Golden Gate Park

If you go to San Francisco, besides wearing flowers in your hair, you must go to Golden Gate Park.

"Developed in the late nineteenth century, many years before the neighborhoods that surround it, the park offers over one thousand acres of gardens and forest, complemented by some of the city's best museums."

Cathy has noted that the San Francisco City Guides (soon to be our BFFs) offers a tour of the Japanese Tea Garden on Monday's at 9:30 a.m.  Yeah, it's a little early, but we should be able to get a seat on the cable car (do workers use the cable car?) just after 8 in the morning.  Then we can choose the bus (5L) or the N light rail (and we may not get a seat) to the north or south of the park and walk .3 or .5 miles to the tea garden.

Wouldn't that be a perfect way to start a day in the park?  The Tea Garden was created for the 1894 Columbian Exposition as the Japanese Village along with the Moorish Village, the Turkish Village, the Vienna Prater and others. After the exposition and more than two million people, two features were permitted to remain, the Art Museum and the Japanese Tea Garden. The Art Museum was eventually torn down in 1936.

The Midwinter Fair in Golden Gate Park, 1894

Somewhere there must be a photo of us as kids at the Japanese Tea Garden.  I don't remember that we ever had tea because it was always too expensive, but we admired the koi and climbed over the arched bridge.  And I don't remember it as near as crowded then as it was last time I visited. But at 9:30 a.m. on a Tuesday morning it shouldn't be too bad.  Do you think the cherry trees will be in bloom?



And after the tour (and hopefully some tea and a fortune cookie, invented here for the Pan-Pacific Exposition of 1915),  we can check out the magnolias in the Botanic Garden just across the street.  They have a free magnolia highlight map we can pick up or download.

Cathy remembers the California Academy of Sciences for the stuffed gorilla that terrorized her childhood, but it's been revamped, and now offers a Rainforests of the World dome, a 90 ft in diameter space with a pathway that winds up three flights around trees and past animals.  And they have a Living Roof with over two acres planted with native Bay Area flora.  Unfortunately, it's very expensive at $25 each FOR SENIORS.  Maybe we can find a deal?  Maybe we'll just look at what we can see of the building, designed by Renzo Piano of  Pompidou Center fame.  The bulk of the old building was razed for the new.

de Young Museum

And on the other side of the Concourse is the de Young Museum which has its origin in that 1894 Exposition.  It's was also razed and rebuilt from the ground up between 2001 and 2005, and I haven't seen it at all.  It's a lot cheaper at $7, and they have an exhibit on the Building of the Bay Bridge based on photographs taken during the 1930's by Peter Stackpole and supplemented with prints and drawings of the Bay Bridge construction by his contemporaries, many of whom earned their living under the auspices of San Francisco’s Federal Art Project.

Then somehow or another using SF Muni we can get ourselves to the Beach Chalet facing the Great Highway between the two windmills.  "Come to the Beach Chalet for one simple reason to see the Lucien Labuadt murals on the first floor. The restaurant was funded in 1936 by the WPA. In those days the first floor was a lounge, changing rooms and the restaurant was the top floor (as it still is today).
The art is impressive and tells the story of 1930's San Francisco. Don't miss viewing the decorative tile work and the carved magnolia-wood balustrade and newels in forms of sea monsters, octopus and mermaids. The whole building is a delight to view and should not be missed by anyone visiting the bay area." 

Somebody says it also has good beer!  I don't think we can wait that long for lunch, but maybe a picnic lunch and a beer (or something) here?

Monday at the Japanese Tea Garden?

I was reciting the walks offered by the San Francisco City Guides on Sunday, March 9th, to Fernando.  When I was ready to go on to Monday, he gasped: "All those were on Sunday?  How many are there??"

In addition to the Precita Eyes Mural tour in the Mission on Sunday, there are two given by the City Guides: Mission Dolores Neighborhood at 11 am, and Murals and the Multiethnic Mission at 1 pm.

Shall we move on to Monday?  Shall we start out with a visit to the Japanese Tea Garden at 9:30, when we don't have to pay admission?  Our only challenge is getting there by 9:30.  It will take us about 50 minutes on public transportation, taking the Powell-Mason Cable Car to Market and then the N Light Rail or the 5L bus to the edge of Golden Gate Park and then walk a half mile or so to the Garden.  We could take a taxi but the TaxiFareFinder gave me a $26.09 estimated fare from the apartment to the Tea Garden and that would use up our lunch money...

There are also Monday tours of Chinatown at 10 and 1:30 (do we know all there is to know about Chinatown?), Fisherman's Wharf at 11 am and a Baudy & Naughty history of professional women at 11 am.  Sunday definitely offers a lot more tours.  Someday when Fernando retires, we'll fly midweek and stay over the weekends.  Although there are also a lot of tours on Friday (Saturday we're flying out.).

On Tuesday we could do downtown walks:  at 10 am they offer Rising Steel: Two Centuries of San Francisco Architecture (I've always liked San Francisco's buildings).  But at the same time they have Controversial Murals of Rincon Center, so we'd have to choose.    And then at noon they have an hour-long tour of the Ferry Building (Tuesday is also a farmers market day) and at 1:30 pm they have Historic Market Street, which starts pretty much down at the Ferry Building (so one could do both).  We might be toured to death at this point.

On the other hand, Tuesday is the only day they seem to offer Castro: Tales of the Village while we are there and that is at 11 am.  Should we explore the Castro instead?  Oh, Jiminy.  Maybe we should stay two weeks.

On Wednesday would you like to do Tastes and Tales of North Beach at 11?  Or Nob Hill at 2 pm?

On Thursday will we finally make it to the Golden Gate Bridge and take the tour at 11?  Or do we check the weather first?

Friday we'll have to see and do everything we missed.

Fortunately we don't have to sign up for any of the tours ahead of time.  Just show up at the designated time and place.

Instead of Coit Tower

Penny just informed us that Coit Tower will be closed for renovation while we are there.  That means we don't get to see the murals, although I think we took plenty of photos of them the last time we were there (finding where we put them will take some searching).  In addition to the Mission District Murals, we could also visit the Diego Rivera mural at the San Francisco Art Institute, which isn't far from the apartment. 

And then track down another one that Fernando and I haven't seen, "Pan American Unity" at the City College of San Francisco, which is a bit far away and entails a ride on BART.  I wonder if there is anything else to see around Balboa Park.  The San Francisco City Guides has a Bungalow Tour of Westwood Park which is nearby so that might be something to explore.

There is a third Diego Rivera mural at the old San Francisco Stock Exchange, now The City Club, on Sansome Street in the Financial District.  The San Francisco City Guides has a tour but only once a month and by reservation only.   The Art Institute says that it is open for public viewing Monday–Friday from 8–10:30 am and 3–4 pm but they suggest you call ahead to confirm: 415.362.2480.

We will, of course, climb to the top of Telegraph Hill just the same.

Found sf: Shaping San Francisco's Digital Archive

I enjoy learning about San Francisco history.  Perhaps because my history with San Francisco is so episodic, yet has created such strong memories; perhaps because I just like history.  Perhaps because as we grow older we have longer personal histories and a greater perspective on change.

So I was thrilled when I stumbled (as one does on the Internet) the vast pictorial resources at
Found sf:  Shaping San Francisco's Digital Archive.  "Comprised of over 1,400 pages, and 2,500 historical photos, the wiki-based archive FoundSF.org is the product of hundreds of contributors, regular people who were compelled by the chance to investigate some piece of this City's past."  And don't expect a scholarly approach in all articles.  There is a definite San Francisco liberal bent.

 If we don't get totally lost and overwhelmed with all those resources we can learn a lot more about all the places we intend to visit.  Documents are indexed by Decade, Neighborhood, Population, Theme and Tours (including a food tour!!)  And if we want we can even contribute to the archive when we're back home after our trip.

Want to see how North Beach has changed?

1856 view of North Beach from near Telegraph Hill, the prison ship Euphemia is visible, docked along the far edge of the cove

 Want to know how much downtown has expanded into the bay?

1851 cove map closeup. The shadowed area is roughly the outline of Yerba Buena Cove when the city was founded and there are more than 70 old wooden ships buried in the old cove that is now part of the city.

And how?     

Collage depicting ships piled into Yerba Buena cove by Satty, from "Visions of Frisco" edited by Walter Medeiros, Regent Press 2007
During the height of the gold excitement, there were at least five hundred ships stranded in the harbor, some without even a watchman on board, and none with a crew sufficiently large to work her. Many of these vessels never sailed again. Some rotted away and sank at their moorings. (Herbert Asbury in "The Barbary Coast")

 We were talking about stereographs.  The site has a collection of images, and they are fascinating because they shimmy, and you can imagine yourself in an earthquake....1906 or 1989?

Golden Gate from Telegraph Hill (Photographed by J. J. Reilly)

Oh my, Oh my......I could spend the whole day here!  Year?  And I mean to return to this site for a look at Coit Tower and New Deal murals so stay tuned.

Walking San Francisco

That is the point of going to San Francisco after all, isn't it?  We might not make the "Bay to Breakers" 12k footrace on May 18th but it is nice to know that one can cross the peninsula in 7.2 miles.  The Bay to Breakers course takes you from the Embarcadero down Howard Street, parallel to Mission and Market, then north to Hayes Street at 9th, south to Fell Street at Divisadero, and then into Golden Gate Park following John F. Kennedy Drive pretty much to the end at the Great Highway, which you might think would be Highway 1 but isn't.  John F. Kennedy Drive appears to have foot paths on either side of the roadway so one could walk it even without stopping the car traffic.  Of course, I'm not sure there's that much to see for the tourist unless we are longing for some greenspace after several days in the city and in that case we can keep the park in mind.

On the other hand, Penny found this Every Trail website that has One Perfect Day in San Francisco and it is a 7.1 mile walk.  Oh, wait, wait, wait!!  There's a California Coastal Trail that is 8.9 miles and runs from the Cliff House to the Golden Gate Bridge.  WOW!  That would be great!  except March is probably not the month to do it.

And then there are guided walks.  The nonprofit  San Francisco Guides offers several a day by volunteers covering all parts of the city.  They were begun by the San Francisco Public Library and are free, although donations are welcome.  For instance, on Sundays at 11 am there is a tour of Pacific Heights called "Billionaires' Row: Outer Broadway Architecture".  They even have one called "Russian Hill Stairways" but it is only offered periodically.  You can view the walks by date (you can choose March 7-13 from the dropdown at the top) or by area.

Penny has us scheduled for a walk in the Mission District already, and we really should go to mass first since I think the last time I went was when she and I snuck into a church near our apartment in Paris.  We don't have to stay for Communion since we're saving our appetite for La Torta Gorda.  Although I would like to cruise pass all those sausage restaurants on 24th Street...  Do you think we could eat out for two meals in one day?   I'm afraid we would be stuffed.

More walking in San Francisco - Mission District on Sunday?

Oh, Oh, Oh, look at all the walking tours listed on this Every Trail site for San Francisco.  And you can even download them to your iPhone.  Penny has got to try that on her NEW iphone which she has to admit to loving!

There are two walks for the Mission District, but after looking at a few it's questionable how useful these walks are going to be...but they do give a series of stops to anchor our flaneuring.

Mission District on Sunday
Fully rested after a peaceful night at the Airbnb at 856 Green, we take the #12 (Folsom/Pacific) at Pacific & Mason to the Mission. 

Of course, we have to have breakfast first, maybe fresh bread from one of the local bakeries.  Penny will be busy on Saturday scouting out the neighborhood and provisioning the apartment with the basics - bread, coffee, cheese, toilet paper.  Oh, maybe marmalade.  What else do you want?  She has found her old Bicycling San Francisco map and, unlike her other 20 year old guides, thinks it may still be accurate, even though the print seems to have shrunk.  So she'll use it to figure the least hilly route to a grocery store. 

Of course, it will also be after we've had dinner on Saturday when Cathy and Fernando finally get here from Pittsburgh, via Chicago, at about 8 pm (arriving SFO 6:50 pm).  Penny was thinking one of those pizzas from Tony's Pizza Napoletana, but after reading that menu she decided Camila would have to be consulted to decide which one to choose (Classic American 550 degree gas, Detroit 500 degree gas, CA style 900 degree wood, Roman 700 electric, Coal Fired 1000 (wow that's hot), NY 525 Rotoflex gas, Sicilian 550 gas, classic Italian 650 gas or 700 electric, or St. Louis at 550 gas.  And that's before we even discuss toppings.  Fernando still want anchovies?  Maybe we'll have salad.

OK, back to Sunday in the Mission District.

Precita Eyes Muralists at 2981 24th Street offers a tour on Sundays at 1:30
For students and those with a deeper interest in the history and context of Mission District muralism. This tour begins at our Center (2981 24th Street, near Harrison) with an informative slide talk covering the history of murals, the contemporary mural movement in San Francisco, and the mural painting process. After the presentation, your muralist guide takes you on a 6 block walk through Balmy Alley and along 24th Street, including St. Peter's Church and the digital murals at Galeria de la Raza. This tour takes about 2 hours and 15 minutes.

But before that we'll probably need sustenance and Cathy has scouted out La Torta Gorda at 2833 24th.  She feels this is a must for Fernando and the menu looks great to Penny too!  

And then after our mural tour we can sniff the Tartine Bakery at 600 Guerrero St. and if it's after 4:30 p.m. we can buy a loaf or a half for dinner later. We may have to phone ahead (Our bread is available everyday after four-thirty in full or half loaves. We accept pre-orders with three days advance notice and prepayment, you may place an order in the cafe or over the telephone by calling 415 487 2600. Phone orders are not confirmed until availability has been determined, payment accepted, and you receive a call back from our staff.)  WOW!

Think we should stick our heads in Dog Eared Books at 900 Valencia for a browse?

Perhaps we should have started the whole adventure with services at Mission Dolores (Dolores and 16th) for services in English at 8 and 10 am or Spanish at noon.  We can take inspiration from sister Susan and explore the cemetery where scenes from Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo were filmed.

Oh my, oh my and we still have to figure out how to get home!

Back to the Bargain Bites

I've gotten past the "dumpling" category in SF Gate's 100 Bargain Bites, learning in the process that there is a "Heart of the City" Farmer's Market at the UN Plaza above the Civic Center BART station on Sundays 7 am to 5 pm.  Maybe we can brave the winos in the tenderloin and visit this and Little Saigon at the same time.  I don't suppose the nearby main branch of the San Francisco Public Library would be open on Sunday morning...

Now we are on to the "Ramen" category in the Bargain Bites and halfway through the list.  Hapa Ramen is at the Ferry Building's Farmers Market every Tuesday and Thursday from 10 am to 2 pm.  Unfortunately the other Ramen places are outside San Francisco which doesn't help us!

On to Thai to the Amphawa Thai Noodle House out on Geary just beyond Park Presidio Boulevard in the Richmond.  It looks pretty good in the Bargain Bite article.  How many Thai restaurants do we have listed?

Oh, oh, now we seem to be hitting a lot of holes in the wall that are in other cities in the Bay Area.  There is, however, a King of Falafel who says it has the best falafel and then shows a picture of gyro meat on a spit!  There's also the Pica Pica Maize Kitchen, a Venezuelan restaurant specializing in arepas located in the Castro, but I'm not sure I want to pay $10.75 for an arepa.

Now we are in the sausage categories and I'm always a sucker for those.  They mention a Hungarian restaurant, Paprika, in the Mission District on 24th Street, offering German sausages, Czech beers and Hungarian dishes.  And then there is Pig and Pie, also on 24th Street in the Mission, which has its menu on a blackboard, always a charming touch, and Fernando could have tongue.  And also on 24th is a 3rd sausage place: Rosamunde Sausage Grill with 26 craft beers on tap.

Hm.  Did they have a Mexican food category?  Did I miss it?

PS: The Mexican restaurants were in Boyes Hot Springs, Larkspur, Oakland, and Redwood City so I didn't look them up.  I guess SF is too expensive for Mexicans to set up shop.

SF Gate's Top 100 Restaurants and Top Bargain Bites

Now this list from the San Francisco Chronicle should keep us busy.  Fortunately we can narrow it down just to San Francisco and they provide a map so we can look for nearby restaurants.  On the other hand, do we really want to go to the "top" restaurants?  They will be overpriced and we will be dissatisfied when we go home.  Plus there seem to be a dearth of them right around the apartment, except for Park Tavern and who wants to pay $12 for parsnip and kohlrabi soup, $9 for brussels sprouts chips and $14 for braised lamb "tounge".

They do list Piperade which is modern Basque cuisine by Gerald Hirigoyen, who has written some cookbooks that I've perused.  It isn't cheap with a la carte Basque Classics at $29, $38 for it as a 3 course dinner.  But it might be better than a run of the mill shepherder's Basque restaurant.  Hirigoyen also has a "tapas" restaurant on Montgomery called Bocadillos that's even open for breakfast!!  He must be catering to the financial market.  Of course his website says it is open Monday through Friday from 7 am to 10 am.  But that must be a typo...  He serves those boca sandwiches we got in Barcelona, but at a higher price, of course.   Poor Fernando, I think his Basque Hotel type restaurants have bitten the dust.  He'll have to wait for Noriega in Bakersfield.  Maybe we can revisit it with Vibe.

This morning I thought I would go peruse the San Francisco Chronicle to get myself up-to-date on things happening in San Francisco.  Unfortunately it is one of those publications that require a digital subscription to keep reading beyond the first paragraph!  Perhaps the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is still free because its subscribers are print people who don't do everything online.  The Chronicle article I wanted to read was about the SF MUNI pulling the cable cars and streetcars out of service for the 49ers playoff game on Sunday.  A lot of tourists are going to be disappointed!

And then the second article was on Onigilly, a fast food restaurant on Kearny Street which serves onigiri - Japanese-style seaweed-wrapped rice balls with savory cooked fillings, "Japanese Gourmet Rice Balls".  It appears you can get around the subscription requirement for the article if you come in through the backdoor via the Onigilly Twitter feed.  Onigilly also has a food truck at the Embarcadero for a "Samurai Snack".  That's some "cutting edge" food I could go for, although maybe not stand in line for; the three of us are too old for that.  The idea is similar to Sushi Fuku here in Pittsburgh except the rice is in triangles instead of rolls.


Now I'm looking at SF Gate's (the Chronicle) Bargain Bites.  There are 100 of those as well: the top 5 in 20 (!) categories, beginning with Bar Food (you have to be drunk to eat it).  Oh my gosh!!  Giordano Bros was inspired by Primanti's famous Pittsburgh sandwich!!  although the photo they show in this article is wings, not a sandwich...   Here's more on Giordano Bros with the appropriate photo.  It was started by a Pittsburgh couple and has a location in North Beach, not that we need to eat there. 

And HOORAY!  Bargain Bites even lists Tommy's Joynt, Daddy's absolute favorite (cheap and a large selection of beers).  I don't often get a pastrami sandwich, although Fernando still remembers a  little Jewish delicatessen out in the Russian district in the Richmond where we had a great lean pastrami sandwich a day or so before Willy was born.  He'll want me to ferret out that place or one like it.

One of the top 5 pizza places is Tony's Coal-Fired Pizza which is evidently the same as Tony's Pizza Napoletana except the first is a "slice house" and the second a full service restaurant.  And what is all this fascination with "coal-fired" pizza?

Bargain Bites lists 3 Vietnamese restaurants in Little Saigon (Ellis near Larkin in the Tenderloin) and the Lers Ros Thai restaurant is in that area as well.  Maybe a walk around (during daylight hours) would be interesting, if we can ignore the other tenderloin residents (Juan did not like them).  They also list Banh Mi sandwich shops.

One of the Chinese restaurants on the Bargain Bites list is the "House of Pancakes", Chinese savory pancakes that is.  It sounds interesting but it is way out in the Sunset District.  Then there is a Xi'an restaurant: Xi'an Gourmet in the Richmond, which won out over House of Xi'an Dumpling, a "typical dumpling/noodle house" on Kearny in Chinatown.  They do takeout but what fun is that when you have to do dishes afterwards?

Oh Golly.  In addition to "Chinese" the Bargain Bites has a "dumpling" category.   The Kingdom of Dumpling is also on Taraval Street out in the Sunset and its website starts out in Chinese and you have to choose English to read it!  Now that should be an indication of authenticity, right?

OK.  Got to finish packing up for the painters.

Eating Out in SF continued

The last 9 of the 38 Essential San Francisco Restaurants.

Yank Sing's Goldfish Dumplings

I'm not sure about these cutting edge restaurants like Outerlands (a "surfer-chic" place located in the Outer Sunset) where they burn and char the ingredients, although I do like most of the vegetables they work with.  Lonely Planet says Outlands is worth making a detour for but for us it would probably only make sense if we were in the Outer Sunset already.

Now the Zuni Cafe has been around a while.  Do you think their chicken for two would serve three??  But it's out on Market beyond Van Ness.  Maybe it's not as far to Van Ness (and Tommy's Joynt) as it seemed when we were kids.

Izakaya Sozai:  I always wanted to go to an Izakaya but I don't know if I'm brave enough to go without Juan and Mandy along.

State Bird Provisions is another one of those wait and see restaurants that take courage.  Do I really want octopus with my lamb?

Yank Sing offers Deem Sum a la cart, literally.  They have loads of dumplings, one of the best things about Cantonese food.

OK.  I think these are the most interesting to me.  Now I have to go find another list from another publication.

 The Guardian has a list of the Top 10 Restaurants in San Francisco and 7 of eater.com's 38 are included: Bar Tartine, Aziza, Ichi Sushi, Mission Chinese Food, Namu Gaji, Nopalito, and State Bird Provisions.  The other 3 are Frances, Rich Table, and SPQR.

Oh shoot!  I see that Eater.com has a January 2014 version of the top 38 out.  One could go crazy looking at these reviews!

Eating Out in SF

Namu Gaji New Korean American

Oh, this will be exciting!  Lots of food from lots of places so I'm trying to get familiar with some of them.  One of the best things about visiting San Francisco as a child was eating out at foreign restaurants.  None are there any more, except maybe Schroeder's (which doesn't have potato salad anymore) and the Tadich Grill, which I don't remember being taken to as a child although I know Mother and Daddy went there.

I'm reviewing "The 38 Essential San Francisco Restaurants, October 2013" from eater.com to see if there are any that we'd be interested in: not too pricey and not pretentious.  I'm not familiar with eater.com or with their lucky number 38 but here are some that look promising:

Lers Ros Thai doesn't seem too pricey and the dishes are nicely presented.  The servings aren't huge but we don't want to gain weight.

Bar Tartine from the Tartine Bakery people looks "interesting" with " ahead-of-the-curve Eastern European menus". Are we brave enough to try things like Pistachio dip with laver and crackers, Beef tartare with bottarga on koji toast, Smoked potatoes with black garlic, Kale with rye, seeds and yoghurt, Sprouted lentil croquettes with cauliflower and kefir, Carob mousse with goat cheese and black walnuts, chased down with a Candied beet mimosa or Sparkling riesling with charred lemon and fennel...  Or maybe we can just go to their sandwich shop for lunch.  They are big on kefir and located in the Mission District, two pluses in Fernando's book.

Then there's the pizza place: Tony's Pizza Napoletana which is only across Columbus a few blocks from the apartment.  Tony was the World Champion Pizza Maker at the World Pizza Cup in Naples in 2007 so his pizza should be good.

Namu Gaji (New Korean American) looks interesting from its photos but the menu descriptions aren't that appealing.  Maybe they will improve by March...

Nopa and Nopalito are popular but I don't know that I'm convinced, especially by the Nopalito take on Mexican food.  Anyway, they are over beyond Van Ness near Golden Gate Park and wouldn't be worth a taxi ride...Perhaps we could rent some bicycles!

The R&G Lounge is a Chinese restaurant that was featured on Anthony Bourdain.  It is on Kearny Street in Chinatown so it is relatively close by.  The menu looks like classic Cantonese and we have to eat Chinese at least once, right?  And they have a takeout menu too!

Perbacco is a Northern Italian restaurant with a lunch menu that has pretty much the same choices and prices as the dinner menu.  Their appetizers seemed priced a bit high but we could go there for pasta like Raviora (spinach pasta filled with roasted butternut squash) or roasted wild mushroom risotto.  Or maybe we could follow one of their recipe videos and cook at the apartment!  It's located on California Street in the Financial District, just down the block from the Tadich Grill.

Super Duper Burgers sound good to me, just like the falafels were in Paris.  Super Duper makes them acceptable by using Niman Ranch beef but they are reasonably priced at $6.75.  Not like some of the other frufru artisan burgers listed in GrubStreet's "The 50 Best Burgers in San Francisco".  I need fresh tomatoes and raw onions on my hamburgers but I usually have to supply my own sweet pickle relish...

Greens Restaurant: Camila and I went there a long time ago.  Sort of a San Franciscan Moosewood vegetarian restaurant.  I'm surprised it is on this list of mainly new restaurants.

Flour + Water sounds pretty interesting, especially its pasta tasting menu because it specializes in home-made pasta.  Although it sounds funny when they say at the bottom of the menu that "bread is available upon request".  Isn't that flour and water??  It's one of many of these restaurants that are located in the Mission District.

Mission Chinese Food (Lung Shan) has a branch in New York City.  I like the idea that there are NO RESERVATIONS but I'm not sure that I would like the food although Fernando might go for Grandma's spicy lamb dumplings and the tea-smoked eel, but the pastrami and beef brisket??  Here's a review by a four-year-old.

Commonwealth: San Franciscans must love their 6 course tasting menus for $55-$75.  It sounds interesting but I'm sure I would be full after 3 or 4 courses.  This one is also in the Mission District, which leads me to believe that all of the restaurants must have moved out of downtown!

La Ciccia sounds like authentic Sardinian, including botarga and the Sardinian honey (hopefully the bitter kind).  But it is the furthest away, in Noe Valley which would take about 48 minutes to get to from the apartment, first taking the cable car and then the J Light Rail to Church Street and 30th.

La Torta Gorda sounds like a good place for Mexican food and Fernando will be happy since it features dishes from Puebla.  Naturally it is in the Mission District but Fernando wanted to go exploring there anyway.

OK, I've made it through 29 of the 38 restaurants and the last 9 will have to wait till tomorrow.

San Francisco

Green Street Apartment

So we've decided to go to San Francisco for Fernando's Spring Break from March 8th to March 15th.  Fernando has to be back for class by Tuesday and we are using dividend miles so we can't be choosey about getting nonstops (we have a connection in Chicago going and in Phoenix coming back).  I was checking the nonstops on American and United and their fares were over $500.  Penny will be joining us and easily persuaded us to go the AirBnB route.  Hopefully she will get our Little Italy apartment before someone else snatches it up!

Since we'll be there a week, we'll need the San Francisco MUNI 7-day Visitor Passport ($29), which covers the cable car.  This will allow us to get up very early in the mornings just to hop on the outside for a thrill ride.  At the San Francisco International Airport  Information Booth (Baggage Claims) one can buy the passports as well as a map of the MUNI system.  Shall we take the BART from the airport?  It is $8.65 apiece to the Montgomery Street or Embarcadero Stations, and then we'd have to take a cab.  BART says the senior fare is $3.20 but I think you need a special card and need to be a local resident.  A taxi from the airport is $39 - $49 depending on the destination, although the TaxiFareFinder calculated it to be $54.45 to North Beach.

Shall we go to the San Francisco Botanical Garden?  Their magnolia's will be in bloom.  And how about some free walking tours of San Francisco by the San Francisco City Guides?  Maybe the "Controversial Murals of Rincon Center" on Tuesday, March 11th at 11 am?

Unfortunately we won't arrive on Saturday in time for the Farmers' Market at the Ferry Building, but there are smaller versions on Tuesday and Thursday from 10am–2pm, but the number of vendors is much less.  What will we do for food in the meantime???