Signing off from San Fran...
Well, time's just about up here in San Fran. It's been a great 5 days, but we're ready to move onto Canada (we're some still seem to think we're part of the UK! Sorry my Canadian friends, but that's really embarassing) Anyway, it's been a really busy last few days...
Tuesday we wen through Chinatown, and visited the fortune cookie factory. Fiona was an expert fortune cookie-maker, nearly buring her fingers in the process! I just bought a bag -hey, you can't have too much good fortune right ;-) We then walked around the farmers market, where as you can imagine Fiona was in her element. It was a bit of a grotty day, so we basically spent it indoors walkng the shops - Macy's was a real highlight; although I wasn't impressed with the 25 minute wait for take-away cheesecake from the cheesecake factory, at a cost of $7.50 + taxUS$! Ok, ok, it was good - but nothing was worth the wait.
Later that day we saw a really cool memorial to Martin Luther King, and visited the cartoon museum, which had all the Israeli cartoons I mentioned before. We concluded by trying a couple of local wines, the Sav and Pinot, both of which were very nice but very different from their NZ cousins.
Yesterday was great. We rented bikes and cycled accross the Golden Gate Bridge, which was thoroughly impressive. We cycled to a place pronounced "So-Solitszo," which was like a cross between Eastbourne and Oriental Bay. Nice town. We then caught the ferry back and dodged the rain for a little while, before going to see the "Painted Ladies." These are the famous Victorian Houses, which are most widely known for their use in Full House, i.e. with the Olsen twins. They are truly amazing, and well worth the very dodg neighbourhood we walked through afterwards. Last night we met up with our friends Becky and Kevin, went to the revolving bar at the top of the Hyatt hotel for a drink, before heading to the Mission for Spanish-style Tapas. Now, I know Mike, Brent and a few others are thinking: "Spanish .....urgh?!" But it's pretty basic foods like chicken, mushrooms and potatoes, just dress up a little and in small servings, which are shared around. We really love it, and will no doubt get fully into Tapas when we hit Spain.
Today was reasonably relaxed. We saw the rest of Chinatown, visited the Haight (scummy, Vivian St looking place, nothing to praise about), got lunch from a super-market and ate it while walking through Golden Gate Park. Two highights of the day were the Japanese tea garden in the Park and visiting the Asian Art Museum in the evening - truly superb. Te Papa could learn a few things from these guys about how to present an exhibition.
And that's pretty much it. We've really enjoyed SF, and aside from having sore legs and feet, it's been everything we wanted. As Ed Harris said in "The Rock," "This is [Cutting] from Alcatraz, OUT!"
Tuesday we wen through Chinatown, and visited the fortune cookie factory. Fiona was an expert fortune cookie-maker, nearly buring her fingers in the process! I just bought a bag -hey, you can't have too much good fortune right ;-) We then walked around the farmers market, where as you can imagine Fiona was in her element. It was a bit of a grotty day, so we basically spent it indoors walkng the shops - Macy's was a real highlight; although I wasn't impressed with the 25 minute wait for take-away cheesecake from the cheesecake factory, at a cost of $7.50 + taxUS$! Ok, ok, it was good - but nothing was worth the wait.
Later that day we saw a really cool memorial to Martin Luther King, and visited the cartoon museum, which had all the Israeli cartoons I mentioned before. We concluded by trying a couple of local wines, the Sav and Pinot, both of which were very nice but very different from their NZ cousins.
Yesterday was great. We rented bikes and cycled accross the Golden Gate Bridge, which was thoroughly impressive. We cycled to a place pronounced "So-Solitszo," which was like a cross between Eastbourne and Oriental Bay. Nice town. We then caught the ferry back and dodged the rain for a little while, before going to see the "Painted Ladies." These are the famous Victorian Houses, which are most widely known for their use in Full House, i.e. with the Olsen twins. They are truly amazing, and well worth the very dodg neighbourhood we walked through afterwards. Last night we met up with our friends Becky and Kevin, went to the revolving bar at the top of the Hyatt hotel for a drink, before heading to the Mission for Spanish-style Tapas. Now, I know Mike, Brent and a few others are thinking: "Spanish .....urgh?!" But it's pretty basic foods like chicken, mushrooms and potatoes, just dress up a little and in small servings, which are shared around. We really love it, and will no doubt get fully into Tapas when we hit Spain.
Today was reasonably relaxed. We saw the rest of Chinatown, visited the Haight (scummy, Vivian St looking place, nothing to praise about), got lunch from a super-market and ate it while walking through Golden Gate Park. Two highights of the day were the Japanese tea garden in the Park and visiting the Asian Art Museum in the evening - truly superb. Te Papa could learn a few things from these guys about how to present an exhibition.
And that's pretty much it. We've really enjoyed SF, and aside from having sore legs and feet, it's been everything we wanted. As Ed Harris said in "The Rock," "This is [Cutting] from Alcatraz, OUT!"
posted by Steve at 10:23 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home