After two months of anticipation we are finally here! San Francisco is by far my second favorite city in the entire world (the first is Houston – for sentimental reasons). When we decided to make this trip I was elated. I can never be upset about coming to San Francisco.
We left Dallas Love Field at 1:30 PM yesterday. We flew on a tiny airplane to Houston. The day was warm and the turbulance was bad. I don’t do well on airplanes. The occasional sensations of weightlessness and the changing G forces during the turns make me queezy. I’ve never physically gotten sick on a plane but I’ve come close a couple of times. Normally, I take some Dramamine but this trip I decided I was going to tough it out. I guess is was an okay decision because I managed okay.
Once in Houston we literally had 45 minutes to catch a tram to our gate at the other end of the airport. It helps that I’ve spent quite a bit of time at Intercontinental in Houston but regardless 45 minutes isn’t much time to catch a plane. After a potty stop and a quick trip to Wendys we finally made it to the gate just as they were calling us to board.
I settled into my seat and braced myself for the queezyness to come (the takeoff and the banking that the plane does to get up to altitude are some of the hardest parts of the flight or me). We got to altitude everything was fine in tummy land and I got to watch Hotel For Dogs (our in flight movie) which was cute. At the end of the flight just as we were about to land Jason noticed another airliner that was flying right beside us – it was probably only a half mile away. It was neat watching it fly so close up. You could see the plane bob up and down in the wind. They ended up landing on a runway parallel to ours almost at the exact same time. I’ve never seen anything like that so close up before. It definately kept us entertained through the last few minutes of the flight.
Once in San Francisco we got our golf clubs and took a cab to our hotel. The cab driver was a maniac. The 30 minute drive from the airport to the hotel was the most exciting cab ride I’ve ever had! Finally at 6:30 (Pacific time) we got to the hotel! What a journey! Exhausting!
The hotel has a complimentary coctail hour that we barely caught the end of . Jason drank a beer and I enjoyed a glass of wine and we got to visit with a very nice couple from Australia on a family vacation. We talked to them or about an hour – something that I very much enjoyed. We talked about the economy and the diferences between our two countries. It was a great way to unwind after our journey and I needed the wine after the terrifying cab ride. We decided that we’d meet up again Saturday during coctail hour and finish our conversation and we went our separate ways.
We came back to the room and changed clothes and freshened up and started walking around town. We decided to go to this place called Burger Joint for dinner which was about a two mile walk. I had not intended on walking that far when we left the hotel room and my shoe choice reflected that. By the time we got there I had giant blisteres on my big toes. The worst part was that the place was closed! Slightly discouraged and in a moderate amount of pain we started walking back to the hotel. Along the way we discovered this great little restaurant called Pazzia and decided to stop for dinner.
The restaurant was small but classy, the prices were moderate and the food was fantastic. It was a great value. We had bruchetta to start which was awesome. Good fresh rustic bread covered in olive oil tomatoes and a basil chiffonade with salt and pepper. The tomateos were fresh and tasty – even Jason who doesn’t like tomatoes really liked it. We decided to order two entrees and split them both so that we could both enjoy as much of the cuisine as we could. We also had a bottle of wine – something red from Italy (though since it was all in Italian I really didn’t know what it was) Our first entree was homemade spinach spaghetti with salmon poached in olive oil. It was absolutely devine! The pasta was perfectly cooked, as was the salmon. The dish had whole olives on top which I found overwhelmed the flavor of the salmon but they were easy to eat around and the dish was lovely without them. Our second entree was a grilled veal chop with rosemary. The flavor was fantastic but it was slightly overcooked and chewy. Despite this it still was well worth the price. This little place was a great surprise on our journey for the evening.
Once we were done with dinner I decided that the blisters on my toes were getting too bad (I didn’t want to be in pain for the next couple of days) so we decided to find some transporation back to the hotel. We stood on a corner and up pulls a limo and the driver rolls down the window and says, “Do you need a ride?” Jason and I looked at each other and smiled and replied, “Yes!” So we hopped in the limo and enjoyed another eventful drive back to the hotel. Complete with a boatload of hard liquor (which we didn’t drink) and a LCD fireplace!
I came back to the hotel and climbed almost immediately into bed while Jason met up with some friends of ours who came with us and went out. I think he returned to the hotel sometime around 3:00 AM (PST). When he got back he smelled like a bar so I will assume he had a good time. Right now, I’m watching him sleep (while listening to the sounds of San Francisco through the open window). I think I’m going to wake him up though because I’m ready for breakfast!
I think today we plan on renting bicycles – something that we did the last time we were here and really enjoyed – and riding all over San Francisco. Today hopefully will be a fun day. How could it not be fun when you’re in one of the funnest cities ever?!