A Day in the City

For the past so many years, I never really liked going to San Francisco. Let me rephrase that. I never liked driving up to San Francisco. But I do love the city by the bay. It's just the driving. Parking is scare and, like any other big city, there's just too many cars and people no matter what they you go. In addition, I just find the drive so long. However, I just recently found out that it isn't really that far. I just didn't know how to get there in the shortest amount of time.

Dome at Neiman Marcus in SF

For the longest time, I always drove up to SF from the "other" side. This meant crossing highway 92 from the East Bay, then on to 101 till I got to the city. It wasn't wrong. It was just LONG. The shortest route was via 880 to 80, then onto the Bay Brdige. The next thing you know, you're in the city. What was I thinking??? Duh! It was actually my wife who made the "discovery." She and her friend, Grace (her son and ours are BFFs), drove up one weekend, with the kids (Yes, I was left at home). and Grace took this route.

The following weekend, we decided to try this new route and headed for the city. I was stunned, to say the least. What have I been doing all these years? Why have I not tried this route before? With this discovery, driving up the city was no longer a pain. As a matter of fact, it took very little convincing for me to go. I think I will now enjoy the city more than I ever did.

So when the wife said she wanted to go to San Francisco today, it was an easy decision. We slept in a little bit, and got there before 11:30. We had the car valeted at Nordstrom by the Westfield Mall. For $20 for the whole day, I thought it was worth it. I'd probably pay the same (or more) in a public parking structure. But first, I had to find one, and second, I had to park the car myself.

We did a little shopping and stayed mainly in the Union Square area. What surprised me was that the place wasn't as crowded as I expected it to be, especially on a gorgeous, sunny day like today was. Then I realized that it was probably because some of the stores didn't open till 12:00 noon.

Ferry Building

After making the rounds, we were hungry. Time for lunch. We wanted to go to the Ferry Building and see what we can find. If undecided, there was always The Slanted Door. I did a quick plot on the ol' trusty iphone, and the Ferry Building was a mere 15 minute walk. It was 0.8 mile.

The section across the street from the Ferry Building was a bit crowded with all sorts of vendors selling craft, trinkets, and everything else you can think of. The inner road immediately in front of the building seemed to have been converted to a large bicycle loop, similar to that in Central Park in New York during summer, and even in Burnham Park in Baguio. Everyone was just enjoying the glorious sun and the wonderful 70F weather.

Every store and eating place in the Ferry Building had long lines. Most of them had very limited to no seating at all. As much as we wanted to try some of them, we had to sit to eat. The only option was to go to the "bigger" shops or restaurants. So, lunch was at The Slanted Door. The place was packed, too, but we didn't have to wait long. Maybe 3 minutes? The Slanted Door served modern Vietnamese cuisine. And that's all I will share for now. More in a later post.

With all the food we ate, we had to walk back to burn the extra calories. Initially, we planned on taking the tram back to Union Square. On the way back, we ran into a fairly large group of protesters from Tibet, marching on Market Street and headed towards the Ferry Building. We didn't know where their final destination would be, but they were escorted by quite a number of SF motorcycle cops and patrol cars. They even had to stop traffic at intersections to let the marchers pass. They sure had adequate resources to pay for such services.

After a brief stop at Nordstrom, we called it a day and headed home. Traffic was light, and we left the city without a hitch. Later in the evening, we met up with some friends and had dinner at our favorite burger joint in Livermore, First Street Alehouse.

Note:  Author wants to acknowledge Hennessy House (www.woodenflagpoles.com) for the use of the Ferry Building photograph.