lil and i headed out west to see the best of no cal. i hadn’t been to san fran since i worked there back in 2000. hard to believe i could go 9 years without seeing a city i love this much. first stop was chinatown…..best bakery in san fran (as far as i know) is the golden gate bakery. PHENONEMAL egg custart tart. remember their baked goods for a subsequent blog post. or, should i say, “remember their baked goods for a subsequent blog post, lillis” as you are the only person who reads this and you bader me to post, even though you were there for every bit of it. i am toying with the idea of typing the rest of this post directly to lillis. thinking. nah. ok, anyway, we then proceeded on for some extremely authentic chinese food.
it’s a commonly known fact that you…um, i mean lillis….will eat anything, and she was not at all frightened by this place.
i took her picture in front of a trolley just moments before the great nob hill meltdown of ’09 occurred.
i took this pic of the trolley coming up hyde street (i believe) with alcatraz in the background as lillis was in the middle of her 4 hour nap.
and then i made my way over to lombard street. honestly, not that impressed, but i figured, it’s one of those things that eventually you should see.
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that evening (after we woke the princess up from her slumber) we went to farallon. it is indubitably one of my most favorite restaurants ever and it did not dissapoint.
the next morning we got up and took the bus over towards the cliff house restaurant and seal rock
afterwards we headed out to the golden gate bridge.
lillis insisted on bringing big al, so he could see the golden gate bridge….
that evening we went to fisherman’s wharf (which was about 173% more touristy than i had remembered). the highlight there, however, was the sourdough breadbowl soup at boudin. that night we had considered going to catch some music at “top of the mark” (the restaurant/bar at the top of our hotel – the intercontinental), but instead decided that sleeping would be a good way to spend the evening. chance said this kind of behavior was indicative of growing up….i say it’s indicative of growing old.
the next morning, it was up and over to washington square for bfast and coffee and then on to coit tower on telegraph hill. i loved how peaceful it was over there and the views were splendid.
afterwards, we called for our rental car pickup, stopped by rei to buy lil some new shoes and to buy us both some power bars and some energy goo, and headed on out to yosemite.
Posted in Outdoors+Sports, Travelwith 1 Comment →
so, lillis had to take some blood tests, and that’s a serious matter. but, i’ll take the opportunity to mention, that when lillis wants to remember something she doesn’t remember it, she writes a note to remember it. before there were post it notes, i don’t know, i guess we would have had to give her chalk. anyway, it cracks me up about 3 or 4 times a week, when i wake up and go someplace i the house, and a mirror, or a bag, or an appliance has a note on it. it’s almost as if the object in question is speaking to me. a bag will leave a note that says “take me so we can workout”. it’s like i live in a children’s cartoon. like, i think the bag (or the leftovers) has feelings. anyway, lillis had a dr’s appt friday morning. as you know, she is EXTREMELY active and therefore always hungry. so, remembering not to eat required a note. i got up first and saw the note in the bathroom. if you can’t read it you can click on the pic, or trust me that it says “leave for doc @ 8! NO FOOD!” that’s right, the mirror used all caps and two exclamation points to let us know lillis shouldn’t eat today. so, that’s got it covered, right?
weeelllll, what if lil bypasses the bathroom and goes straight to the fridge in the AM? aha! the fridge joined in the cause as well. again, ALL CAPS. lillis, stay away from me, do not eat anything. you have a blood test. anyway, our anthropomorphic furnishings did their job and lil’ successfully made it to the doctor without eating. a victory for the whole condo : )
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Lil had to be in chicago for work the week before Labor Day so we took the opportunity to hit the city for a weekend. we got off to a slow start. plane delayed an hour. they were offering $400 per ticket to catch a flight the next day b/c they were oversold. Lil wanted to take the money and run. i suggested we go ahead and get in. well, we got on the plane and two minutes later the pilot announces that the landing gear is messed up and we’re deplaning (9pm on friday night). i was kicking myself assuming we still wouldn’t fly out til saturday, and we’d be $800 poorer. well, as luck would have it, the next plane was even smaller (btw, lil was perfectly sweet thoughout this entire time period and never once got grumpy about the flight situation. at least, that’s what i have to say or else she triggers electric currents through my body). i held out for $1K and a hotel room and lil and i beded down at the airport marriot in atlanta to wait for our 8:30AM flight. flight went off without a hitch and we were in downtown chicago by noon. i was AMAZED at how “in bloom” chicago was. flowers everywhere (despite mid-day highs in the high 50’s, low 60’s). they were opening the modern art wing of the art institute just across michigan avenue from our hotel (the palmer house hilton – fabulous). so, there was music and dancers and people everywhere. good times.
here lil dips her toes in the slightly frigid water in grant park. really a much more phenomenal park than i had remembered.
the “bean” in grant park. i have no idea what it’s really called, but it is a pretty neat effect.
and it provided a good backdrop for lillis’ headstand
the bean, it’s great morning, noon and night!
the next day we met collie and christy and the kids for brunch in lincoln park and then went to a cubs game……anyone who knows lillis knows she’s pretty, um, frugal. so you can imagine how cold she was to spend 40 bucks on a wrigley field hoodie sweatshirt. she spent most of the game rocking in her chair like leo mazzone.
but it was all good in the sunshine afterwards. we had a great weekend and then set our gaze towards california.
Posted in Travel, Uncategorizedwith Comments Off on Weekend in Chi-town
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