Weekend in San Fran...
I spent the previous weekend in San Francisco as a mini-vacation and a chance to visit my siblings. Not quite as relaxing as I would have liked, but plenty of good food and coffee, as well as lots of walking (why do I always forget about the hills) and beautiful weather - sunny and warm.
First of all, I need to get out of the habit, of booking the first morning flight, but unfortunately it's usually the cheapest, and oddly enough I couldn't get a non-stop to SF on either of the airlines I was considering. I wound up booking on Southwest, where at least I wouldn't have to get off the plane on my stopover, which I found out was Las Vegas when I checked in. This made for some interesting people watching on the flight - mainly women all dolled up. Everyone got off the plane in Vegas, except for three of us, and we were informed after a few minutes that we'd actually be put on another flight. We were re-assured we wouldn't need new boarding passes and we were led like celebs to the pre-boarding area for the next flight and got to board before everyone else. I was slightly disappointed I didn't get a chance to play the slots - the Vegas airport has slot machines literally as you get off the plane.
My flight got into SF ok, I found the BART fine (it's usually not clearly marked) and headed off towards my sister's apt. - unfortunately the directions she gave me were the shortest route, not the least hills and I had fun carrying my backpack with a couple books for her and half a dozen foodie magazines for BIL. When I made it to her apt, BIL was supposed to be there to let me in, as he works from home part-time. He wasn't, so I gave my sister a quick call, remembered the code for their garage, and found a key under the mat. Dropped my stuff off, checked my email, and went to put the key on my keyring, which I discovered was missing - presumably it fell out on the airplane. I was just a little weireded out - I did have duplicates of everything at home (luckily it was only my house, car, and mailbox and nothing for school), and losing my keys was better than losing either my wallet or the thumbdrive with all my research. Still, I called Southwest and they promised to call if they turned up.
Went back out into downtown and met up with Lorr from GW - we had a lot of fun talking, and probably could have gone on for hours. I then wandered around downtown a little, bought some coffee at Blue Bottle and checked out purses at Barney's (of course the one I liked was more than my mortgage). Took the Bart and Muni back to my sister's place (I did get to flirt with a cute guy on Muni - we both had to stand and I fit nicely under his outstretched arm). I got caught up for a bit with my sister and bil. It was my sister's last day at her design job and she already had a busy weekend ahead of her because her new company (pet toys) wanted her to get to work (luckily she's hourly). We went out for gourmet burgers (very good) and bil took off for a party with his ultimate frisbee team in preparation for a weekend tournament in Santa Cruz (part of the reason I picked that weekend - keep my sis company).
Saturday morning was a bit lazy - I checked my email and caught up on a few things while my sister worked on her project. Finally she announced she was bored and we wandered over to her favorite thrift store (my sis and her husband pledged not to buy anything new this year). On the way there, we stopped at Ritual for coffee - I think I had one of the best espresso macchiatos I'd had in a long time. The place has a bit of a 'hipper than thou' attitude (you see it a bit in SF) and apparently upset a lot of patrons because they got tired of people hanging with their laptops all day and covered up all the outlets, so you either hang out until your battery dies or pack a spare.
Saturday afternoon was very girly. My sister had made reservations at a local tea place so we had high tea for lunch. Very cute place with good sanwiches and pastries, although a little bit of doily overload. We then went and got pedicures. Hung out back at the apartment for a little while longer until my brother showed up for dinner at Firefly. Inspired by JM, I took pics.
My borther and sister.
Firefly - The insect not the movie.
My sister's appetizer - an asparagus and goat cheese quiche.
My brother ordered the truffle tremor cheese (the waitress dared him to say it three times fast) with pistachios and mushrooms. I sampled their appetizers and enjoyed the bread with a mushroom spread.
My brother ordered the pork chop (he was ready to gnaw on the bone at the end, it was so good).
The ricotta stuffed manicotti - which was lightly fried - my sister's choice.
I ordered the duck in a cherry-port sauce. Very yummy.
We decided to split dessert, although initially my sister wanted to order two. I said if we were still hungry, we could order a second. We had trouble finishing the chocolate peanut butter budino with banana ice cream.
"Hurry up and take the damn pic!" said my brother when it arrived.
It was probably a good thing we walked to and from the restaurant, but it was all so good. We noticed plenty of signs for open houses on Sunday in my sister's neighborhood, so we decided it might be fun to check them out before I had to head back the next day. My brother hung out for a little while longer, than drove home to Mountain View.
Sunday had another lazy start - I checking email, my sister doing some work. We headed to Tartine's for brunch, which is a little French bakery that's sort of an institution, then wandered around for a little while. A lot of streets were closed for traffic due to a biking event which made getting around a little more fun. We stopped by Ritual and I picked up a pind of coffee. (If JF is at the LA con, I'm bringing him a pound from this place). My sister needed to get her hair cut, so I did a bit more window shopping. We went back to her apartment and I packed. My sister got a call from our parents (I'd switched mine off since the battery was dying) - apparently my keys had been found in her car when my dad dropped me off the airport. Definitely a relief.
Open houses were interesting and depressing. My sister and her husband live in Noe Valley, which is one of the nicer areas of SF (for all you MASH fans, it's also where BJ Honeycutt is supposed to be from). I knew SF real estate is a bit unreal, but $850,000 in Noe gets you a 2 bed, 1 bathroom house with a garage and laundry with a shared backyard (it was a split Victorian). Granted it had top of the line appliances and was completely updated. What is mind-boggling is that the down payment for a place like that would get you the whole house in a lot of other places. My sister and her husband do want to buy a place, but will be looking in another neighborhood.
My sister dropped me off at SFO, which was it's usual craziness. I'm glad I believe in carryons, because the lines were bad - apparently there were huge delays at LAX (glad I didn't book the other flight I was considering since I would have had to go through LAX). Security was it's usual fun - what they tell you at one airport doesn't apply at another and they didn't bother separating travelers (some airports have separate lanes based on your level of expertise with security). Packed flight, but landed on time, then stuck on the ground for a little while because there was still a plane at the gate. Still it was nice to get my keys and my cat was very happy to see me.
First of all, I need to get out of the habit, of booking the first morning flight, but unfortunately it's usually the cheapest, and oddly enough I couldn't get a non-stop to SF on either of the airlines I was considering. I wound up booking on Southwest, where at least I wouldn't have to get off the plane on my stopover, which I found out was Las Vegas when I checked in. This made for some interesting people watching on the flight - mainly women all dolled up. Everyone got off the plane in Vegas, except for three of us, and we were informed after a few minutes that we'd actually be put on another flight. We were re-assured we wouldn't need new boarding passes and we were led like celebs to the pre-boarding area for the next flight and got to board before everyone else. I was slightly disappointed I didn't get a chance to play the slots - the Vegas airport has slot machines literally as you get off the plane.
My flight got into SF ok, I found the BART fine (it's usually not clearly marked) and headed off towards my sister's apt. - unfortunately the directions she gave me were the shortest route, not the least hills and I had fun carrying my backpack with a couple books for her and half a dozen foodie magazines for BIL. When I made it to her apt, BIL was supposed to be there to let me in, as he works from home part-time. He wasn't, so I gave my sister a quick call, remembered the code for their garage, and found a key under the mat. Dropped my stuff off, checked my email, and went to put the key on my keyring, which I discovered was missing - presumably it fell out on the airplane. I was just a little weireded out - I did have duplicates of everything at home (luckily it was only my house, car, and mailbox and nothing for school), and losing my keys was better than losing either my wallet or the thumbdrive with all my research. Still, I called Southwest and they promised to call if they turned up.
Went back out into downtown and met up with Lorr from GW - we had a lot of fun talking, and probably could have gone on for hours. I then wandered around downtown a little, bought some coffee at Blue Bottle and checked out purses at Barney's (of course the one I liked was more than my mortgage). Took the Bart and Muni back to my sister's place (I did get to flirt with a cute guy on Muni - we both had to stand and I fit nicely under his outstretched arm). I got caught up for a bit with my sister and bil. It was my sister's last day at her design job and she already had a busy weekend ahead of her because her new company (pet toys) wanted her to get to work (luckily she's hourly). We went out for gourmet burgers (very good) and bil took off for a party with his ultimate frisbee team in preparation for a weekend tournament in Santa Cruz (part of the reason I picked that weekend - keep my sis company).
Saturday morning was a bit lazy - I checked my email and caught up on a few things while my sister worked on her project. Finally she announced she was bored and we wandered over to her favorite thrift store (my sis and her husband pledged not to buy anything new this year). On the way there, we stopped at Ritual for coffee - I think I had one of the best espresso macchiatos I'd had in a long time. The place has a bit of a 'hipper than thou' attitude (you see it a bit in SF) and apparently upset a lot of patrons because they got tired of people hanging with their laptops all day and covered up all the outlets, so you either hang out until your battery dies or pack a spare.
Saturday afternoon was very girly. My sister had made reservations at a local tea place so we had high tea for lunch. Very cute place with good sanwiches and pastries, although a little bit of doily overload. We then went and got pedicures. Hung out back at the apartment for a little while longer until my brother showed up for dinner at Firefly. Inspired by JM, I took pics.
My borther and sister.
Firefly - The insect not the movie.
My sister's appetizer - an asparagus and goat cheese quiche.
My brother ordered the truffle tremor cheese (the waitress dared him to say it three times fast) with pistachios and mushrooms. I sampled their appetizers and enjoyed the bread with a mushroom spread.
My brother ordered the pork chop (he was ready to gnaw on the bone at the end, it was so good).
The ricotta stuffed manicotti - which was lightly fried - my sister's choice.
I ordered the duck in a cherry-port sauce. Very yummy.
We decided to split dessert, although initially my sister wanted to order two. I said if we were still hungry, we could order a second. We had trouble finishing the chocolate peanut butter budino with banana ice cream.
"Hurry up and take the damn pic!" said my brother when it arrived.
It was probably a good thing we walked to and from the restaurant, but it was all so good. We noticed plenty of signs for open houses on Sunday in my sister's neighborhood, so we decided it might be fun to check them out before I had to head back the next day. My brother hung out for a little while longer, than drove home to Mountain View.
Sunday had another lazy start - I checking email, my sister doing some work. We headed to Tartine's for brunch, which is a little French bakery that's sort of an institution, then wandered around for a little while. A lot of streets were closed for traffic due to a biking event which made getting around a little more fun. We stopped by Ritual and I picked up a pind of coffee. (If JF is at the LA con, I'm bringing him a pound from this place). My sister needed to get her hair cut, so I did a bit more window shopping. We went back to her apartment and I packed. My sister got a call from our parents (I'd switched mine off since the battery was dying) - apparently my keys had been found in her car when my dad dropped me off the airport. Definitely a relief.
Open houses were interesting and depressing. My sister and her husband live in Noe Valley, which is one of the nicer areas of SF (for all you MASH fans, it's also where BJ Honeycutt is supposed to be from). I knew SF real estate is a bit unreal, but $850,000 in Noe gets you a 2 bed, 1 bathroom house with a garage and laundry with a shared backyard (it was a split Victorian). Granted it had top of the line appliances and was completely updated. What is mind-boggling is that the down payment for a place like that would get you the whole house in a lot of other places. My sister and her husband do want to buy a place, but will be looking in another neighborhood.
My sister dropped me off at SFO, which was it's usual craziness. I'm glad I believe in carryons, because the lines were bad - apparently there were huge delays at LAX (glad I didn't book the other flight I was considering since I would have had to go through LAX). Security was it's usual fun - what they tell you at one airport doesn't apply at another and they didn't bother separating travelers (some airports have separate lanes based on your level of expertise with security). Packed flight, but landed on time, then stuck on the ground for a little while because there was still a plane at the gate. Still it was nice to get my keys and my cat was very happy to see me.