Into the hills - Part 1

San Francisco style.

Thursday Night
Did I mention the Castro is really, really gay?

Totally fun though. We’d met up with EL, BF’s hotel rep/friend, and his friends at Midnight Sun.

I was thoroughly lagged and exhausted. I was knocked on my ass by the SF version of “2-for-1.” Unlike NY where you’re given a ticket/chip to pick up your second drink at your leisure, you’re given two drinks immediately. Oy.

Dinner, at Red Grill next door, ended up being a chore of fighting to stay awake long enough to chew my food. Great steak.

Afterwards, we stopped by Badlands. EL was several sheets to the wind and left before we did. We didn’t last much longer than another drink either. Totally lame but I was in bed by 9 for some much needed sleep.

Friday
The BF had to work.

My original plans to see our friend M and have her take me on a tour of the Apple Campus in Cupertino had fallen through for today. So I wondered around SF… staying within walking distance to the hotel. I walked down to the Embarcadero/Bay Bridge and checked out the view there. It was a beautiful day and surprising too since all I heard was that it was going to rain the whole weekend. Guess I stole the East Coast sun and brought it with me.




Feeling a little adventurous, I looked at a MUNI map.

Crossed-eyed by the indecipherable map, I didn’t feel so adventurous.

I returned to hotel and hit the 24hourfitness because that’s what people do on vacation, right?

Afterwards, EL took me to lunch at Zebulon. Good sandwich with good company.

EL encouraged me to eat up, knowing I wouldn’t be eating much later. The BF and I were going out to dinner at Lime with our SF friend K and his bf, M. Lime is a cute place in the Castro and I was glad I ate a big lunch. Good itty-bitty dishes, more nosh than meal, encouraging more drinking than eating. We grabbed a drink in the Metro Bar with K and M before leaving them to walk further into the Castro to met EL at Badlands again. Still lagged and Lame again, back to the hotel by 10:30PM.

Saturday

begin addendum (thought I did this Sunday, but it was Saturday)
The BF had been to SF for work at least two times before me. Besides the inside of his office, his hotel room, the ballpark and random restaurants/bars around the Castro, he’d seen nothing else of San Francisco. We were intent to walk around and see some sites.

Grabbing coffee from Starbucks, we set out on our SF walkabout and it was a gorgeous morning for it.

We headed towards the Embarcadero/Bay Bridge but not via Folsom. That would’ve taken us past his boss’ apartment and he wasn’t in the mood on the off chance of running into her. It was the weekend, he was off the clock. We walked along the Embarcadero, coming upon the Ferry Building Marketplace and Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market. Nice spread and dare I say a much more impressive Farmer’s Market than NYC Union Square’s market.

We continued walking up the Embarcadero and we walked far, reaching Fisherman’s Wharf. Here, for the first time, we both glimpsed with our own eyes the Golden Gate bridge, albeit we were still very far from it. In the middle of the water, we could also see Alcatraz. It doesn’t seem like that far a swim, this coming from the Asian man that sinks rather than swim. chuckle. Fisherman’s Wharf was less than captivating, more like a massive tourist trap.

We cut inland and grabbed breakfast, after which we hoofed over to and up Lombard Street. Quite a breath taker, literally. At the top of the Lombard Street, we got our first cable car ride. It was the best $10 we’d spent. It went through some fantastic neighborhoods. It was funny to listen to and decipher the rear cable car operator’s broken engrish. I’m trying to write it phonetically but it has to be experienced to be understood, sort of. The biggest plus of the cable car was it took us all the way back to a short walk from our hotel, into Union Square where we finished the morning with some window shopping.
end addendum
THEN
I got ditched for baseball again. Well, I was holding out for our friend M to make it out to see us and take me on a tour of the mothership. So I opted out of the baseball game and got left behind with nothing to do. Shrug. C’est la vie.

Hit the gym again and waited till the game ended. By this time, I was getting tired of walking around and all this alone time. Sigh.

The BF returned with EL and we ran out to dinner. We took the MUNI for the first time. YIPPEE. It’s nothing like NY subways but it sure beats cabs taking advantage of/abusing us by always going down Market Street, knowing full well, there were faster, less expensive routes. Dinner was at Home, some good ole hearty food. Quite delicious and surprisingly, priced reasonably.

After dinner, EL walked us into the neighborhood hills off Church Street, showing us some beautiful views, overlooking the city by Mission Dolores Park. We burned off dinner, walking up some damn steep streets, crazy slopes. I’d think twice about driving in SF.

Eventually, we made our way into the Castro for more imbibing at Badlands. We ended our night at The Mint Karaoke Lounge.
Some singers were phenomenal, some not. No, I wasn’t singing. It was a good time. Least lame night out of the three, we got back to the hotel at 12AM.

To be concluded… shortly. :)