Ramble
Quest - With Friends in San Francisco
OK, I'm off! Well, sort of, although it doesn't quite feel like it for several reasons. First, I'm not leaving the country and I'm going to San Francisco, which I have visited many times before. Also, I'll need to return to Chicago before leaving for Singapore as there are a few monetary glitches I need to work out. Finally, I'm staying with friends, so it is more of a social trip than an adventure.
That said, I do a lot more touristy type stuff than I normally do when I visit here. My friend Drew and I revisit the Legion of Honor fine arts museum soon after I arrive. Their collection is small but has some choice pieces and the building is great. We follow this with our usual trek around the Land's End area. These paths are some of my favorites in the city.
After a quick dim sum breakfast on Clement Street, Drew and I hike to Golden Gate Park and try to beat the hordes to free day at the Academy of Sciences. We are partially successful and keep a step ahead of rampaging school children through the natural history portion. By the time we get through the aquarium (very similar to the older part of Shedd Aquarium in Chicago) we are grateful to spend some quieter moments wandering around Strybing Arboretum, long a favorite area of the park for us.
We return to Stow Lake in the park to rent bicycles the next day. After heading west to the ocean, we follow the bike pathes south and then cut in to circle Lake Merced. This is a popular path, but it's not too crowded and the scenery is great. After returning to the park, Drew takes a break and I do a short ride north, back to the Land's End Sutro Bath area.
On Friday, Drew and I decide to rent a car and go on a short road trip. Drew's research led us to choose Dollar and we get a three day rental. We head south and stop off at the gorgeous San Juan Batista Mission. Seems like we're accidentally doing a bit of a Vertico tour here since we just went to the Legion of Honor and were hiking around the bay cliffs. Both the Mission and the town are picture perfect beautiful and eerily devoid of tourists. Drew says the tourist season has been unusually quiet this year.
We'd decided ahead of time to spend the night in a motel in Paso Robles instead of the hostel at San Luis Obisbo. Drew has a harder time sleeping in strange beds than I do. Turns out, he has a hard time sleeping at our Melody Ranch Motel despite the fact that we both like the place.
Heading down to the coast on a hot day, our car's thermometer displays a wild temperature range. From interior highs of 108F (I'm guessing it was really a bit over 100F) to coastal lows below 60F (probably really a bit warmer than that). It does feel much cooler on the coast as we walk around Avila Beach and San Luis Wharf. We enjoy the beautiful scenery along the coast down to Pismo Beach, which is more built up, before turning back north.
We visit San Simeon and Hearst Castle the following day. My friend Rhona says Hearst Castle is a display of the most incredible bad taste imaginable. This is true. Heast did crazy things like taking Dutch paintings and nailing them into the middle of an Italian ceiling from a different century. He used the caligraphy from 17th century monks songbooks as lampshades. He stuffed his castle full of mostly religious pieces he picked out of European catalog auctions, without any sense of coordination, primarily to show off to his many celebrity visitors.
Still, you've got to admire the egregiousness of it all! We took two of the four two hour tours and loved every minute of them. I wound up picking tours #4 (garden, guesthouses, wine cellar) and #2 (upstairs of main house, kitchen). All tours include both of the amazing indoor and outdoor pools. The guides were outstanding. Bad taste or not we had a great time here.
Rolling up scenic Highway 1, we stop for dinner in Santa Cruz at the Seabright Brewery. I've been to the other Santa Cruz brewpub (not recently though) and I think I slightly prefer this one.
Continuing north on Highway 1 the next day we get a bit tired of the constant switchbacks (scenic though they are) and decide to cut inland at Bodega Bay (more Hitchcock). The apple festival in Sebastopol is in progress but it is too mobbed with people to tempt us. Sonoma is as good for wine tasting as Napa though, so we decide to do some of that.
We have a late start and our first winery (forgot the name) is only fair. We want to hit Ravenswood but can't find it before the 4:30 closing time. So, we settle for a stop at Cline, joking that they probably can only get people to come in after everyone else closes.
Thankfully, this turns out not to be true as Cline is a good place with several tasty wines. We linger, chatting with Star and Eric, swapping tips on restaurants and wines. Drew and I have been eating out a lot, but I can only think of a few places we thought worth recommending, both near his home in the Richmand district. Angkor Wat was pretty good Cambodian and Chiang Mai (do they have to name them all after cities?) was surprisingly good northern Thai. True, only a few of the dishes seemed truly northern to me, but it is almost impossible to find a Thai restaurant that does any at all. Star recommends Slanted Door, which I've been meaning to try. We wind up trying to go there later but discover they have moved. All in all, the Cline winery was a good stop and we make a mental note to do the wine tasting earlier in the day.
On the next day, I visit with my friend Sean. Sean is a fellow traveler who stayed with me for a bit in Singapore during one of his trips. His RTW accounts are also on the web and well worth a read. I last saw Sean a year ago, looking fit and healthy after returning from his El Camino de Santiago bike trip. Since that time however, he's had the misfortune of a nasty bike accident and is just recovering from this. Now we both have tight right knees with restricted movement. "I can kick my ass with my left leg," says Sean, demonstating how he can only bend his right leg back to about 90 degrees. I test mine out and find I can bend it about the same. "Next year we'll both be able to kick our asses", I say. Sean's already planning on biking in Ireland next year. I fantasize about meeting him over there and might make it happen.
I bid fond farewell to Drew the next day after an excellent breakfast at Ananda Fuara. I like this downtown eatery a lot and it is a great choice for vegetarians. Market street seems even more full of whacked out bums then usual. Even the normally efficient Caltrain is delayed when one of them climbs on top of a car and must be shooed off.
I head south down the bay to visit with my friends Rhona and David. Rhona picks me up at California Avenue and gives me an expert tour of the lovely Stanford University campus.
Then we are off food shopping, as Rhona is a fellow foodie and I'm relishing the chance to cook a fine meal, since I probably won't have the chance for a long while. First we hit a mostly organic produce stall which has corn picked hourly. Then it's off to Whole Foods for fish, cheese and a few other tasty things. Rhona and I team up to produce a delicious, yet simple dinner. The company and conversation is always excellent with Rhona and David and I enjoyed my short stay with them.