary reason for going was to see the Blackfield concert, we decided to just make a weekend out of it and get a little break from everything that's been stressing us out of late.

Friday night - March 9

After landing at SFO, we picked up our rental car (bright banana yellow - it stands out in the crowd) and drove directly to the Daly City In-n-Out Burger for a fat-laden orgy of burgers, fries, and vanilla shakes. Stuffed and happy, we rolled into San Francisco and up to Twin Peaks for an amazing view of the city lights:




From Twin Peaks, at night. (click on the pictures to enlarge)

After enduring the chilly winds on top of Twin Peaks (it feels 20 degrees colder there) we jumped in our banana car and headed for our hotel - the Residence Inn at Oyster Point. The night was still young, but we aren't and we needed to rest up.

Saturday - March 10

After indulging in a free and fat-laden hotel breakfast, we headed straight for Coit Tower in the Telegraph Hill area. Miraculously, we found a parking spot on a nearby street and walked up the hill, avoiding the tiny parking lot and the accompanying wait when one drives all the way up. Besides, we had to work off that fatty breakfast somehow.

Offering impressive views, Coit Tower was even more stunning in the sunny and mild weather blanketing the city that weekend.




Peeking out at the Golden Gate Bridge and the city, from the base of Coit Tower.




I won't tell you what our nickname is for Coit Tower, but here it is.




Michael grabbed the camera and got all artsy.





One of many murals in Coit Tower.




Zooming in on Lombard Street.




Near our parking spot in the Telegraph Hill neighborhood.

After taking the tourist-cliche' drive down Lombard Street, we headed for the Marina district and the Palace of Fine Arts, where we snapped about a billion photos. Here are a few of the best:



Gorgeous.




Did I say this place was gorgeous?




From the waterfront in the Marina district.





The banana car. Even the homeless people commented on how yellow it was.



I think this is a gopher.

After walking back to our car, we decided to head over to Jackson Street in hopes of scoring a delicious meal at Kokkari but they were not open for lunch during the weekends. Hungry, we hoofed it back to the banana car and decided to eat at the little Italian hole-in-the-wall called Macaroni Scuie Scuie right next to where we parked.

We had a great time using our five words of Italian with the wait staff, and the pasta was perfectly al dente and not oversauced. Ah, memories of Italy! Michael enjoyed the Trenette al Pesto - a thin pasta with pesto, potatoes, and green beans, while I tucked into the Rigatoni con Salsiccia e Peperoni - pasta tubes with sausage, peppers, and tomato sauce. As usual, Michael was jealous of what I ordered so about 2/3 of the way through our meals, we switched plates.

Bellies full yet again, I negotiated a 40 minute visit to the H&M store near Union Square while Michael drove the banana car around the block a few times. The place was an absolute mob scene, with long lines for both the dressing room and cash wrap. Since I only had a very short time review the offerings of this two-level store, I quickly grabbed about 10 items that I liked and headed to a quiet corner to perform my detailed analysis, which went something like this:

Will it go with anything else in my closet? Y/N
Is it age appropriate? Y/N
Is in within the budget of the soon to be unemployed? Y/N
Does it look more expensive than it is? Y/N
Would Stacy and Clinton approve? Y/N

At the end of this in-depth analysis, three items made the cut - a red and white wrap dress, a pair of crop pants, and a cream colored purse.

I may not be much of an athlete, but my shopping skills are Olympic in caliber.

Afterwards, we drove up to Twin Peaks again to snap photos of the daytime views:









We made our way back down the hill and decided to drive through some of San Francisco's gorgeous neighborhoods - one that I was particularly impressed with was St. Francis Wood. Later, as the sun set, we drove along the Great Highway, parked the car, and strolled out to the edge of the Pacific Ocean. We were fortunate to catch this absolutely breathtaking sunset:







It was getting late and we were getting hungry, so we headed up Lincoln Way with the idea of finding a place to eat in the Haight. However, I spotted a promising looking Thai restaurant -- Sri Thai -- just a few blocks from the beach and we decided to give it a try. I had a delicious thai beef salad and Michael had Pad Himapan.

Last thing of the day - a stop to shoot some night-time photos of the Golden Gate bridge:




The Golden Gate at night - shot from a scary location. Oh, the headlines I was imagining ...

With the change to Daylight Savings time upon us, we fell into bed, happy and exhausted.

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Sunday - March 11

Sunday we awoke to an even more beautiful day than Saturday, and we just couldn't believe our luck. Since we had a concert to attend that night and were a bit tired from playing super tourists the day before, we decided to take it a bit easier and drive up Highway 1, through Marin County to a little town named Stinson Beach.

On the way though, we drove past the park formerly known as Candlestick, and the baseball stadium on the Embarcadero so Michael could snap some pictures:




Monster Park, formerly known as Candlestick Park. I'll always call it Candlestick.





Where the Giants play.

After we grabbed some Starbucks, we headed north over the Golden Gate Bridge. We stopped and took some pictures at the viewpoint immediately north of the bridge.



It was even more incredible in person.

We had intended to take Hwy 1 all the way up to Stinson Beach, but the highway was closed so we had to take a detour on Muir Woods Road and the Panoramic Highway, winding and winding through Mt. Tamalpais State Park.

We drove for what seemed like hours along the twisty road (although in reality it wasn't that long) and all of a sudden, the town of Stinson Beach appeared below us.



Stinson Beach from above.

After grabbing some chips and beverages from the local market, we headed down to the actual beach. I got so excited, I kicked off my flip flops and headed straight for the water:




Holy crap that's cold!

I didn't want to leave, but hunger was getting the best of us and we headed back up Hwy 1 for awhile, then cut over on Sir Francis Drake Blvd. so we could get back to Hwy 101.

We stopped in the little town of Fairfax for lunch, at a brewpub called Iron Springs Pub. We sat outside enjoying some delicious brews and spoke briefly with some Brazilian guy sitting next to us. Back in the car again, we headed back to the hotel for some R&R before the concert.

After enjoying dinner at In-n-Out Burger one last time, we headed into the city for the Blackfield concert at the Great American Music Hall. As is usually the case with most shows that I've attended that are even somewhat related to the progressive rock genre, there were "prog snobs" in attendance and of course, they were in front of us in line and would not keep their mouths shut. The doors could not open soon enough for me!

After an opening set by John Wesley (a solo artist who tours with Steven Wilson's main band, Porcupine Tree), Blackfield took the stage and performed a a tight set - they sounded at the top of their game. Afterwards we stopped at the Golden Gate viewpoint once again and snapped a couple more night photos of the bridge and the city lights:




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Monday - March 12

We were up early to catch our 10am flight back to Portland. Riding the "air train" between the rental car lot and the terminal, I drank in the view of the surrounding hills and reflected on the best weekend I've had in a long, long time.

San Francisco, I miss you already.

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