Trip to San Francisco: Day 2

Need to read about Day 1?  Click here.

Christmas Day dawned clear and sunny in San Fran, which was absolutely gorgeous.  We ate breakfast at the Oak Room, inside our hotel,* and before we headed out on the town for the day, we stopped by the Westin’s front desk to see if we could change rooms.  The night before, our neighbors came into their room around 11pm** and stayed up talking – loudly - until 3:15am.  Although we were sacked out and had earplugs, we didn’t want to endure another night of that ruckus.  Thankfully, Dustin at the front desk helped us out and secured us a different room on another floor, which was much better.  Dustin is the bomb, ya’ll.

With that solved, we started out for the day.  Our first stop was Union Square itself, to see the giant Christmas tree and take some pictures before the crowds swarmed it.

Merry Christmas from the Olsen’s!

We then wandered down to Market Street and caught the city bus that runs west, hopping off at Alamo Square.  The Square is beautiful and has tennis courts, dog parks, and lots of walking/jogging trails.  However, we mainly went to see the Painted Ladies, the Victorian style houses that ring the park and have been used in many tv shows and movies throughout the years.

Look familiar?

“Whatever happened to predictability?”

Who’s that shady character next to the lamppost?

After our tour around Alamo Square, we hopped back on the bus and rode to the Presidio, to see the Golden Gate Bridge.  What not everyone knows is that there’s a pedestrian walkway on one side of the bridge, and it’s open 365 days a year, including Christmas Day. 

Ready to hike the bridge

The view of the city from the Bridge, including the Palace of Fine Arts.

Looking up at one of the towers on the bridge

After having our fill of wandering along the Bridge, we hopped a bus back to the Union Square area and grabbed lunch at one of our favorite sushi restaurants anywhere, Maru Sushi.***  We actually ate Christmas dinner there five years ago, so it was cool to eat here once again on Christmas Day.  We stuffed ourselves with delicious sushi and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the restaurant, so close to the ridiculousness that was occurring in Union Square.

Maru!

It was a miso soup kind of day.

After lunch, we headed to Chinatown, to take ourselves on a walking tour from the Frommer’s guidebook. 

A cool shot from Union Square.

That’s a tunnel and roadway up the hill.

The gate into Chinatown

A sampling of pictures from Chinatown:

The Transamerica Pyramid pops up everywhere!

After stretching our legs, we headed back to the Westin, to relax for a little while.  When Dustin found a new room for us, he did tell us that the folks currently there had a late check-out, so we might not get into the new room until 3 or 4.  That turned out to be the case, so we headed out again; this time, we wandered to Urban Tavern, the cute restaurant/bar attached to the Hilton.

When we wandered in, Chris freaked out upon discovering that Pliny the Elder was on tap.  For those of you who don’t know about Pliny the Elder,**** it’s considered one of the seminal brews of the West Coast IPA style.  Beer Advocate’s users rate it as a 5 star beer with over 11,000 reviews.  It’s some seriously epic shiznit.  You can almost never find it in stores (when beer nerds find out it’s in a store, a run on the brew happens immediately), and to find it on tap was truly a Christmas miracle.

Looks like regular beer, right?

Discovering this caused Chris to text our buddy and fellow beer geek, Jake, which prompted this exchange:

We think Jake might be jealous.

After a few pints and some hummus, we settled our tab and headed back to the Westin once again.  This time, we found that our new room was ready, and we happily settled in.  Not only was the room quieter, the bed was a king instead of queen, AND we had a view of Union Square.  Dustin seriously hooked us up.  See?

We napped for a little bit, but finally arose and started to get ready for dinner.  We had late reservations at Campton Place, the Michelin starred French/Indian/Californian restaurant inside the Campton hotel, and overall, dinner was good.  The service was excellent, and the food was delicious.  Unfortunately, when we arrived, the kitchen seemed to be “in the weeds,”***** and it took a long time for our first few courses to come out – cue us sitting there, hungry, having to ask for bread as something to eat in the meantime.  Although everything was good, the lag time between courses put a damper on the meal, and I think we both felt the price was much higher than it should have been, even with it being Christmas dinner.  We’d eat Campton’s food again, but we won’t be lining up at their door the next time we’re in town, since San Fran has a million other amazing places to eat.

After that, we headed back home to the Westin and to bed, sleeping soundly without earplugs!

Later!

Amy

* Decent, but way overpriced.  The room is historic and quite beautiful, though, so it’s worth to peek your head in and see the place.

** At which point we were already asleep, of course.

*** Maru also lets you steal their wifi for free, using the password, “Maru12345.”  In other news, I need to change the combination on my luggage…

**** The beer.  Not Pliny the Elder the Roman author/philosopher.  Although if you don’t know about him, you should Google him, too.

***** I learned this phrase from watching Top Chef.  I’m in the know.