Trip to San Francisco: Day 4

-
Need to read the previous trip blogs?  Day1, Day 2, Day 3.

On the morning of our final day of vacation, we headed to Café La Tazza for breakfast, a small eatery across the street from the side entrance of the Westin.  Although it was little, it had plenty of room for everyone to eat, and the food was hearty and rather inexpensive.*  After breakfast, we hoofed it to North Beach for another walking tour courtesy of the folks at Frommer’s.

Our tour started at one of the landmarks of the San Francisco skyline, the Transamerica Pyramid.





The pyramid from further away.


Even the topiaries continue the theme!

We saw all sorts of interesting things on our walking tour, including the original Ghirardelli factory.  The North Beach area was originally home to the rougher elements in town, and several blocks still maintain that feeling, having many boutiques of adult entertainment from which to choose.  North Beach was also the famous home of the Beat poets, and we toured past where Allen Ginsburg lived, wrote, and performed “Howl” for the first time.  While all of this was going on, Italian immigrants also moved into North Beach, and there are tons of little cafes, including one owned by Francis Ford Coppola in a building that also houses his production company.  Overall, it was a really cute area.
After touring through North Beach, we needed a rest, so we headed to a local café to grab hot drinks and croissants.


Overlooking Washington Square Park

We chilled for a little while, and since we were so close, we decided to climb to the top of Telegraph Hill to see the Coit Tower.  While we’ve done this before, it’s a fun adventure to undertake, so we were excited to see the stunning vistas once again.



The view of the other side of the city.


I did mention it was on a hill, right?


Chris with Coit Tower, on the way up


Pausing to catch my breath with the Ferry Building in the background.


Time to head back down.

After visiting Coit Tower, we planned to eat in one of the cute little restaurants along Belden Street, but none of them were open yet.  We wandered for awhile, getting a bit hangry,** but eventually we found ourselves back at Mikkeller, enjoying more of their delicious food and drink.  I’m happy to report that their offerings were as delightful during the day as they were the night before, after 3-4 strong beers.

After lunch, we headed back to the hotel, checked out, and headed to the BART station to take the train back to the airport.  After a short delay (20-30 minutes), we were on our way home.  What a wonderful trip!

Later!

Amy

 * Caveat – by San Fran standards.  Take this with a grain of salt.

 ** Hungry + angry.  I suffer from this far more than Chris does.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Some News...Part One

-
Image
Well, hello there, everyone!  It's been a hot minute since we last blogged together, and a lot has been going on! The two of us outside the house in North Encanto, in  which we just passed the 5 year mark! In addition to our normal roster of working, frequenting local restaurants, and spending time with friends and family, the past few months have been a flurry of activity - although we've been thinking about it for several years, we're finally taking the plunge and relocating further east, moving from Phoenix to the greater Lexington, Kentucky area.  While some folks have been apprised of every step we've taken in this journey, to others, this may come as surprising news.  To hopefully help explain, here's a brief timeline of events that led us to this major life change: January - March 2019 - We decided that although life in SoCal is amazing, it isn't for us (Chris' 90 minute commute each way to work was a major factor), and we relocated back to Phoenix, b...
Read more

Some News...Part Two

-
Image
Did you read Part One already?  You probably should! As mentioned in the previous blog entry, we're moving (yes, again); this time we're heading northeast, to Richmond, near Lexington, Kentucky! Welcome to 1601 Four Mile Rd, Richmond, KY ! In mid March, Chris flew to the Lexington area for a long weekend, during which he met with our realtor (and cousin!) Scott and visited around 10-15 houses.  He was quickly able to eliminate several; we plan on parking the travel trailer on our property and raising a few chickens (eventually), so anything with an overly restrictive HOA was out of the question.  Due to the egg machines and a few other projects we'd like to pursue (extensive gardening, beekeeping, etc.), anything with less than acre of land wouldn't work, nor would anything where said land was extremely steep, which is a concern in this hilly part of the country. Of the properties that met these criteria (along with the initial set we established, which included having...
Read more

House Pictures...Finally!

-
Image
Howdy, everyone!  It's hard to believe, but we're fast approaching the four month anniversary of signing our closing papers on the house in Richmond, Kentucky, and we're  finally  ready to share interior house pictures with all of you lovely blog readers!   But first, an exterior one! As is pretty normal, it took awhile to get everything settled; although we were unpacked and living comfortably in the house within a month or so, finishing up the interior decorating took substantially longer.  One of the main reasons for this is the bright, sunshiny yellow door you see in the picture above.  When we bought the house, this was the front door: While the black color was fine (if uninspired), it was the massive amount of glass in the door that drove us to find a better solution.  The road in front of the house is moderately busy, and we often have deliveries being dropped on our porch; every time someone drove by, which the dogs could easily see, they ...
Read more