We woke up Saturday morning and while waiting or the rest of our party Jason and I did some window shopping in Union Square. We went into what had to have been the worlds biggest Williams Sonoma – it was 4 stories! I grabbed a cup of coffee from Cafe La Taza (which was awesome) and Jason and I sat in Union Square, people watched and waited for Holden & crew.
Once we found Holden we walked to Bike and Roll on near Fisherman’s Wharf. We hopped on our bikes and off we went. Our first 0rder of business was the get to the top of Lombard Street and ride down – this proved to be difficult. Me, Jason, Hayes & Ritana pushed our bikes up the hill a block over (since Lombard is a one way street going down) but Holden decided to ride his bike up Lombard the wrong way! The road we pushed our bikes up actually had stairs on the sidewalk. Just so you know…don’t try to push a bike up a street that has stairs for the sidewalk.
We finally made it to the top of the hill and enjoyed our reward – an awesome ride down! After Lombard street we rode (downhill) to Fishermans Wharf and started our journey to cross the Golden Gate bridge. We rode down Jefferson street past Fort Mason through Crissy Field and finally to the bridge.
We rode across the bridge up to (notice that I said up to) Fort Point. And nearly froze because the wind at the Fort was strong. Then we enjoyed the fruits of our labor and cruised all the way back down to Chrissy Field – again – a reward for all our uphill peddling.
We had been biking or over 5 hours so we stopped for a quick snack at the Chowder House in Fisherman’s Wharf where I enjoyed a bowl of Dungeness Crab & Corn Chowder. It was delicious but I was slightly disappointed with the amount of crab in the chowder – there could have been more.
We turned in our bikes and returned to the hotel on the famous San Francisco steetcar. It is expensive but worth the ride.
We came back to the hotel and cleaned up for a nice dinner at Farallon on Post Street. We had the Fruits Del Mar Royal Platter (a two-tiered tray full of shellfish, oysters, and lobster). We ordered two bottles of wine: a bottle of Joseph Phelps Insignia 2005, a bottle of Spottswood Cabrenet Soviongon 2005. Yummy. The Insigna was smooth. It coated your tounge evenly with its taste. The Spottswood was completely different – the flavor hit your tounge in the front – it had a very strong citrus taste.
For my entree I had the pan seared Alaskan Halibut on a bed of asparagus puree, bacon and potatoes. It was immaculately prepared. The fish was perfectly cooked with a crispy skin! It went very well with the wine.
Today we pick up our rental car and drive up to Napa Valley for some wine tasting and our much anticipate dinner at French Laundry!