Vacation time in San Francisco

Golden Gate Bridge

Yep, that’s where I was for a few days last week. I took my wife out there for a short vacation. In lieu of our normal Las Vegas vacation or a trip to my parents’ beach house, we decided it was time we did something different. My wife has always wanted to go to San Francisco, and the last time I was there was over twenty years ago, so I figured I’d take her out there and see some of the old sights again.
We thought the flight out was going to be bad; there was a screaming baby right next to us (as in directly across the aisle) on the plane. She cried dramatically, but shut up and fell asleep as soon as we lifted off. The weather wasn’t so great and our take-off was borderline violent; I guess the rocking did the trick.
At the rental car place we got a free upgrade. We were supposed to get a compact car (like a Chevy Cobalt) but got a mid-size for the same price because they were all out of compacts. It was one of those cool places where you just walk to whatever car you like and get in, which we didn’t know even existed until our honeymoon in Vegas a few years back. So we chose a brand new Saturn Aura – and we loved it! Very nice car.
After leaving the rental place, since we had a few hours till we could actually check into the hotel, we drove straight down to San Jose to visit the Winchester Mystery House. I’ve always wanted to visit it and finally got my chance. I took (I think) over one-hundred pictures there. I just love the architecture of the place, and my favorites have to be the ones of the firearm museum.
From there we drive back up to South San Francisco and checked into our hotel, where we just crashed. The only complaint I have is that the place we ordered dinner from told us it would be delivered in twenty-five minutes. We got caught up watching something and realized it had been an hour. When we called, the lady claimed she told us forty-five minutes. Regardless, despite our dissatisfaction and unhappiness with them, our dinner arrived an hour and fifteen minutes after we ordered it and she only discounted it ten percent. I kept their menu so I could remember their name. Although the food was good and arrived hot, my wife’s penne pasta was supposed to have marinara sauce on it but they put alfredo sauce on it. I’m still going to write a not-so-friendly review.

Pier 39 Sea Lions

Thursday we set off at 9:00 for Fisherman’s Wharf. We ended up staying pretty much all day; we left at 4:00. Denise’s favorite part of the whole day was watching the sea lions at Pier 39, a nice blast from my past I was happy to get to see again. We visited so many places there I can’t even remember them to name them all, but the wax museum was one, as well as Aquarium of the Bay. We did walk to Ghirardelli Square, a shopping / living area that was once the Ghirardelli chocolate factory. And after that we walked through The Cannery, pretty much the same as Ghirardelli Square, except it used to be the Del Monte cannery. I did get to tour the Jeremiah O’Brien, the Liberty Ship they have docked there – I think it’s at Pier 41. There are only two Liberty ships left and it was really an honor (for me anyway) to be able to walk freely aboard a World War Two vessel. I didn’t get any pictures inside the ship. We had dinner at Outback that night and let me say, my steak was the best steak I had all day (not that I had any others).
Friday we cruised around Golden Gate Park, where we visited the Conservatory of Flowers, The Legion of Honor / De Young Museum, and Fort Point at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge. Of all the years I had been to San Fran in my youth, I had never visited any of these places. I was in awe of the sheer size of the Golden Gate standing there below it. The fort is a pretty big building. Standing on the roof, you can see how powerful and menacing the soldiers felt as they protected the bay back in the day when wooden ships used to sail in and out of there. I felt big, powerful, and important as I stood atop that fort, imagining the cannons still mounted up there. But when I looked up, I felt like an ant. The museum was awesome; there was a real mummy in there (and of course I got a picture)! And the Conservatory – I like flowers, okay? Especially orchids. Sue me. I also drove Denise down Lombard Street. We met up with my aunt and uncle, who live across the bay in Concord, that night for dinner. It was a nice visit, keeping us out till after 10:00. Doesn’t seem late, but 10:00 San Fran time is 1:00 a.m. Atlanta time. We were tired. I can’t remember the name of the place, I’ll have to ask my uncle, but when we got there it was dead empty. We all looked at each other, worried about how good the food might really be. Two couples came and left while we were there. In the end, I have to give it an A+++ rating. The food was absolutely fantastic. My uncle said that people around there just don’t go out and eat Friday and Saturday nights. Weird, because around here, Friday and Saturday nights are pretty much the only nights people go out.
The rental car return place was only two exits down from our hotel, so we stopped to fill up the car, returned the car, rode the sky train to the airport, got through security, and found our gate in less than fifteen minutes. If only Atlanta could work so efficiently. We had a two hour wait, but we’d rather wait than cut it close. There was a small delay in our departure due to the usual “mechanical problem”, but we still landed at 8:00 Saturday night. We hadn’t eaten a thing all day so we found a Chick-Fil-A in our terminal and ate diner before we drove home; we hit our driveway at 10:00. We were going to stay a day longer, but in the end we decided to come back a day early so we would have time to recuperate before going back to work. There was no way we were going to get home at midnight and have to wake up to go to work the next morning.

Alcatraz

What I noticed about San Francisco: they’ve really got their ducks in a row when it comes to traffic flow, no one uses their blinkers, no one speeds, and the motorcyclers don’t give a flying hoot. If Georgia would take a clue from California on traffic flow, our rush hours wouldn’t last half the day. They sure don’t spend tax money on roads out there though, or at least it seems. The lack of blinkers bothered me, but the fact no one would speed made me feel at ease. It was a nice change of pace from the traffic here in Atlanta, where you have to pull 80 (speed limit 65) on the interstate just to keep from getting mauled. It almost felt weird. Seeing the bikers squeeze between cars on the roads (and the interstate) made me nervous. But hey, it’s their asses, not mine.
Anyway, it was a great vacation and I took nearly five-hundred pictures.
Sad we had to leave so early, but I’m glad to be home!

Originally posted 2009-11-22 09:20:13. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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