San Francisco

I’ve been keeping a list! Here are some of my favorite places in San Francisco:





Chinatown walking tour:
http://www.chinatownwalk.com/page1/page1.html but sign-up at www.goldstar.com and you can get the tickets half off. My friends just went on this and said it was fascinating.

Restaurants:
The Tipsy Pig-the mac and cheese is to die for! (North Beach)
http://www.thetipsypigsf.com/

The Irish House (Union Square)-Guiness Beef stew! Stay for the entertainment-never know what you’ll see! It’s in Union Square where there is lots of shopping, bars, restaurants.
http://www.johnnyfoleys.com/aboutus.html

Rose’s Café-Great food, eat outside. Breakfast/Lunch-go in off hours Lot’s of locals. On Union St-great shopping in smaller shops, other bars and restaurants nearby.
http://www.rosescafesf.com/

Hotel Griffon (Financial District)
http://www.hotelgriffon.com/hotel.php

The Ferry Building is across the street. The Cable Car museum is a block away. Waterfront is right there. It would be a nice central place to stay. Easy to take public transportation to the ballpark from here.

The Ferry Building-brunch at restaurant outside, Market Bar http://www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com/marketbar.php

Perry’s (Financial District) -We had a great lunch here. It’s right on the Embarcadero near the Bay Bridge and next to the Hotel Griffon which looked like a great place to stay
http://www.perryssf.com/directions_embarcadero.htm

Mark Hopkins Hotel-Great views, grand old hotel, but expensive, probably $250 and up. But it’s near everything. Close to Chinatown. Had friends that stayed there and they loved it. The views are phenomenal.
http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/intercontinental/en/gb/locations/overview/sfoha


Tommy’s Tequila Bar-Hole in the wall. Been there for years. Any kind of tequila you can imagine. Did you know there was sipping tequila? Best Mexican food I’ve ever had and I’ve had a lot! Or maybe it was the best tequila I’ve ever had. http://www.tommystequila.com/

Kuletos: Love this restaurant. Need reservations for dinner. We went there for lunch at an off hour and walked right in. Fantastic food and atmosphere.
http://www.kuletos.com/index.shtml

Villa Florence Hotel- Next to Kuletos Restaurant. Looked very elegant, very old and very San Francisco. Prices about $200+ a night.
http://larkspurhotels.com/collection/villa-florence

ATT Park-Giants Baseball- tacos, bring your lunch, garlic chicken sandwiches, hot fudge sundaes!, pastrami sandwiches

Lands End-hiking

Aquatic Park and Maritime Museum

SFMOMA- make sure to go all the way to the roof top café, the restaurant on the main floor is great for a snack or lunch too.

Teatro Zinzanni-expensive but worth it. Food ok, show is extraordinary, funny, and changes all the time

http://www.sfcablecar.com/Buy a pass for the day or weekend

http://lifeisagrainofsand.blogspot.com/2009/02/in-search-of-sea-glass-aquatic-park-san.html This is me!

Golden Gate Bridge-Fort Point underneath it. Very cool to walk through-free.
Great hot dogs at stand outside state park visitor center. Visitor center has a great collection of local tourist areas, walks, books, etc.

District-Wine bar with small plates. Excellent place to have dinner and a really good bottle of wine before yo go to the ballpark.

The Holidays

How will I spend the holidays this year? For some just mentioning “the holidays” can bring a shudder with all the stress, planning, traveling and overspending. But with some thought I think we can alleviate some of the bad vibes that come along with the entire hubbub of the holidays.

My yoga instructor said to try and take the holidays easier this year. Make it simple as part of our practice. Make that your gift to yourself and those around you. The wintertime should be a time to hunker down, stay warm and take care of yourself for the coming spring. There’s a lot to be said in that. I’m taking heed in her advice this year.

We are spreading things out over November and December. While we have a lot of traveling to do we aren’t doing it all in the same couple of weeks. I won’t get out all my decorations, just my favorite ones. I am choosing to do those things I love to do for the holidays. I also plan to create whenever I can fit it in and I will continue with my yoga practice and my exercise regime. That will keep me calm and centered. I will also remember to drink lots of water. Keeping hydrated is important and then you won’t fill up and overeat.

We opted to have Thanksgiving at home with my daughter and her boyfriend with all the trimmings. We will have all of our favorites. Turkey, stuffing, gravy, mash potatoes and pumpkin pie are on my list. I love the smells of Thanksgiving and the warmth of the kitchen while everything is cooking. Then we will celebrate with friends with our “Saturday after Thanksgiving” party. A tradition we have done for the past few years. All of our friends get together from all over and we have another giant feast. People make great effort to get there sometimes. It’s a lovely way to get together before everyone scatters for December. It’s great to carve out time to see our friends and celebrate with them.




I love to go into San Francisco’s Union Square at night when all the Christmas lights are up and people are shopping. There’s a chill in the air and puppies and kittens in the windows at Macy’s. Hot chocolate and window shopping bundled up in my wool coat. I don’t necessarily buy anything, I just like to go observe and breathe in the spirit wherever I can find it, take a few photos and people watch. I love big cities. I find a comfortable place to sit and watch all the people buzzing by. I find calmness and rhythm while sitting in the middle of chaos just observing.




We will be celebrating in early December with my son and his family in the Seattle area. We are bringing my parents and they will be meeting their first great-grandchild. We have rented an apartment at a retro-motel in their town and plan on making it a mini vacation. We will take in all the sites of Seattle and the surrounding area and have a lovely family dinner at my son’s house. Early December allows my daughter-in-law time with her family when they come to visit at Christmas and it allows us to attend my mom’s Christmas Eve celebration in Southern California. Hence, I get to do all my favorite things. Hug my new grandbaby, visit a big city, connect with family, continue and start traditions.

I’m thinking a fun New’s Years Eve party at our house with our friends might be fun. But I’m leaving that up in the air right now. Whatever happens, happens. Go with the flow.

I want to thank Cynthia Morris for her post that inspired me and reminded me of how to enjoy the holiday season.

In Search of Sea Glass-Aquatic Park, San Francisco

Living on the San Mateo Coast in the Bay Area for 13 years I recently realized I hadn’t taken the time to really explore the Greater Bay Area. Sure I’d been to the major tourist areas when our out of town guests arrived. But there is so much more to do here. Being an empty nester, bored, and feeling creative, my husband and I set out one day every week as our adventure day, playing tourists in our own backyard. It usually focuses on hunting for sea glass (an obsession of mine), and gives us a starting point.

Dressed in layers with a picnic lunch in preparation for a day at the beach, it was overcast but the weather report promised no rain, so we set off to San Francisco to find sea glass.



In my search on the Internet I had found a small snippet that said Aquatic Park at the Embarcadero is a good place to find sea glass. So we headed to the Embarcadero. My husband is not one to ever take the same route twice into the city. It’s always an adventure getting there. We started near the Bay Bridge at the complete opposite side of the location to Aquatic Park. You are immediately greeted with a giant bow and arrow sculpture coming out of the ground greeting you to the waterfront of San Francisco. The Ferry Building is next and I commented that I had never been inside there. As we got closer we noticed that there was a farmer’s market and art fair going on. So we took a left and looked for parking. We found a parking garage at the Rincon Center Garage at 121 Spear Street between Mission and Howard a few blocks away that had a $5 deal for four hours at the Farmer’s Market.

We walked down Steuart Street and looked in all the restaurants and read their menus on our way to the market. Perry’s had a brunch going with half price Bloody Mary’s and we discovered on Tuesday’s they offer ½ priced bottles of wine. Perry’s is located in the Hotel Griffon at 155 Steuart Street.

So this wasn’t sea glass but our adventures are never set in stone. We ambled on to the art fair where artisans had set up across the street from the Ferry Building. They were selling a lot of locally made art; photographs of the Golden Gate Bridge, miniature watercolors of San Francisco scenery, jewelry, clothing, purses. We pursued their wares and then headed across the street to the Farmer’s Market. We needed vegetables to go with dinner on Sunday night, something for Moroccan leg of lamb.

We knew we needed lemons and oranges, which were stocked in abundance at the market, but were stumped for a vegetable. There were lots of greens: rainbow chard, broccoli rabe, bok choy, fennel and various varieties of lettuce. Organically and locally grown looked to be the theme. We found fresh cheese, herbs, fruits, meat and food vendors from local restaurants.
Having never been to this Farmer’s Market before we walked through and took a look at all the booths, getting samples and making a few purchases, Blue Cheese Dip & Dressing from Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company. So fresh and creamy and they gave out recipes with it. We ran into Lou Iacopi from Half Moon Bay at his stand selling his fresh vegetables. We bought Fingerling Potatoes at the Zuckerman’s Farm stand. They hail from Stockton. We wound our way through all the booths, some already closing up because they had run out of produce, and made our way into the Ferry Building.

The Ferry Building Marketplace has been completely refurbished. Filled with stores, eateries and markets we found another gem we should have visited long before. We ended up the Golden Gate Meat Company. Their selection of meat was unique from Chicken cilantro with lime and tequila sausage to perfectly aged New York steak to buffalo and elk. Their produce department like the farmer’s market outside was full of fresh produce. They happened to have asparagus that we determined would go well with our lamb. Purchases made we decided to head back to our car. After all we still had sea glass to find and we had packed a picnic lunch for the beach.

On our way to the car we passed by Perry’s again and couldn’t resist brunch with half price bloody Mary’s. With jazzy blues playing in the back ground and old exposed brick walls we sat down to a reasonably priced brunch. Eggs Benedict and an egg white and corn tortilla scramble. Both came with red potatoes sautéed with onions and bell peppers and a small bowl of very sweet fresh melons. I think we’ll be back soon to try the Tuesday night half price wine with dinner. So much for our picnic lunch waiting for us in the car.

Satiated by lunch we again headed out in search of sea glass. It was about 3:30, which was perfect because that was low tide for the day, the best time for sea glass hunting.

Parking anywhere in San Francisco is a challenge. Since we didn’t really know where we were going we took our car this time. It’s much easier and cheaper to park in Daly City and take BART in to the city. But we meandered our way through the tourist traffic along the Embarcadero until we found Aquatic Park at the foot of Polk Street at 2905 Hyde Street. There was free parking for the weekend at Fort Mason on Van Ness at the Hyde Street Pier and there was open parking. The Maritime Museum is right there at the beach. They are in the process of remodeling it. The beach sits right below the giant Ghirardelli sign that looks out on the bay towards Alcatraz.




I could see that the tide was low. I didn’t really hold out hope of finding any precious pieces of sea glass since this is a well-traveled and busy location. But being armed with extensive sea glass hunting knowledge and the fact that the tide had just gone out I had a better chance than most. We got about half way down the beach and there was a perfectly frosted piece of white sea glass. Not a coveted piece but where there’s one piece of sea glass you can be sure there is more. You could see the gravel bed right beyond our reach, churning up pieces of green sea glass. I was not dressed for jumping into the freezing water or wading in with bare feet. So I had to be satisfied with the dozen or so pieces of frosted glass we found on the sand washing up at our feet. Our objective had been met for the day and we ended up finding so much more along the way.

Famous San Francisco Brown Twins

We were at the Cheesecake Factory at the top of Macy's in San Francisco on Sunday and the famous Brown Twins of San Francisco sat at the table next to us. They were adorable. I've never seen them before. But when I googled famous twins in San Francisco, there they were! I hope when I'm 81 i'm up to flirting with waiters and walking around San Francisco dressed to the nines! You've gotta love The City!

Golden Gate Renaissance Faire

I went to the Golden Gate Renaissance Faire in San Francisco on Sunday. Picked up lots of ideas for my sons renaissance themed wedding in Ocotober. Found lots of accessories for the costumes and was entertained by the many guilds that were there. I posted the photos on my photo website and received an email from Frau Minna of the St Max Guild as I had captured their guild with a couple of my photos. They will be posting them on their website.