First Day in San Francisco

I took the 5:30 United flight to San Francisco on Jan 6th. Everyone was saying, "The weather this time of year is unpredictable! It's the rainy season! Why don't you go someplace warm?"

I'll tell you why. First of all, a $116 + tax flight. Second of all, a place to stay in the coolest part of the city thanks to my gracious friend Wayne. Third, I needed to "use up" the last of my vacation time before the end of January. Isabelle's schedule was already set, so I booked my flight and had a week by myself in the city by the bay! The apartment where I was staying is right by the (made up) coffee house where Mike Meyers did his beat poetry in the movie "So I Married An Axe Murderer" and the "butcher shop" is on the same street!

I took a taxi from my Chicago apartment to Jefferson Park where I got on the "El" bound for O'Hare. The flight was delayed a bit for de-icing, but we made it to San Francisco around 9:30pm PST. I hopped on the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) and got off at Powell Street where I jumped on the cable car to get over the hills. I got off at Chinatown and walked a few blocks to the apartment where I'd be staying for a week. I picked up some beer (Anchor Steam, brewed locally) and pizza at Golden Boy Pizza in Northbeach since it was on my way. After eating, I was pretty tired... it was getting late on my home clock. I fell asleep and woke up early the next day.



I had breakfast at La Boulange in Northbeach. I discovered this restaurant last time I was in San Francisco in August and loved their quiche. This time I wanted to try their french toast. It is really, really good! They also had a fantastic selction of quiche as I had remembered.



After eating, I walked to the beginning of the touristy dockside area called Fisherman's Wharf. From there I wandered to see the sea lions on Pier 39 and grabbed a lunch of 6 oysters and a crab salad sandwich at The Eagle Cafe. After lunch I walked around a little more and then took a streetcar back to the apartment to rest my feet for a bit and find a place to get dinner.



I found a restaurant online, but now I forgot what it was. Apparently it's closed and this new restaurant was in its place. Iluna Basque, a basque tapas restaurant in Northbeach, had good reviews posted in their window (of course) and the menu looked great. I went inside and got a seat. Being a tapas style restaurant, I had in mind two savory and one sweet. I started off with a seared tuna steak on "bleu Basque sauce" and then had egg toast with marinated anchovy fillets. I finished with a pineapple carpaccio creme brulee that was soooo amazingly rich.... *floats away thinking about it* ....



After that I was getting tired so I came back to the apartment and had a small glass of Muscat wine and drifted off to sleep planning on going to prison the next day...