Day 7 - Thursday June, 18 - Lucasfilm and Fisherman's Wharf
So our next big task for the day was to find some lunch, but we couldn’t leave the Presidio without a quick stop to the Lucasfilm office!!!!
Obviously, this isn’t the main Lucasfilm office, but apparently they actually do quite a bit at this site. Leaving the Walt Disney Family Museum, we drove through the windy Presidio roads for a couple minutes and we pulled up to the office area. There was an attendant at the parking lot entrance, and he teased us a quite a bit after he found out that we were tourists here to see Yoda. But it was all and good fun and he was a nice guy. I guess it’s gets boring standing there all day and it’s fun to mess with the tourists...
Anyway, we drove up, parked the car, and walked over to see the life size Yoda statue and fountain. I’ve been a Star Wars geek since I was a little boy (just barely old enough to have seen the original movie in the theater) and I collected a lot of the toys through my childhood and into my college years. Anyway, given all that, I was stoked to be there!
The kids thought it was pretty cool too!
The following GIF didn’t turn out too well, but inside the lobby, the front desk is on the right and then they have some statues, books, and memorabilia off to the left...
It was weird because this is an actual work environment and people were coming too and from, so we kept it quiet. Sort of like in a library. And fairly quick too. But not too quick for a few photos!!!!!
OK. That was pretty darn cool, but time to eat. Let’s go!!!!
We took the 10 or 15 minute drive down to Fisherman’s Wharf. Hey look, a cable car!!!
We Yelped around for some good food... and found The Godmother Fish & Chips. It had an incredible amount of 5 star reviews, so we decided to give it a try. It turned out to be a food truck. That works!
Oh…. My…. Goodness!!!! This stuff is the stuff that dreams are made of. Not that the fish at Epcot and/or Raglan Road at DTD Orlando are the best ever, but this was way better than either of those. Heck yeah!!!
I went for the fish & shrimp combo. Oh yeah, I’m dreaming about that right now.
Everyone else had just the fish and chips. I’ll spare the extra photos as they all looked basically the same.
And then, Stephanie got the garlic fries with whatever special sauce they had. Oh dude, this is more of the stuff that dreams are made of. Delicious!!!!
So after we stuffed ourselves to the gills, we walked around just checked things out. It was pretty cool looking at all the seafood stands and just general “action” as there was a lot of street activity. People performing and stuff like that...
We decided to stop in and explore the Musée Mécanique, a museum full of antique coin operated arcade games. Too cool!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musée_Mécanique
We probably spent 45 minutes playing various games, exploring, and watching other people play games. It was a real hoot!
A bit later, we decided to go outside and watch the boats coming and going for a while. Such great views!
Later that afternoon, we decided it was time to be heading back to Tracy and Minhs for the evening. The plan was to head back to their house, pick them up, and go out for dinner. It was another LONG drive back as the traffic downtown was off the charts again. Traffic in downtown SF is NUTZ!!!!
They decided to take us to one of their favorite “hot pot” places. We had never been to such a restaurant and it sounded fun, so we were fairly excited. Essentially, every person gets their own a pot of soup broth. You control the temperature of the broth at your table. Then you pick a meat or seafood and they bring it all out raw, and then you cook it in the broth at your own pace. Interesting!
Everyone gets a plate of veggies and tofu, and a shrimp too!
Most of us picked beef for our protein... it was sliced thinly.
Minh went with seafood.
Then you pick rice or noodles to go with it.
I went with udon noodles, because they are one of my favorites!
Then each person picks up to two dipping sauces. We just ordered a bunch so we’d each have the opportunity to try them all.
Dude, that’s a lot of food!!!
We had a blast sharing one last dinner with Tracy and Minh. They are as cool as they come. We are blessed to have such a great family!
So what did we think? Well, unfortunately, the kids weren’t too impressed. And Stephanie and I both liked it well enough, but I wouldn’t say it was my favorite Asian food. I went with the “Flavorful Broth” and I have no idea what it was made from, but it had a slight funk to it that was hard to ignore. Maybe a little too flavorful?
It was a lot of fun though!!!!
After dinner, the kids were up for something sweet, so we hit a local Asian grocery store and picked up some mochi ice cream. They had a few interesting flavors, so we bought several boxes and pigged out. Yum!
The sun was setting when we arrived back at the house.
And a bit later, it was full on dark.
They live up on a hill and it’s fun too look west towards the city and the bay.
We visited for a couple hours before calling it a night. Wow, I can’t believe that the San Francisco portion of our trip was coming to an end. I love that city and I can’t wait to visit again soon!!!! (And happy that we’’ll get to see Tracy and Minh again at my cousin’s wedding in Vail, CO this October!)
Next up, we get up early and head to Yosemite!