Our trip to San Francisco

Bob and I went to San Francisco for his birthday. It was a quick trip of just two nights and the weatherman offered us an 80% chance of showers and 40 degree weather. Typical of most of our trips, we weren't too surprised by the weather report. My mom came in on Thursday and stayed with Andrew throughout the weekend. Bob and I flew took the 6:15 flight on Friday...which turned in to 7:15 because of the weather in San Fran. The flight was boring, and oddly LONG. I guess we circled the airport numerous times because we didn't land until 9pm....and that's with GAINING an hour!
We rode the shuttle to The Westin on Market Street. When we got up to the 26th floor and I looked out the window, I couldn't believe the view!! Here's a picture:


Now, keep in mind that I've never been to San Francisco. The only big city I've been to is Chicago and I stayed in the suburbs. So, I haven't seen a big city before. We ate dinner at the hotel restaurant, called DUCCA, and it was GROSS. So bland. And we ordered a dessert to take back to the room and they basically just threw the cheesecake in the box. The dinner wasn't an entire loss though. We had a great time watching people and talking.
The next morning, I woke up early; afraid to miss even a minute of the city. Rain was on the horizon but had only produced a beautiful rainbow up to that point. Here's another picture. You can see the view from the day and also the rainbow in the top, right corner:

We left the hotel around 9am and I was surprised to find that most of the restaurants downtown were closed. We were dying for some good coffee and were about to enter the "Starbucks-like" coffee shop when we noticed it's neighboring door open. We were pleasantly surprised to find a newly-opened, little restaurant. A musician was setting up to play his morning set, another musician sat beside me at the bar referring to everyone as "cat", and there was football on the tv in front of us. It was a great respite from the cold, harsh weather outside.
I had never seen China Town in real life. I was hoping to find a "Gizmo" but I guess they only sell those in New York's China Town. I did find a cool metal sculpture of a guy playing a saxophone that I bought for Andrew. We walked all the way to Fisherman's Wharf
Have you noticed something about my news so far? Well...I haven't mentioned the RAIN!! That's right! It didn't rain. In fact, it cleared up so much that we were able to take a ferry out to the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz. What a pleasant surprise. We were planning on being stuck inside and underneath an umbrella all day. Of course, it was still FREEZING on the boat, but that didn't hinder our gratitude at being able to enjoy the city. I was like an icicle when we got off the boat but we hustled inside Alioto's and had the best clam chowder that either of us have ever eaten. We went to Ghirardelli and got some chocolate and began our walk back home. OH, but first we hiked up to Lombard Street--the "crookedest" street in the world.

Bob at The Stinking Rose:

For dinner, I took Bob to dinner at a place called Acquerello. It was nice to get dressed up and go out in the "big city". We got a cab to the restaurant and I was scared to death by the driver zooming up and down the steep hills, especially since the streets were soaking wet! We had a beautiful dinner, and enjoyed watching people. I saw "me and Bob in 20 years"--and they looked happy. I had a wonderful octopus antipasto. It was the largest octopus I've ever eaten and it was very tender and not "fishy" at all. In fact, the only way I even knew it was an octopus was because it had hundreds of suckers on it's long tentacles.

We always have such a good time on trips. I want to go back and tour Alcatraz, AND I'd like to experience some of the downtown nightlife of San Francisco. The flight home was quick and uneventful. We read our Kindles and I worked some puzzles. I'm looking forward to being home for a while now. Nowhere to go until....New Years?