Going Home: San Francisco

We left Napa Valley warmed to the core and drove into San Francisco, just in time to be surprised by a light show on the Bay Bridge outside our hotel.  It was sunset, which made everything sparkle.  

 

 

 

 

We took a stroll down The Embarcadero and eventually wandered into The Waterfront for some seafood-- and realized partway through that we were sorely under-dressed...

 



 

 

The next morning, we pulled out a list of a few off-the-beaten-path sites we wanted to visit, and proceeded to check them off one by one...

 

 

We began in The Mission district, one of San Francisco's oldest neighborhoods,  for a little street art stroll, 

 

 

 

 

This was followed by brunch at the Tartine Bakery, possibly the best in San Francisco. (Yes, that's the line, below:)

 

 

 

 

 

There was no room to linger at the bakery, so we took our delectables and walked over to Dolores Park to hang with the locals for a little while...

 

 

 

 

 

I had just read The Language of Flowers over Christmas, which is set in The Mission district, and specifically in and around Dolores Park.  I enjoyed being able to bring that story to life, visually, while there.  

 

Later, we wandered over to Mission San Francisco de Asis (a.k.a. Mission Dolores.)  The building on the left is the oldest surviving structure in San Francisco (built 1776), for which The Mission district is named:

 

 

 



 

 

From the mission, we cut right through the city and over to the Sunset district, where we climbed three flights of concrete stairs straight up to Grand View Park, on the top of Turtle Hill.  The picture below is just of the third flight!

 



 

 

 (Deep breaths) At the top, we were rewarded with a 360 degree view of the city...

 

 

and a peaceful respite under a canopy of age old cypress trees:

 

 

We headed down the east stairs only to drive around Turtle Hill to the west side...

 

 

 

where we found the Moraga Street stairs...

 

In 2004, over 300 neighbors in the Sunset district joined to create a stunning mosaic running up the risers of the steps.  Up close, you can see the names of individuals and families who participated, etched into the tiles:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After some time admiring this wonder, we hopped into the car and drove over the Golden Gate Bridge...

 

 and wound our way through the hills to the Marin Headlands, on the coast, north of the city.

 

 

 

 

The beach was pristine and beautiful, 

but we headed for the hills on foot to do a little hiking in the headlands...

 

 

 

just until we came around a bend, and got a peek of the bridge in the distance:

 

At one point, we came across several old military bunkers, which we later learned were used as defense posts during the Cold War. 

 

 

 

 It started to feel eerily like we had just jumped into an episode of Lost.  Craig couldn't resist calling me "Sweet Cheeks" all the way down.

 

 After hopping back into the car and winding back into the city, we pulled over for our traditional bridge walk just before sunset, and paused mid-way to look down and imagine what it might feel like to find yourself falling (isn't that morbid??)  And of course Creighton had to spit off the side, as usual. 

We worked up such an appetite, there was no question where we were headed for dinner:

Hang Ah's Tea Room in Chinatown.  When I was growing up, my dad worked in San Francisco.  Hang Ah's was one of his favorite lunch spots in the city.  Over the years, he began bringing all of us in for a big Chinese dinner once in awhile.  I have so many great memories here.  We had the whole place to ourselves that night (since it's mainly a lunch spot for locals.)  I managed to get a few pictures of Creighton feasting, but unfortunately for you, they're still on my phone.  Here's a shot of the interior I'm borrowing from the web:

Ahh..nothing like lime green and orange to whet the appetite.  What you can't see in this photo is all the portraits of Miss Chinatowns lining the walls, dating back to the 1950s.

 

I love this place. 

I love this city.