San Francisco to Carmel May 14-19,2009

San Francisco Streetcar
May 14,2009


Robert asked me what I wanted for my birthday. His birthday is a couple of weeks before mine so we celebrate it jointly. Last year we took a car trip to St. Louis & Memphis. I told him I wanted to fly somewhere.


He found a deal on Southwest Airlines, $99 one way to San Francisco. Normal fare is $399 per person one way.


Yahoo.com Travel section has itineraries & an option to check rates on Expedia, Travelocity, Hotels.com. We decided to stay downtown for a couple of days. After that to rent a car to see outlying areas for 2 days, turn the car back in downtown & stay another day near Union Square. Parking in town is impossible & expensive even if you can find it at all. The cheapest rate is over $25 a day plus 25% city tax, making it around $50.



Hotel Serrano
405 Taylor/O'Farrell
415-885-2500


Everyone who had stayed there seemed to love the Serrano, a boutique hotel owned by Kimpton which specializes in older luxury facilities. There was a charming virtual tour. Instead of $200 we were able to book for $109 on Thursday and $124 on Friday. We liked it so much that we made reservations at another Kimpton hotel nearby, the Sir Frances Drake for the last couple of days of our visit. Of the other hotels mentioned on Yahoo Travel the Larkspur seemed like a good value when we stopped by to look around.



Larkspur Hotel
524 Sutter St
415-421-2865










It was a mistake to wait until the day before we needed it to reserve a rental car. There was a big road race on Sunday, Bay to Breakers. This was the 95th year for the 12 km race and 62,000 visitors participated in it. Enough of these runners were not locals and rented cars so that by Friday there were none available at Hertz and Alamo. Thursday the rate for rental cars was $40; it was $79 the next morning. We were able to get a Chevy Impala from the Enterprise Leasing offices in Hotel Nikko. There are extra charges if you book online or if you pick it up at one place and drop it off at another such as the airport.


222 Mason Street
415-837-1700
http://www.enterprise.com/


We purchased Protege 2 section rolling duffle bags from http://www.walmart.com/.
It is 30x14x16, weighs less than 8 lbs, has a handle & separate zippered bottom compartment for carrying shoes or wet swim suits. Item 157271579.

If you order it to be delivered to a store near you for pickup there is no shipping charge. Website indicates what most bought who purchased the same type item plus there are reviews of the item researched. It is a great bag.


We decided we needed new bags because our old ones would be too heavy when packed to make the weight of 40 lb per person & that we would each need a bag. This travel duffle was too big for hand carried luggage but if the other passengers all put a bag in the overhead compartment there won't be enough room so our bags would have to be checked after all.


Hand carried bags are limited to 10x16x24. Checked luggage can be no bigger than a total of 62 inches. Southwest Airlines allows 2 bags per customer if they weigh less than 50 lbs apiece. Any additional bags were $25 each. Many of the competitor airlines are charging for any bags you bring, carryon or checked. American Airlines charges $15 for even one bag.


An improvement since we last flew is that you can check in online 24 hours in advance & pirnt a boarding pass before ariving at the airport. If you are not checking a bag you go right to your gate.


I had custom luggage straps from England that have our names woven into the strap which makes it easy to find the bags on the lugage carousel, ordered it from one of those in flight magazines in 2002. http://www.thestrap.com/. 1-888-307-8727


It is a good idea to get a name tag with a clear pocket for your bags so you can make temporary name tags that can be changed out. You make double sided address labels with the destination address on 1 side & your home address on the other. You flip the label over when you fly home. If a thief reads your luggage tag at the airport he could rob your home at his leisure since you are going to be gone for a time. If your bag is temporarily misplaced it will be sent to your hotel.




Our flight left New Orleans at 10 am with a brief layover in Denver, arriving in San Francisco at 5 pm. Locals in the Denver airport wore shorts and sandals although it seemed cold outside to us.






There were neat displays of pioneer tools and a crazy quilt with sampler stitch book in the Denver airport.


Our options from the airport when we got to San Francisco were to take a Speedy Shuttle bus for $17 a person or the Bart transit for $5.35. We took the bus but if we had known that the Bart station was around the corner from our hotel we would have used that. Our driver gave us a $4 discount coupon to use on the trip back to the airport but it turned out to be with a rival service, not Speedy Shuttle.


Doorman John asked if we were the Schneiders, teasing us about what took so long to arrive from the ariport. You can play a hand of Black Jack with the desk clerk when you chek in. If you win you get a bottle of red or white wine. We had a score of 21 & chose the red, a Chilean carmeniere, Carmen wineries. The hotel has free wine tasting every afternoon from 5 to 6 pm in the lobby. They were doing the carmenire & a sauvignon blanc which we tried the next evening since we were too late for it that day. There were vintage board games on a table in the lobby such as Monopoly, Trouble & Sorry. The samples were generous for the tasting, a regular large glass of wine.


If you like the wine they are serving there is a large wine store next door to the hotel.


Our favorite concierge was Ed Gomez. He gave us a tour book & map on wine country. Sonoma is closest to San Francisco. Napa had more brands that I see at the stores in New Orleans. He was fond of the Russian River area.


Our room was just like the picture. The morning we checked out I opened the closet door for the first time, discovering these fuzzy $10 socks, lounge wear sets & leopard print terry robe. If you even tried on the robe they would charge you for it. They could tell if you had because there was a paper band on the inside waistband that tore when disturbed. The robe was made of scratchy material that I didn't care for. The bed had pressed sheets with high thread count that felt like Egyptian cotton. The room was quiet. We slept soundly.


They had complimentry supplies for guests so we had them bring us some toothpaste. I packed some new travel toothbrushes with built in toottpaste that we saw on the Today show but we needed the toothpaste after we used them the first time.



After unpacking we walked 2 blocks east to purchase a 3 day cable car pass at the downtown end of the street car line on Powell Street. The other end of it is on Beach Street in front of Fisherman's Wharf. We took the Powell-Hyde car to Fisherman's Wharf. We never did walk south of Powell as it borders the Tenderloin district. There is also a Powell-Mason cable car. Although they start at the same point & end at the same point Powell and Hyde are 4 blocks parallel to each other. We regretted later not purchasing a week pass for $24. One way is $5, 3 days is $18, a month costs $40.



It is important to watch where you sit on the street car when taking pictures. Make sure the sun is to your back for best results. Before noon sit on the left side of the car going to the Fisherman's Wharf (north); in the afternoon sit on the right side going toward downtown (south).






There was a herd of homeless panhandlers everywhere we went, looking for something for nothing & street musicians getting nothing for something.

sign: "why lie, it's for beer"

The funniest was a man by Pier 39 who had one string on his violin; the rest were flying in the breeze. He couldn't play but at least he wasn't singing. It sounded like he was stepping on kittens during a fire drill. Another guy wearing a Dalmation costume had 3 dogs wearing hats sitting on a park bench.
















We ate supper at Boudin's Bakery/Museum. They pronounce it "bow deen". We told the cashiers that we pronounce that word 'boo-dan' and that it is a sausage in New Oreans. They didn't believe us. A transplanted Minesotan at the museum sales counter said they have a sausage up there like boudin made with potatoes instead of rice. Supper was their clam chowder in a sour dough bread bowl, very good.






There was no restroom in Boudin's so we had to use the public facility outside. Robert told me there was a homeless drunk in the men's room trying to keep warm under the hand dryers. It was so cold that I purchased a black fleece hooded genuine San Francisco jacket for $12 from a souvenir shop near Pier 39.







harbor seals, Pier 39

San Francisco to Carmel-by-the-Sea May 15

Hiking San Francisco May 15

On our first day we followed the walking tour outlined in the AAAA book starting at Union Square. There are heart-shaped sculptures at the 4 corners of the square, symbolizing the heart of downtown.

The statue in the center of the square symbolizes the Goddess of Victory. There was an art show in the square for the week.

The Westin St Frances has a big clock in the lobby suspended from the ceiling where everyone used to meet. When women wore white gloves & dressed up for lunch the hotel had a man who cleaned coins for customers so their gloves would not get dirty. The coins were intended for staff tips & never left the building.

Neiman Marcus has a beautiful stained glass domed ceiling from the City of Paris department store.

Around the corner on Maiden Lane there was a brick wall designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Next to this wall was a 2 story galleria shopping mall with glass ceiling.

Wells Fargo Bank Building was on the corner, #44 Montgomery Street. There was a stagecoach robbery museum in the lobby. Kids played on the simulated stagecoach ride upstairs. If you could guess which person was the culprit based on a list of clues/evidence you got a plastic sheriff's badge.

We watched a silent movie about a stage coach robbery then took a quiz. Questions were about the robber's descritpion, how many robbers there were, what kind of guns they used, which direction they rode in, description of their horses. There was a plaster cast of 3 suspect robber boot prints & 3 horseshoe prints. You were supposed to guess which one to follow on a pursuit.

Hotel Nikko was designed with the Chineese business executive in mind

222 Mason St

415-394-1111






We walked up Telegraph Hill to the top of Coit Tower, chatting with a New York fireman & his girlfried who is an accountant. I think we climbed every hill in town. I can't see how we missed it if they had one more staircase.

The base of Coit tower has murals from floor to ceiling of the lobby

We ditched the walking tour. It seemed that it was designed by a deparved manic depressive patient. You would be on one street, told to turn the corner, go down this lane, take a left at the next corner, then a right, but wait! go back to the first street half a block from where you started. It wasn't just that, it was also up & down hill at the same time. We were no longer speaking to each other. This had never happened to us before. We both love to walk. When we lived in Old Metairie we used to walk for hours in the evenings. We were fed up, were just going to take their word about anything historic/ folkloric. It was time for lunch at Pier 39, the Wipe Out Restaurant.

After lunch we took the thrilling jet boat tour of the Bay. It ruined us for any other tour or boat ride. Forever.

Bridge by AT&T Ballpark that was designed by same man who designed Golden Gate Bridge. He designed this when he was 12 years old.

cheap souvenirs, Pier 39

octopus sushi, Fisherman's Whart

Musee Mechanique is a penny arcade anchoring Fisherman's Wharf. Robert met the owner, Daniel Zelinsky, a man about his age whose grandfather had started the collection. Daniel has retooled the machines to take quarters instead of pennies. He keeps busy making sure they all work.

I put a coin in a fortune telling machine. It spit out a card that told me I talk too much & to stay home next time. No revelation there.

Rare steam powered motorcycle that still works

http://www.museemechaniquesf.com/

Other tours available were a double decker bus, rented bicycles, a fire engine across the Golden Gate Bridge, the duck, segway, & a two seater go cart/motorcycle with self guided tour. The segway cost $70 for 2 1/2 hours. Most of the tours are based on Beach Street. Duck tours are based on Taylor/Jefferson Street. Go carts are on O'Farrell.

On the way back we made reservations at Cobb's Comedy Club on Columbus Street in Little Italy. Our neighbors at the next table that evening were Melanie Moffett, a wine exporter & her husband Don who is an executive with Kaiser. Besides Jeaneane Garofolo comics Marc Maron, a Jewish philosopher & Paul Gilmartin, a Republican politician, entertained us.

Columbus Street/corner of Lombard

415-928-4320

http://www.cobbscomedy.com/bscomedy.com/

We returned to Boudin's for a tour. We learned there were several foods invented in San Francisco. Sourdough bread in 1849; Joe's Special in 1850 (scrambled eggs with hamburger & vegetables); the martini - 1860; Chop Suey - 1860; the Mai Tai by bartender Vic Bergeron at Trader Vic's - 1940; the fortune cookie - 1914; Irish coffee - 1952; Crab Louis - Hotel St Frances. This dish has lettuce, Dungeness crab, hardboiled egg & pink dressing.

View in microscope of live bacteria in sourgdough yeast.

San Francisco to Carmel-by-the-Sea May 16

Muir Woods - Napa Valley May 16

It was our last morning at the Serrano. We had breakfast at Sears Fine Foods. In the 1970's Jay Leno interviewed a waiter from Sears Fine Foods named Sidney who was 108 years old and seated 50 customers per hour.

Robert had the Swedish 18 mini pancakes; I had the sourdough French toast. We ate at the counter. The waitress gave us a token to play the slot machine on the way out. Somebody did win it while we had breakfast. If you hit a jackpot you get a free meal on your next visit. Breakfast is served until 3 pm.

439 Powell

439-786-7000

We picked up the car and drove to 1000 Lombard for our turn down the 9 hairpin curves of San Francisco's most crooked street.

this is also the view from the top, standing at the top looking out and not down

This flyer advertised an apartment close to the top of Lombard for $4,300 a month. One advantage to walking down or up the hill. I recommend down as a person who has experienced this hill in every known dimension.

Other transportation we saw were Zip cars and some by City Share. These type cars are shared by several drivers with a choice of compact sedan, convertible or truck. The car is parked in a lot with the key left in it. Reservatons are made by phone or online 24/7. The driver gains admission with a magnetized metal card which he scans out when he exits the car. A bill is submitted immediately online. Gas and insurance is provided, enough to cover $1 million per incident. Drivers get the car by the hour for a few hours a week for $5 an hour and 40 cents per mile = $6 an hour or $40 overnight per 24 hours and 10 cents a mile. Drivers have to commit to at least $50 a month useage, pay application fee of $30 and come up with a refundable $300 deposit. There is a trial program, $30 for 60 days with no contract or fees. If you are using the car to donate to Goodwill they give you $10 useage credit for up to 4 times a year. There are also discounts at other merchants for members. They clean & wash the car once a week.

We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, stopped briefly in Sausalito then hiked for an hour in Muir Woods to the left and north of the bridge. It is free to cross from San francisco but $6 to get back to San Francisco from the other side. The other bridge into San Francisco, the Oakland Bay bridge costs $4 to get back into town. The other route is Hwy 101 if you are on the San Francisco side of the Bay and there is no toll.

Muir Woods is the closest stand of redwood trees to San Francisco. It is in the mountains 17 miles north of the bridge.

We saw the wine train in Napa Valley. It goes from Napa to St Helena for lunch and dinner. If you must ride the train it is $50 a person. A 3 course meal is $99 and a ride in the dome with a 5 course meal with one glass of champagne is $125. You don't get to tour any wineries.

We toured Domaine Chandon, paying extra for a tasting plus the tour. Chandon came here in 1973 from france and had its first American vintage in 1978. They make still wines here plus sparkling wine. Their guest reception building has a roof that looks like a half cask and the lights in it are different sized globes and different heights to look like bubbles in a glass of champagne.

There was a garden of different vines to show us what the difference was. Chardonnay leaves are the broadest. There is a cousin of pinot noir, pinot meunier which I had not heard of before. I can see as I type this that the spell check on the coputer is as unfamiliar with that word as I was.

Domaine Chandon is a patron of the arts. There were some smudgy oil paintings, figure studies in the lounge. I commented that it was a good thing their wine was better than their art and another guest agreed, pointing out that the female figure in one nearby looked like a man. I said it was a man because you could tell due to his elbows being highter than his waist in the picture. She quipped, "Admit it, you are the artist."

Our tour guide was Denise. She served samples of a year old pinot noir in the cask room.

Our bartender was Marc in the tasting room. Robert had 3 glasses of a still premium wine, called a flight of wine. He had Chardonnay carneros, pino vnoir and pinot meunier. We did not care for the pinot meunier. It was sparky and sharp. The carneros was good and the pinot noir was ok.

I had a choice of premium or standard champagnes. I chose the premium flight. The Etoile chardonnay chanpagne was sublime, tasting of honey and almonds. The Etoile rose champagne was also very nice as was the pinot noir champagne. I prefer the chardonnay champagne. Champagne comes in 5 levels of sweetness - deux, demi sec, extra dry, brut and naturelle. There is no sugar added to naturelle. The difference between champagne and still wine begins with extraction of the juice. Still wine is crushed and chamapagne is pressed. Only the champagne made in France may be called by this name. Elsewhere it is called sparkling wine.

Etoile = stars. Champagne was invented in the mid-18th century by a monk named Dom Perignon. It was a lucky mistake. His comment when he first sampled it was " I am tasting stars!"

Curing rack invented by Madame Clinquot, originator of Veuve Clinquot

Some of the other guests were celebrating a special occaision. Their driver, Tab Borge waited in the parking lot with his 1947 Packard convertible. He told us he had purchased this vehicle from someone in Georgia and refinished it himself. He charges $125 an hour for a minimum of 5 hours for winery tours. He is a retired paralegal and was proof reading a deposition while he waited.

707-226-9227

http://www.ccwinetours.com/

We had supper at a nice restaurant in Napa called Brix. It had beautiful flower gardens, herb gardens for the restaurant and producing citrus trees. Service was available on the patio under an arbor. It was so charming. In San Francisco it had been cold but it was about 90 degrees in Napa. The wine list was as extensive as it was expensive. $11 a glass, $40 a half botle for brands we had never heard of. There were bottles on the menu for up to $425 apiece so we had herbal iced tea.

Robert had the filet and I had the steak. My steak had a bed of spinach and was great. There was a basket of garlic toast and pieces of herbed biscuits with creme fraiche. This meal and the one the next day were the 2 most expensive meals we have ever eaten. It was over $100 for supper and this was with no dessert and iced tea to drink.

707-944-2749

7377 St Helena Hwy, Napa

There was a dearth of places to eat and places to stay in the area that we could see. All we found on the highway from Napa to St. Helena was that restaurant and a mom and pop delicatessen. All the hotels inthe AAA guide were asking for a two day minimum, over $200 a night.

We have Best Western membership so called the reservation line and were able to get a room for one night in Napa after all. Our room had a lovely balcony and it came with a free breakfast at Denny's next door. There was also a Jacuzzi plus the swimming pool. With discount it was $175.00 + tax. My best guess is this is about twice what it should be worth.

Best Western in the Vines

100 Soscol Ave, Napa

707-257-1930

There is a delightful film just out in dvd, Bottle Shock, based on a true story set in the Napa Valley. It was completed just in time for the January 2008 Sundance Festival and got a standing ovation later at Cannes. It is about Jim Barrett, lawyer who bought a broken down chateau with vineards and sets out to produce a world class wine.

Chateau Montelena was built in the 1880's by Alfred Loving Tubbs. The property originally had 476 acres. In 1972 when he was about 45 Barrett purchased 250 acres for $273,000, replanted Chardonnay vines and brought his brand, Cahteau Montelena to market within 4 years.

At that time California wines were not recognized by European connoisseurs. A Britsh vintner from Paris, Stephen Spurrier challenged California vineyards to a blind tast testing as a publicity stunt intended to prove the excellence of French wine.

The end result is that it changed the wine business permanently and wine from other countries and not only California began to get seriuos attention; South America, Australia, New Zealannd, Africa, Canada. Alan Rickman as Steve Spurrier is perhaps the actor in this film most are familiar with but it also stars Bill Pullman, Chris Pine, Freddy Rodriguez, Dennis Farina, Bradley Whitford, Miguel Sandoval, Eliza Dushkyu and Rachel Taylor. If I may say so it was perfectly cast and masterfully done. It is a great screenplay. One critic said it best, calling this film the equivalent of Rocky for wine afficionados.

San Francisco to Carmel-by-the-Sea May 17

Monterey to Carmel-by-the-Sea

May 17

On the way out of town we stopped by the local supermarket, Trader Joe's. They had a huge floral department. Prices were good. Orchids that went for $35 in New Orleans were $13 here. Assorted bouquets with calla lillies were $9.

The decor was Hiwaiian. I half expected to hear Tikki music. We enjoyed samples of cinnamon croissant with raspberries & sliced mango. There was a free glass of fresh squeezed chilled organic orange juice.

Ground meat was $1.99. There were also good prices on wine. I found a Vouvray champagne for $8.00 which was not bad as it turned out when we had it that evening. I did not know there was such a thing as Vouvray champagne & was happy about that. Vouvray is my favorite white wine & I like champagne even better than white wine.

There was a sale on a wine label Trader Joe's had purchased from a winery going out of business. The label was Blue Fin. Bottles were $3.99. I should have purchased some to see if my rule of thumb was correct. Normally I say nothing under $4, nothing with dust on the bottle , nothing with a frou frou label. That one had all of this.

There was a Whole Foods store next door. Prices over there were high. Noticed their parking lot was full but Trader Joe's was doing all the business. The deli in Whole Foods had some disposable forks that looked like they were made of plastic but were actually made of potato starch.

Out of curiosity we walked through a Costco first thing in the morning before the door greeter started checking membership cards. If I had never been to a Sam's Club it would have been impressive. It was apparent that Walmart had copied Costco down to the last centimeter.

I had heard a few years back that Costco had caskets for under $400 so looked on the back aisles. It turns out they didn't stock it at this location though they do at some others. I looked up caskets on http://www.costco.com/ . Costco sells them in 34 states but not Louisiana or Mississippi.

It has to be billed & shipped to the same address. The manufacturer is Universal Casket Company. Standard shipping is Monday by noon, Wednesday by 5 pm although it can be expedited for a fee of ordered by 2 pm Monday with delivery by 5 pm Tuesday. 18 guage steel was $924 - $2999; a flag case was $89; 32 oz copper from Edward Casket Company on this site was $2599; floral spray was $299-$329.

I looked up casket suppliers on the internet. http://www.dignifiedcaskets.com/ had 18 guage caskets for $995 as well. woden caskets cost $2300.

Costco members paid $2.45/gallon at the station in the lot. Other stations locally were $2.56. A couple of days later in Silicon Valley gas was $2.71-$2.85.

The Jelly Belly Factory is in Fairfield. Jelly Belly brand came out in 1976. They offer a free tour. We learned it takes between 7 to 21 days to make their jelly beans because they brush on the layers of flavor one at a time. The beans have to dry between applications.

Before the brand came out they were making jelly beans for Govenor Ronald Reagan. He was trying to quit cigarettes. His favorite flavor was licorice. They created blueberry jelly beans for the inaugration when Reagan was elected President for a red, white & blue display. They also invented a dispenser that wouldn't tip over for use in Air Force One. There were mosaics on the walls created by a San Francisco artist of Princess Di, Ronald & Nancy Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Donald Duck, Elvis, Walt Disney. There was a 3 D tableaux of a mallard swimming among cattails. We got to sample a tangerine bean & received a take away bag of mixed flavors. The factory is closed on weekends so we saw movies of production. It was a great tour.

#1 Jelly Belly Lane, Fairfield

800-955-5592

www.jellybelly.com

It was hot in the area near Gilroy, farming country. We saw artichoke farms, big strawberry operations. It went from 104 degrees to 65 in half a mile as we neared Monterey.

This is the world capitol of garlic. I recalled watching a documentry 20 years ago about the International Garlic Festival held here annually, a film titled Garlic As Good As Your Mother.

We parked in Monterey by the beach. The water was crystal clear.

We walked toward the world class acquarium, had lunch at a gourmet restaurant overhanging the water called FishHopper. We had abalone, grilled scallops & prawns with mashed potatoes. There was a marinated artichoke appetizer that was great. Dessert was hot fudge sundaes at a Ghiradelli icecream/chocolate candy store.

700 Cannery Row

http://www.FishHopper.com/

There was a 17 mile scenic drive to Pebble Beach and Carmel-by-the-Sea

Shepard's Knoll Outlook

Spanish Bay Outlook

Restless Sea Lookout

Brandt's Cormorants need to sun themselves after catching fish because their feathers aren't waterproof & need to dry.

Samuel F.B. Morse founded Pebble Beach along the edge of the 5,300 acre Del Monte forest

Lone Cypress Tree is 250 years old.

We stopped at the Pebble Beach Golf course, visited the gift shop,purchased Robert 2 shirts & an ink pen. You do not want to know what the pen cost. The shirts were on sale, $35 apiece. I was hoping Robert would decide to retire a couple of his faded golf shirts that he has been wearing for the last 10 years. They must be his lucky shirts. Apparently he will be keeping them all.

We rejoined Hwy 1 and drove through the village of Carmel-by-the-Sea. Clint Eastwood was not to home.

Fog rolled in at 6 pm. A lifeguard told the surfers over a loud intercom to leave the water in 2 minutes because he couldn't see them.

This bucolic villate is one mile square. Many folks had yards where all the space was flowers or landscaped flowering trees. It reminded me of a Yorkshire hamlet. It was hilly there. The streets resembled a country lane. Houses for sale were represented by Sotheby's.

We had reservations with best Western Lanai Gardens in San Jose. I asked the reservations agent to help me find a room at a place on I-101 between San Jose & San Francisco. He was no help at all. Good thing we had the AAA book.


We knew the way to San Jose thanks to our gps but it was hard to get to our hotel due to a 4 lane interstate in front of it & a 4 lane street on the side of it. For a time it seemed like a mirage.


The new owners are Vietnamese & were very nice. The book says the pool is heated but it was not. They also had a box fan in the lobby to circulate air instead of central a/c working which made us wonder if it was also not working in our room but the system in our room functioned just fine. We got there in time to watch the 2 hour season finale of Desperate Houswives.
The room was discounted with AAA membership to $71.00. The free breakfast was nice, with make your own Belgian waffles.

1575 Tully Rd., San Jose 408-929-8100

San Fancisco to Carmel-by-the-Sea May 18

San Francisco Encore
May 18


San Jose is 57 miles from San Francisco. The next morning it took us two hours to get to Enterprise Leasing downtown to return our car. It was Monday; there was lots of traffic but it moved smoothly. Entrances onto the freeway are controlled with traffic lights. Approaching San Francisco it looked like a fire but was just low lying fog. We passed the headquarters for Microsoft, Yahoo, Intel, Walmart.com. There was a dirigible hanger for the Good Year blimp. We had seen a blimp flying over the bay earlier in the week advertising the disney film 'UP'.










We put 480 miles on the rental car.











It was time to check our bags with Eddy the personable doorman at Hotel Sir Frances Drake. The hotel stored them for us until our room was ready that afternoon.








Hotel Sir Frances Drake has had 6 owners. Kimpton has owned it since 1995. Eddy & Laban were the doormen we met. They have been working there for over 10 years. Laban told us he got his start with the company at Hotel Serrano.









450 Powell Street
415-392-7755





We got on a different street car than the others we had ridden earlier in the week, ending up by the Levi Strauss offices/museum.




Lynne Downey the company historian was being interviewed by a Dutch journalist with a European fashion magazine.

There was a jacket displayed from a contest in 1974 where fabric artists were invited to submit Levi jeans jackets they had appliqued.

We watched a film on how they recreate vintage jeans, copying them down to the last rip and worn crease.

There was a display of check blotters that were given away with purchase in the early 1960's to put under your check when you wrote one with a fountain pen so the ink wouldn't go through the paper onto the writing surace underneath.

We walked up to Union & down Lombard Street, saw the wild parrots in some magnolia trees on an upper terrace. You could see them flying around & hear them but when they were in the trees it was very hard to see them because they were the same color as the foliage. A parrot sat with his back to me. He kept turning so all I could see was his tail feathers. I remarked that no one would want to see a picture of the bird's backside. Another photographer commented not to be so sure, that this was San Francisco after all.

The address is 1000 Lombard, corner of Union Street. The best way to get there is from the cable car at Pier 39.

On the corner of Vallejo, bottom of Lombard we found a famed coffee house, Caffe Trieste. It was founded August 28,1956, by an Italian named Johnny Gianni, known as Papa. He dropped by while we were there, played a couple of Nat King Cole songs on the jukebox, Sweet Lorraine & Sunny Side of the Street. The jukebox has records from the day the place opened; artists such as Connie Frances, Frankie Laine, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, Sinatra, Caruso, Lawrence Welk. It is a very cozy place with shiny red concrete floors, murals on the walls. There was not room for one more picture on the walls, black & white celebrity photos such as Pavarotti or Bill Cosby fixing his own coffee behind the counter.

Caffe Trieste was the first coffee house established on the West Coast.

It was lunch time so we had cafe au lait and a turkey with cheese panini. It was the best coffee I have ever had.

415-392-6739

http://www.caffetrieste.com/

Washington Square, a park shaped like a parallelogram, was around the corner. There were yellow caution strips set out in the middle of the park for a dog obedience class that started as we watched.

There is a big church facing the park, Church of Saints Peter & Paul. There were several statues in the park, such as one of Benjamin Franklin in a grove of trees & a badger by a pond.

On the corner of the park we saw Joe DiMaggio's Chop House. It is open for supper, looked expensive, a place where you would wear a suit & tie.

After that we toured the cable car museum which was free. Cable cars travel at 9.5 mph. There are 40 cable cars with a maximum of 26 operating daily. Cable cars are single or double ended. Singles run on Powell-Mason & Powell-Hyde. This type has to be turned around at the end. Doubles on California don't have to be turned around; the conductor just switches ends of the car.

There were black & white photos of the April 18,1906 earthquake. Fires burned over 400 blocks of the city. The oldest streetcar was on exhibit, Clay Hill #8 from 1873. It is loaned to Chicago for the Columbian exposition & disappeared, turning up in Baltimore at the Baltimore/Ohio railway museum. After this discovery it was returned to San Francisco.

We caught the California to Van Ness streetcar back toward Powell, enjoying a lively tour from our favorite loquacious conductor Chris. Most of the other conductors didn't say anything or visited with their coworkers.

There was a massive Edwardian brownstone facing California Street that seems to take up the entire block known as the Flood Mansion. It is now a private gentleman's club. Chris told us Bill Clinton is a member there.

We ended up near Ghiradelli Square, site of the candy company that is now a shoppping center & condominiums. It is a series of brick buildings. The Clock Tower building dates back to 1916; Mustard bldg 1899; Woolen Mill bldg 1864; Cocoa bldg 1900.

There is a photo contest at the moment where if you submit a winning photo of Ghiradelli Square you can receive a $100 gift card. http://www.ghiradellisq.com/

Another shopping center nearby is known as Cannery Row & was a Del Monte canning plant.

Quite a few of those submitting San Francisco trips on Yahooo.com mention eating at a fast food place called In & Out Burger. There was one on Beach Blvd so we gave it a try. We had cheeseburgers/fries & a coke and it was $9.50 for the both of us. It was very good.

Our room was ready at the Sir Frances Drake Hotel. It was a corner room on the 14th floor, #1428, with a view of Union Suare. We loved it. Beautifully furnished, king bed, nice sheets, quiet. The closet looked as big as my office at home.

The bell hop brought us a box of cookies & a couple of bottles of Sir Frances Drake water that had a picture of the 3 doormen on the label. Normal price of our room was $479.00 according to the sign posted on the back of the door. We paid $165.00.

There was a hardbound San Francisco city guide in the room. It recommended The Stinking Rose, a restaurant on Columbus Street that was also mentioned in the Yahoo trip guides & AAA book. We made reservations. The voice on the answer machine messsage sounded like Dracula. One of the options was if we wanted to speak to a dead person to push button #4. The concierge at our hotel said the rabbit there is terrible. During Shakespeare's time garlic was called a stinking rose.

sign: 'we season our garlic with food'

Robert had the porterhouse pork chop. I had the 40 clove roasted chicken. My chicken was cooked on a bed of garlic cloves. All 40 of them were on my plate.

There was fresh pesto & house brand olive oil to dip our herbed yeast rolls in. The rolls were on a plate that sat on a cast iron stand over a candle to keep the plate of rolls warm, a nice touch. I had the garlic icecream with brown sugar sauce for dessert. Robert did not care for it but I thought it was delicious.

I thought about Oscar Wilde's quip that you never know how much is too much until you over do it. We both had garlic aftertaste in our mouths until the next day however, no matter how many times we brushed our teeth and used mouthwash.

325 Columbus St

http://www.thestinkingrose.com/

415-781-7673

There are a ton of good restaurants as well as mom & pop groceries on Columbus Street

sign: 'may dog be with you"

sign: 'enough with the plywood"

We learned that there was a worldwide psychiatric professional convention meeting here this week. Conventioneers from America, Norway, Sweden and Denmark were fellow guests at the Sir Frances Drake. One of them, a Norwegian blonde explained she was attending it & that the convention will be held in New Orleans next year.

San Francisco Scientology Center

San Francisco to Carmel-by-the-Sea May 19

Adieu San Francisco

May 19,2009


On our last morning we got up before 6 am & rode the streetcar to Beach Street. It intersects Columbus Avenue near there.

We ate breakfast at Joanie's Happy Days Cafe. There was a Google map & critic review taped to the front window. He liked the place but hated the music on their web site.
http://www.jackspics.com/


Other items on the menu that were different besides usual breakfast fare were a breakfast burrito, bowl of chili with cheese, hamburger patty, corned beef hash, chicken breast, steak with white gravy. Besides regular hamburgers they also had an avocado & bacon burger. Royal's Scrambled had hamburger, spinach, mushrooms & onions. Hobo Scrambled had ham, onions, country style potatoes plus Jack, Swiss & Cheddar cheeses.

I had Eggs Benedict made with crab under the spinach. The place is decorated with subtle taupe wallls and tile floor and has black & white photos of San Francisco street scenes.

1328 Columbus Avenue

415-928-4843

We saw kids start walking to school around 8:30 am. School is from 9-5.

We walked down Lombard. The best way to see the crooked part of it turns out to be catching
the Hyde streetcar at Pier 39.

We had cafe au lait at another charming coffee shop, Caffee Sapore. It is located at the bottom of Lombard/corner of Taylor Street.





















"Foreign places are not meant for you to be comfortable in them. They are desgned for natives of that area to be comfortable. If you do not like it go home & stay there." Clifton Fadiman





Home again.

Of course an online quilting magazine sent me a feature on fabric stores in San Francisco the day I get home. There was one shop I saw on Geary Street, Britex that was mentioned but did not go in. It would have been nice to buy some special material for the next quilt I will be starting soon. It looked like they had specialty shops for Chineese silk & Indian saris, novelty shops for theatrical costume materials. Besides several in San Fancisco there were a few in Berkley & Oakland.

Britex 415-392-2910 146 Geary St
Mendel's Far Out Fabric 415-621-1287 1556 Haight St
African Outlet 415-864-3576 524 Octavia St
Fabrix 415-221-4111 101 Clement St
Satin Moon 415-668-1623 32 Clement St
Black Cat Quilts 415-337-1355 2608 Ocean Avenue
Stone Mountain & Daughter 510-845-6106 2518 Shattuck Ave, Berkley
Silk Road 510-763-1688 272 14th St., Oakland

It's always nice to purchase some special souvenir distinctive to the area you visit. I regret for example not purchasing some hot & cold water faucets in France that read 'chaud' and 'froid', or a kitchen ceiling lampshade typical of country farmhouses, lampshades that look like a chinaman's hat with a lace handkercheif draped over it. On this trip we purchased caps for opened champagne bottles that keeps the fizz in after the bottle is opened, wine & food pairing charts from the Chandon winery.

Two ways to save for your next vacation are when you make a purchase for cash set aside any $5 bills you get in a vacation fund.


The other is to round down the amount of your paycheck when you balance your account, then round up the total for any checks you write so that you have more money in your account than it looks like. Keep a running total of the excess. At the end of each moth take that out & deposit into the vacation savings account.


We took 1,368 digital pictures on the trip.


It took us 36 hours to edit them and write this story.















Merna and Robert Schneider May 22, 2009