Trip to San Francisco: Day 3
On Boxing Day, we woke up, got ready, and headed out to the Beanstalk Café for breakfast. Sadly, the place was tiny with no real place to sit down, so we pressed on and ended up eating at the Roxanne Café instead. However, Chris grabbed a cup of coffee from the Beanstalk and was very pleased with the quality and craftsmanship of the brew.
After breakfast, we headed back down to the bus stop at Market and Powell, and we hopped a bus to Golden Gate Park. First on the agenda that morning – a visit to the De Young Museum, home of all sorts of contemporary art. The De Young’s second floor was really neat in its arrangement of American art; the galleries started with American art during the Revolutionary War and continued up through modern times, with each gallery having a new set of date ranges and styles. The De Young also has a great, 8-story observation tower you can visit, to look around the surrounding areas.
The outside of the tower at the De Young.
We’re right here!
After our visit at the De Young ended, we walked through the park, keeping an eye out for nefarious personnel…
Coyotes and tigers and
bears! Oh my!
…and heading into the Haight-Ashbury district for lunch at Magnolia gastropub and brewery. Magnolia’s game plan is based mainly on recreating English styles of beer and cask aging several different beers at any given time. We sampled a flight of their brews plus several appetizers, including bacon wrapped dates, a meat and cheese board, Scotch quail eggs, and a kale salad. The food was all great,* but the beer was so-so; the real standout amongst the brews was the Kolsch, and the Proving Ground IPA Chris had near the end of the meal was good, too.
The Proving Ground IPA and cheese board
Taking a flight
Scotch quail eggs…so
cute!
Eventually, we found ourselves unable to eat (or drink)
anymore, so we walked back into Golden Gate Park and to the Conservatory of
Flowers. I’ve always wanted to visit the
Conservatory, but this was the first time we actually made it.
I’m ready!
The Conservatory is one large greenhouse (a main section with two adjoining wings) that shelters all sorts of gorgeous flowers and plants that probably wouldn’t normally grow in the climate of San Francisco, like orchids:
Oooh, pretty!
The structure itself is pretty impressive as well.
The engineer admires it.
We didn’t end up spending as much time as we initially planned at the Conservatory,** so it was time for – guess what – a trip back to the hotel for a nap!*** We dozed for awhile, then roused ourselves to wander out and find dinner. We originally planned to eat and drink for dinner at 21st Amendment, a local microbrewery, but we arrived at its door to find it closed for the week. So sad!
We decided to head back to the Ferry Building, to see if we could find dinner in some of the restaurants closed when we were there later on Christmas Eve. On the way to the MUNI Metro stop, we found ourselves in front of the stadium home to the San Francisco Giants, so we took a picture.
AT&T Park – Trust
us, that’s actually it.
After getting to the Ferry Building, we looked at the Hog Island Oyster Company, but the line was far too long. We ended up grabbing a table at MarketBar, a restaurant where we ate with Aunt Denise and Mom a few years back, and the restaurant we originally thought was our Christmas Eve reservation. Overall, the food was just okay, although the filet I enjoyed was worth the price of the entire dinner; it was outstanding.
While at dinner, we searched for another local microbrewery/craft beer bar online, as we really had our heart set on having a few pints. We ran across an article on Beer Advocate that mentioned a local outpost of Mikkeller, a Danish brewery, and one that recently collaborated with AZ Wilderness Brewery, a newer (and fantastic) place in Gilbert. Not only had we heard awesome things about Mikkeller, but the brewpub was within walking distance of our hotel! We were sold. We settled up and once again caught the MUNI Metro back to Union Square.
The Mikkeller pub – their first foray outside of Denmark – was great. We originally headed for the cellar area, but they only had bottle service, and the tap list upstairs was too good to pass up. So, we headed back up and found two seats at the bar. The menu was divided into three sections, with certain beers being served at three distinct temperatures, all straight out of the tap. While Mikkeller had several of their own beers on tap, the guest tap selection was wide-ranging as well, and the smaller sizes meant we had a chance to each try four different brews.
Noms!
We also sampled the brisket quesadilla, thinking that a bit more food was called for, given the high ABVs of the brews we were quaffing; the food was great as well. We stumbled home rather shiny and plopped into bed.
Later!
Amy
* Particularly the coffee cake we had for dessert. It was cooked in this little crock – like what you use to eat French onion soup – and we poured a coffee caramel sauce over it. When it soaked into the cake, it was delicious – we were fighting each other for the last bite.
** It was quite a bit smaller than we imagined, but it was still lovely.
*** I think we napped almost every day on this vacation. It was awesome.
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