WE LOVE SAN FRAN

We had a fantastic time in San Francisco yesterday! We started our day by taking the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) in from our hotel down to Embarcadero station near the water. We walked around the Ferry Building, recently restored, and now adorable with little restaurants, cafes, fresh fruit stands, and shops. A Mexican restaurant called Mijita was where we enjoyed an early, delicious lunch. We also saw a lot of professionals on their lunch breaks eating at all the establishments and thought how much fun it would be to work in a building near the Ferry Building in San Fran.

We walked from there along the water, hoping to be able to go to Alcatraz. Sadly when we got to the peir for ferrys and tours of Alcatraz, we were told they are sold out until next Monday! (Who knew you had to plan so far in advance for that? NB If any of you visit San Fran in the future and want to see Alcatraz, but tickets in advance.) Undeterred we continued walking down to Fisherman's Wharf, a very touristy area of restuarants and shops on the water, but with a great view of Alcatraz from the back dock.

We were also excited to find a group of sea lions sunning themselves on the side docks of Fisherman's Wharf! We stopped to watch them for a while. Signs posted near the sea lions explain that they arrived shortly after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake to the protected area with plentiful herring, and the city decided to partner with the Marine Mammal Center to protect the animals here rather than try to turn them away.

Our next stop was at the USS Pampanito, a WWII submarine preserved as a national historic landmark. Turns out Amy would not make a good marine or navy sailor, because as soon as she got below deck in the confined spaces with the waves rocking, she felt completely sick to her stomach!

Following the Pampanito incident, we struck out for a long walk through the hills of San Francisco towards the Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). We blazed a primary trail through China Town and after about an hour and a half walk arrived at the SFMOMA and went in enthused to see the work of Frida Khalo. Her work was good but...Dave's convinced of a couple of things: 1. Valerie's got more talent and 2. In the 21st century Frida would be medicated and potentially in a mental institution. On a side note, we were also lucky enough to find the work of Lee Miller on display; great photojournalism from a women well ahead of her time.

We left the SFMOMA around 4:45 in an effort to meet Amy's cousins Mike and Karen at the restaurant Delfina for an early dinner at 5:30. What we found, and another great tidbit of information for those of you traveling to San Francisco in the future, is that taxi's are not as prolific as in New York City. In fact, much to Dave's chagrin and completely counter to his military ethos, we arrived at dinner 45 minutes late after power walking from one end of the city to the other because no cabs were in site! Mike and Karen held down the fort and when we arrived they quickly ordered up some appetizers and drinks to replenish the energy stores we depleted walking the hills for the second time in the same day.

Dinner was amazing and not wanting our time with Mike and Karen to end so quickly we decided to take the "Karen Tour" of the surrounding area where we dipped into a local bar and had a couple of after dinner drinks. After several more laughs it was unfortunately time for us to depart and get back on the BART towards our hotel.

All said and done, we had a great day in San Francisco and really enjoyed spending some time with Mike and Karen.