Weekend with car
Right after my last post, I headed to Dolores Park to watch the fireworks. It was super, super foggy and you couldn’t see anything except for the illegal fireworks people were setting off in the neighborhood. That was kind of cool.
Saturday I work very early and threw on some hiking gear (by which I mean, I wore tennis shoes) and headed to… car! Yay car! Anyway, I drove through the city and onto the Golden Gate bridge. It was mad foggy so the columns looked pretty cool emerging from the mist. I drove from there on the world’s curviest road down to Muir Woods park, paid my $5 admission fee and walked around some enormous redwoods. I walked about a mile circuit of paved road, and there were like a million other people. It was like being at Disneyworld, only instead of rides and funnel cakes, there were trees. On the upside, that meant no waiting in line, but on the downside, funnel cake is pretty delicious.
After I had my fill of redwoods, I drove to Highway 1 along the coast and arrived at Point Reyes National Seashore. It was quite spectacular and I have a million pictures so I’ll let the inevitable slideshow do the describing. Unfortunately it was too foggy to see the famous lighthouse or any whales, but I got some quality time with a lot of beaches and foliage. On the way back I stopped a lot of times on Highway 1 because the fog had lifted and the views along the coast were really spectacular.
Thanks to my northern journey, I slept in very late on Sunday but eventually hauled myself over to Chinatown for lunch. I went into the first bakery I came to and got mochi with lotus and a Chinese pancake with red beans. The pancake was a little greasy at first, but if you know anything about me it’s that I’m a sucker for red bean desserts. Srsly. The mochi was excellent, excellent. I wandered around a lot of shops and stopped for lunch at the first place with lots of “Best Eats in San Francisco” type awards in the window. Name escapes me, but I had Chinese Sausage and Preserved Duck in Rice in Clay Pot. It was pretty good, and it wasn’t dessert so that was what I was looking for.
I walked north from Chinatown up into North Beach and then climbed a half gazillion stairs up to Coit Tower and took the elevator up to the observation deck. Pretty cool views. Oh, and then I went to Fisherman’s Wharf. Now that was actually like Disneyworld (rides + funnelcake + sea lions, check). Finally, I went home and did laundry on Dolores street where a hipster gave me some detergent with the caveat that it wasn’t organic, killed the earth and he suspected it might be both racist and sexist.
On Monday, it was back to work for me. I had a litigation emergency so I skipped lunch (luckily I was packing a granola bar), and then went to a firm reception afterwards with Sara and Ben at Embarcadero. Firms, they live it up. I sat on plushy deck couches in the 72 degree weather with a panoramic open-air view of the Ferry Building and the Bay Bridge as waiters came by every few minutes to offer Mediterranean fusion food and refill my wine glass. It was nuts! After that, we walked down Embarcadero to Palamino and then back to the Ferry Building for Osha Thai. Super fun!
Today I went to Pick Me, the old standby for cheap sandwiches and complimentary cake. Then in the evening, I picked up Amy from the airport and we headed to In ‘N’ Out Burger? I don’t know, California thing. It was talked up exactly enough for me to be disappointed in the food, but still happy to be eating.
