Tag: Irish Coffee

Tuesday, August 6, 2019

Our food walk day. 🙂

We went to Mama’s for breakfast. We were there by 8:30 and only had to wait in line for an hour! Mama’s is a must visit when we’re in SF. The portions are generous and the food is delicious. I had the Florentine Scramble which is scrambled eggs (they must be delicious, since I don’t do eggs, and I reallllllly don’t do scrambled eggs), with spinach, bacon, red onion, and cheese. Also potatoes, and a toasted sour dough baguette. I barely made a dent in all that food. To the extent that the waitress asked if I liked it when she took away my plate. I assured her it was very good!

After breakfast, we went back to our hotel, took a little rest, then regrouped for the next foray. We rode the bus down to the Sutro Baths. We had visited there a couple of years ago, but I wasn’t able to walk around and see everything up close and this time was my opportunity. The area has some amazing history attached to it.

After exploring and being wind blown, we made our way to the nearby Cliff House where we shared some snacks as a late lunch. Then we rode the bus back to the city center, walked to Lemonade for … what else? some lemonade!

Then to the Marriott Hotel for our usual visit to their View Lounge.  It used to be called the Sky Lounge, (or Skyy??) but now it’s the View. Our waitress there was awe. SOME! She took excellent care of us and was charming and fun! We can’t wait to go back just to enjoy her company. Anyway, drinks, more snacks, and watching the construction of the building nearby took some time. It was fascinating to watch the crane operator. That also necessitated debating and looking up crane operator salaries in San Francisco.

Back to our hotel then. We had leftovers from Luisa’s and snacks from our first night that we put out, but let’s be honest. We’d been snacking all day. No one was really “hungry.” After we ate, we went to the hotel’s restaurant and enjoyed some live music. A jazz group was playing.

We decided to sleep in the next morning, Wednesday, and go to Dottie’s True Blue Cafe, another staple of SF visits, for breakfast. And it’s a good thing I decided to look at the menu first thing Wednesday morning, because I discovered that they’re closed on Wednesdays.

Quick change of plans and we instead went to Lori’s Diner, where we had a coupon for 20% off. The food was good and hearty, the service excellent, but it just wasn’t Dottie’s.

After breakfast, our destination was the Walt Disney Family Museum. Another first for Dave and me. We rode a couple of busses to get there. It’s on the grounds of the old Presidio. It’s phenomenal. We spent several hours there. It’s truly a museum dedicated to the origins of Walt Disney and his family. It begins with his ancestors’ migration from France and Ireland. It’s laid out and organized extremely well. I loved it. I soon gave up trying to read everything, because there is just so much detail. I didn’t realize that Walt was only 65 when he died. What a loss to the creative world …

Another bus ride and we were closer to the Fisherman’s Wharf area and we stopped at the famous Buena Vista Cafe for Irish Coffees. Tony had started a group text before the trip with a link to an article about the cafe and their coffees and the bartender who’s served five million of them.

The experience did not disappoint. We all enjoyed the coffee and shared some fries as sustenance before we walked down to Fisherman’s Wharf for dinner at Boudin’s on Pier 39. Dave and I shared clam chowder in a bread bowl and it was as delicious as expected.

Then our little group headed to the highlight of the trip which was a wine tasting bay cruise. Such a fun evening! The cruise was two hours long. It included 5 tastings, plus a bonus “welcome aboard,” taste. The weather was pretty windy and chilly, so we didn’t spend much time outside on the deck. The first 30-40 minutes were pretty rough as we sailed toward the Golden Gate. But once we reached the bridge and turned around, everything was delightful! The water smoothed out. People could walk to the bar for their additional pours. (Instead of having to stagger from post to post, grasping their glass, afraid to let go of either.)

The crew was personable and fun. The customers could join the captain and take pictures behind his station.

From the Golden Gate, we then sailed to the Bay Bridge, to Oracle Park and McCovey Cove. There are blankets on board, if it’s really cold. The whole cruise was wonderful and I highly recommend it!

We docked at 9:00, walked to a nearby cable car stop and waited for our turn to ride back to the stop near our hotel. By then, we only had about half an hour to enjoy the last of the

night’s jazz musician’s in the hotel restaurant, but it was a great ending to a wonderful day in San Francisco.

And alas, it was the end of our trip. We had to fly out of Fresno at 4:00 the next day,Thursday. Which meant we had to be at the airport by 2:30, leaving our house by 2. We had to do laundry and I had some work to do, so we needed to leave by 7:30 the next morning.

So we said our farewells Wednesday evening, after the jazz musicians finished their set. (Quick interruption–one of them came over to chat–asked us where we were from–turns out he plays sometimes with the Sons of the San Joaquin–Fresno’s pre-eminent cowboy singing group.)

We had a wonderful three full days and two partial days in San Francisco. We loved every minute and we’re so grateful to our generous friends for sharing their lodging with us.

I’m almost up to real time now! I’ll try to get caught up tomorrow. Or the next day …