Vinnie's Trip to San Francisco
and other nearby places

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I had a great trip to San Francisco. I was there for 5 days. I also spent 2 days in Healdsburg (Sonoma County) and briefly stopped in Sausalito and took pictures of the harbor. I flew in on Friday 13 June 2008 and left the following Friday 20 June.

I had planned the trip in early 2008 hoping to entice friends of mine to travel there with me but the people I generally travel with could not make it at the time. I did meet up with Libby someone I worked with many years ago. She is a medical technologist and lives about 3 hours northeast of San Francisco. We spent a nice afternoon together and had an early dinner before she had to leave to mind her show dogs. I also got to meet up briefly with my cousin Tony, the network operation manager for a high tech company,  whom lives in Marin County and I had not seen in many moons. It was Father's Day and he had previous commitments with his daughter and some of her friends. He drove me around the city and left me in China Town where I had dim sum.

I arrived in San Francisco at about 1:30pm on the 13th. I parked my Enterprise rental car at the my motel, Cow Hollow Motor Inn & Suites at 2190 Lombard Street on the north side of the city. I checked in, left of my baggage, and then went walking around. Both Enterprise and Cow Hollow Motor Inn pass out good tourist maps of the city. I walked and I walked. The areas that I covered were Marina, Fisherman's Wharf, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, some of Presidio National Park, North Beach, China Town, and Nob Hill.

I walked about 1/4 of the city. I obviously could seen more if I was willing to drive my rental car around the city. San Francisco is well laid out with mostly wide streets and many places to park. It is NOT like Boston which is just the opposite. If you can navigate the streets of Boston then San Francisco is not contest at all. What I also noticed is that the people appear to be very friendly. While walking about I would pass men, women both young and old. They were very willing to say hello. I was pleasantly surprised by this. It tells me that San Francisco must be a nice place to live. I did get the impression that San Francisco is a young person's city. It is not hilly. It is mountainous! One must be in good physical condition to be able to walk about this city. Of course, one can drive around; take public transportation; etc; some things that I did not do - I walked.

The first afternoon I was there I immediately went to Fisherman's Wharf. I walked from Lombard St. towards Cervantes St, through Fort Mason before arriving at the Wharf. On the way to the Wharf, I did stop at Cannery at Del Monte Square where a musician, John Clarke, was playing a mix of Spanish and his own guitar music. He was simply amazing. I continued onto Fisherman's Wharf. I had an early dinner at Alioto's Restaurant. This place is no tourist trap. The fish sausage appetizer (shrimp and scallop with a basil lemon sauce) and the Cioppino were both very good.

The next day Saturday I toured more of the city before meeting up with Libby. She wanted to walk because she had driven three hours to get to meet up with me. We chatted while walking about stumbled into John Clarke and listened for a while before dining at McCormick and Schmick's Seafood Restaurant. This is a chain and was very good. Libby had the Chilean sea bass and I had the sturgeon.

On Sunday I met my cousin Tony and we had a great conversation while he drove me around the city. He dropped me off in China Town. I went into a convenience store and asked where I could find a decent dim sum. She pointed across the street to the Imperial Palace on Washington Street. I stuffed myself on everything I could eat. It cost me all of $18 plus a good tip. I was disappointed because there were many more items I could have tried but I did not have room in my stomach. Dim sum is OK by oneself but if you have someone to share it with then you can try more different items.

Sunday afternoon I went to a sports bar up the street from where I was staying to watch the Celtics. The Republic is a great place to watch sports. I met someone from southern New Hampshire who knew his basketball. I also met a young woman looking for someone to pay her tab from the night before, as well as, buy her dinner that evening. During our conversation the manager asked her to leave and then he returned to apologize to me. She is well known there. I thought the whole incident quite amusing. Unfortunately, the Celtics lost that game in LA.

On Monday, I left San Francisco and went north to Healdsburg which is about one hour north of the city . On the way up I stopped briefly to see Sausalito. I got a few good photos of the harbor. To be honest I had not done my homework on this town and did not find too much of interest. I am sure that I must have missed quite a bit. I got to Healdsburg and stayed at America's Best Value Inn & Suites. It is literally just off the US 101 Central Healdsburg exit. Healdsburg in Sonoma County is one of the major wine areas of California. I planned to stay three days but by the end of the second day I was all wined out and wanted to drink beer. That's right. I had had enough wine. My second night in Healdsburg I had to find another sports bar to watch the Celtics. I came across The Healdsburg Bar and Grill (HBG). There was a good crowd of people watching the game. The bartender was routing for the Lakers and grudgingly congratulated me after the blow-out by the Celtics.

A detailed map is available everywhere in Healdsburg showing the locations of all the wineries in the area. If I may exaggerate a bit. In the wine country of northern California they have wineries the way we have Dunkin Donuts in Massachusetts. I must say that it is very frustrating when one finds wine that is worth buying but the winery is not allowed to ship directly to residents of Massachusetts. Massachusetts law prohibits the larger wineries from shipping to our residents. I am told that one can by the wine, take it to a shipper, and that some shippers will send it to residents in Massachusetts. The law is there to protect the distributors and, otherwise, makes no sense. The wineries themselves are frustrated knowing that they are losing business because many tourists from Massachusetts visit California wineries every year.

Here is a short list of the Sonoma wineries that I visited and liked.

Many of the wines in the tasting rooms are not available in retail stores. These are small vintages and may only be purchased while at the tasting rooms or if one joins a wine club run by the winery.

What I noticed while in San Francisco and driving north to Healdsburg was the number of Jaguar XJs in the area. I had a '96 XJ (purchased used) for a number of years and loved it. In my travels to southern California I don't recall seeing very many. However, in this part of California there seems to be a fair number of them.

On Wednesday after two days of too much wine I headed back to the Cow Hollow Motor Inn in San Francisco. I decided to try the Italian section called North Beach. I had lunch at the Trattoria Pinocchio on Columbus Avenue.

On Thursday, I went back to Columbus Avenue and after passing by the Pantarei Restaurant on Wednesday I stopped in this time. I found that it was an interesting place to watch the European Cup. There was a distinct European flavor about this place. It is very popular with Europeans who came by to watch the futbol (soccer) matches.

My last night in San Francisco I had dinner at Izzy's Steak and Chops Restaurant around the corner from where I was staying. I had the slow roasted prime rib which was very good. The bartenders were busy sampling new wines and freely giving their opinions about them. One of the bartenders loved to travel and in her early forties had traveled to just about everyplace on the planet. She was talking about moving to Argentina in the near future. Later I went back to the Jones sports bar where I met up with a couple of the regulars who were quite friendly. As it turned out, one of them was the roommate of the young woman who had tried to get me to pay for her restaurant tabs a few days before.

The next morning I checked out of my room and headed back to San Francisco Airport. It took 55 minutes from when I began driving from the motel to the airport, turned in my rental car, checked in at the airline counter, and went through security. Very quick I must say.

San Francisco Redo

I  had a second great trip to San Francisco. I was there for 5 days. I also spent 2 days in Napa (Napa County) and briefly stopped in Muir Woods and took pictures of the forest. I flew in on Thursday 24 June 2010 and left the following Thursday 01 July 2010.

This was my second trip to San Francisco in two years. I stayed in the same motor inn – The Cow Hollow Motor Inn, 2190 Lombard Street. It is not near the well known curvy end of the street but towards the Golden Gate Bridge. It is in the Marina district not far from Fisherman’s Wharf. Chestnut Street runs parallel to Lombard. Chestnut has many small shops and eateries. This section of San Francisco is a young persons’ town. 

As a bit of an aside on my way to San Francisco (SFO), I left at 0600 from Manchester, NH (MHT). I had a scheduled stop at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport (OHD) with a 45 minute time period between flights. We left 20 minutes late from MHT because of traffic over O’Hare. We landed and spent another 15 minutes on the tarmac before getting to the gate. By this time my flight to SFO was already boarding. We disembarked at gate C-7. I got off the plane and asked an airline receptionist where the gate was for the flight to SFO. She pointed to the next gate C-9. Amazingly, I was only a few yards from where my next flight was departing.

My favorite restaurant this time around was The Naked Fish on Chestnut Street behind the Cow Hollow Motor Inn. I stumbled into this Japanese restaurant. I t has a sushi happy hour. I ate there five days while in the city. There was a cute young waitress from Mongolia working there. I had never met anyone from Mongolia before. I found that I have a taste for unfiltered saki. It is creamy white in color and very tasty. 

I went to the Yet Wah 2140 Clement Street in the Richmond district for dim sim. I also went back to Izzy’s and Trattoria Pinocchio. This time at Izzy’s I had the grilled pork chop. It was absolutely great. At Pinnochio’s I had the lasagna for lunch. It had a layer of spinach and mushrooms. It too was absolutely great. I found another restaurant that is well known in San Francisco, The Stinking Rose on Columbus Avenue. It is a garlic restaurant. Everything is smothered in garlic. I had the roast rabbit. It was good (tastes like gamey chicken). It tastes just as good the next day also.

The world cup was being played in South Africa. As the last time I was in San Francisco, soccer seems to be very popular. There are many Europeans and people from the Latin America there. I went back to the Pantarei Restaurant on Columbus Avenue which is great to watch sporting events.

During the soccer matches it is more of a bar than a restaurant. During the Ghana vs. USA game the bartenders were rooting on the US using a bull horn and whistle. One bartender would blow his whistle and then cup his hand to his ear enlisting a response from the patrons. The Mexico vs. Argentina game was a great time. When the game started it was a group of Argentinean fans whopping it up. Later a group of beautiful young Mexican girls came in and even though Mexico was being soundly beaten showed good spirit. The girls got the bull horn and stole the show. 

I must comment on the ladies of San Francisco. Yes, they are lovely. For the most part they were attired in tight jeans or tights and boots. The temperatures were in the 50’s and 60’s F. while I was there.

I went north to Napa for wine tasting. Along the way, I stopped to visit the Muir Woods just outside San Francisco. This is where the tallest redwood trees in the world are found. Some trees are estimated to be 1,000 years old (that’s right folks). I also stopped to see The Petrified Forest in Calistoga (not to be confused with The Petrified Forest in Arizona). This petrified forest was created from redwood trees that were covered with volcanic ash after an eruption and over the years silicates replaced the fibers in the trees. 

The town of Napa was a bit disappointing. It seemed dead. I suggest the GillWoods Café for breakfast. Two other restaurants of note are Restorante Allegria (Italian) and Angele Restaurant (French). I stopped at The Culinary Institute of America a branch of which is located in St Helena. I had the mussels appetizer and the special of the day which was a grilled salmon dish.

I met some interesting people while there. At the soccer bar I spoke with a man (Ronaldo) visiting from Tulsa. He is an engineer with an oil drilling company. He is originally from Venezuela. His parents grew up in Italy. I met a lady (Kelly) on Columbus Avenue who was soliciting signatures for one of the many initiative petitions that appear on the California ballots. She approached me because she thought I looked like a local. She was rather interesting having made her broad brimmed hat and braded jacket. They were very colorful with red, white and blue trim. I met two couples at The Naked Fish; Jeremy and Megan; Paul and Deidra. I enjoyed the time that I had with both couples. Paul was a bartender and when I told him about my wine excursions he went back to his apartment to get a bottle of zinfandel for me. I could not believe that he did this. I reciprocated by taking Paul and Deidra to the Balboa Café 3199 Fillmore Street.

List of interesting Napa wineries