Not sure if I posted these - pretty sure I didn't. Here are the links for our last San Francisco & Hawaii trips:

San Francisco - May & June 2009

Hawaii - May-June 2009

PS I had to get these posted before I could feel good about posting the soon-to-come UK & Russian Adventure photos from the 14-night cruise with my Dad.

Enjoy!

Before we left for San Francisco, I did some minor research and asking around about things we should see and visit while we were in San Francisco. Oddly enough, by the end of making up the list, contacting friends, working out a loose schedule of dinners and outings, we were not only completely booked, but were wondering whether we'd be able to do it all.


Well, here's the list of things we visited as well as saw:

Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39, Ghirardelli Square, Alcatraz (from Pier 39 - didn't want to visit - seen so many documentaries and The Rock), Nob Hill, Chinatown, Coit Tower (didn't visit, but took pictures from lots of angles), Golden Gate Bridge, Union Square, City Hall, St. Mary's Cathedral (didn't go in), Alamo Square & the Painted Ladies, The Castro, Twin Peaks (from multiple cars), Lombard Street, Japantown, and the Cable Cars.


We also visited the seals at Pier 39, Pacific Heights, the Presidio (a drive-thru), the Pier 39 Aquarium, the Bay Bridge, Oakland, the Napa Valley (including the Beringer Winery), St. Helena, Napa, Pixar Studios (major highlight), the new Oakland Cathedral, a Castro house-warming party, and the Avenues. I feel like I'm missing something...


The friends we saw were numerous as well as the connections: mindplay, trckrfckr, Christie & Nick (college friends of mine), azbearchaser79 with his boyfriend Brian, Kyle with his partner Al, pauliebearsf with his partner Mike, James (Justoffmountain), James (Musclebull), Chris and Frank (FrolicSF and Sketts), along with Rene (snussbear) who we saw in New Orleans two weeks earlier, and a myriad of other folks at the Lonestar and 440.




Our culinary tour of the city was fantastic! We had great Vietnamese (Tu Lan & Than Long), Mexican (Taqueria Zapatas), southern American (Lois The Pie Queen), home cooking, vineyard selections, and local San Franciscan fare (Scoma's, Boudin, wine tastings, Chinatown fast food, SUSHI!!, In-And-Out Burger, etc.). There were two restaurants we wanted to visit again - Tu Lan and Zapata's. Tu Lan was unfortunately closed on Sunday, but we did return to Zapata's - much to our stomachs' chagrins. Though amazingly tasty Mexican food, it was tremendously filling. Both at Tu Lan and Zapata's, we took our (cleanly separated) leftovers and gave them to the homeless (we hope).

A MONGO-Burrito at Zapata's!!

CREPES at the After-Hour Cart!!

Looking back and documenting briefly what we actually did, I shouldn't really feel bad that we missed Sausalito and boating on the bay. We can do those the next time we're there. We got the City Pass (very highly recommended if you're there for 4+ days), which includes travel within SF on the MUNI and Cable Cars as well as passes to certain attractions - including the Aquarium, the Exploratorium, and a 4-hour tour of the bay area by boat.

Amazing, amazing time. Pictures are in the works, but I had to write down what we actually did so we can justify our two days of sleep!!

Martinis at Martuni's!!