Trip Report California Dazzling: A Roadtrip Vacation Spectacular - Last Update and Final Thoughts 11/8

[GoofyFan1515]

How exciting that Michael is spending the summer in Germany!! Does he know anyone there ????

Don't be silly Rosie, you know her name is........................................ Katharina!

 

[englishrose47]

Don't be silly Rosie, you know her name is........................................ Katharina!

You are definitely a TROUBLE Maker

 

[Steppesister]

Hi Magdalene! Just saying hi and hoping you're well.

 

[GoofyFan1515]

 

[Flossbolna]

Yes, I promise, things will get moving again soon!

 

[dizneeat]

Yes, I promise, things will get moving again soon!

Thank you for waiting until I am now finally on vacation.

 

[Flossbolna]

Golden Gate - Part 1

Monday, August 24: Drive to San Francisco, Cow Hollow Inn, Fisherman’s Wharf, Ghiradelli Ice Cream and Dinner at Mel’s Diner.

This morning we had a bit of an unusual start. First of all, there was no sense in rushing out early as that would have meant that we would get stuck in the Bay Area morning rush hour. So, there was no plan to get out early. I think I got up at some point and went to Starbucks to have breakfast. The evening before I had asked Michael if he wanted something and he had decided that he would have the last can of iced coffee drink that we had gotten at the 99 Cents Only store in Garden Grove. So, I got back and woke up Michael and gave him that can. He drank it and started to complain that it did not taste like coffee at all, more chocolatey. I think it said something mocha on the can, so I told him to stop whining, it was him who made the choice which cans to pick up. We started the packing process and the complaining about the iced coffee continued. Well, after some time when he had woken up a little bit more, Michael actually looked at the can in more detail and it turned out it was indeed chocolate milk, no coffee in sight! Michael does not like chocolate milk, so now I did understand his complaining. Well, since the lack of coffee had made him slow and I was already all packed, I offered to head out and walk over to Starbucks again to pick up a coffee for him. I think by the time I was back, Michael was out of the shower and we could pack up the car and leave.

Isn't she an angel folks? And my return to this 18-year endeavour to tell the tales of our amazing summer month in The Golden State (or paradise as I call it) and she is immediately taking shots at me?!?!?

We were now coming to the part of our trip that had given me the most headache. We wanted to spend three nights in San Francisco, but we also did not want to burn half of our trip budget on accommodations there. I would say that San Francisco is only very slightly behind New York City with regard to crazy expensive hotel prices! At some point during the trip planning I browsed the DIS section about California. There are not only boards about Disneyland, but also about other about California & The West. Not a lot of traffic happening there, but I came across a thread discussing accomodations in San Francisco. Someone recommended the Columbus Inn (or one of its sister properties) on Lombard Street. This part of Lombard Street is actually known as “motel row”, another part of Lombard Street is for its 8 hairpin turns. But this would be quite a way away from where the motels are. The part with the motels is also US Route 101 – and that explains the presence of the motels.

So, I looked up the hotel that was recommended, but it was booked, so I looked up the sister properties and found that I could get a good rate at the Cow Hollow Inn. This was also on Lombard, but a bit further out. I looked up the neighborhood and it actually sounded like a nice area. There was a street, Chestnut Street, that ran parallel to Lombard one block towards the water that was supposed to have lots of restaurants and shopping. For $ 160 a night (excluding tax, but with free parking) it seemed a great deal for San Francisco. Reviews on tripadvisor were pretty good as well.

Spoiler alert: It was a great deal and a great place for a first visit to San Francisco. Yes, despite living in Beverly Hills for parts of seven years, and spending a great deal of time in CA. it is with great shame that I say I had never been to the city. Even worse when I've had -- and have -- friends in the city.

So, looking at a map on how to get there and also knowing that driving in San Francisco is a nightmare, it became very obvious that the best route was actually across the Golden Gate bridge as this is US Route 101 which we then would just follow into town directly to our hotel. It seemed easy enough and also turned out to be very easy!

Since we were late in departing, we decided to grab a quick and cheap lunch at one of the fast food options around our hotel in Fairfield and picked the Del Taco. I don’t have any notes about it, but I remember that it was tasty.

Actually, I didn't think it was that good. I love Del Taco. They are terrific for what they offer and their prices. I can't wait for Taco Tuesdays when I am back in CA. next month, which reminds me that I have to contact some friends who may be reading this report! But the meat just tasted a bit too spicy or off.

Then we left. Our route first took us towards the ocean before we turned south. It was interesting that this lead us kind of out of the very civilized area:

Soon enough the Golden Gate Bridge came into view:

On the approach we had a very nice view of the skyline of San Francisco:

And then we were on the bridge:

Only the citybound traffic has to pay tolls. And it is all done only electronically. I had researched this beforehand and it is actually very easy. They have a website and you need to give them your number plate and say which day you want to cross the bridge and then they charge your credit card. I did this the day before from our hotel room and it worked without any problem. The big advantage is that it does not require a device in your car and you don’t have to queue at any toll booths.

We did not stop at the bridge at all. I had been there on all my three previous visits to San Francisco and Michael was not interested. He felt that he had seen the bridge adequately by driving over it. And I think of all my visits there, this was my second favourite one because we actually had a purpose! The best visit was with Katharina in 1992 when the bridge was mainly in the fog and just looked so massive as it came out of the fog. We walked a bit onto it and at some point it felt like all land around us had disappeared!

Talking about the fog, I think we were really lucky that we ended up with brilliant sunsine during our stay in San Francisco, supposedly August is still a month when there is plenty of fog around.

We easily found our hotel which had a ground level parking garage (and also down one or two levels) and we easily found a parking spot in there. The reception is directly next to the entrance to the parking garage and we went to check in. The guy working there was really nice, gave us some great information about the area and gave us a room that was ready. I already had a very good impression about the hotel. We then got to our room and this was very spacious, recently renovated and even had a view!

For all the talk about SF being a nightmare to drive into, it really couldn't have been an easier or more pleasurable drive. Quick and painless and literally one minute you are on the Golden Gate and few minutes later you are parked in the garage under the hotel.

Yes, the view might not be that pretty in the foreground, I was excited that we could see the skyline in the background!

There was one issue in the bathroom though: The air vent in there seemed to have collected decades of dust! Otherwise the room was spotless, so this was really odd. We told the front desk and they were very apologetic and when we got back to the room, it was cleaned up, so this was nice.

Somethings just aren't on a check list and should be. The room was great beyond that one issue, which should have been noticed by housekeeping or mentioned by prior guests.

Once we had settled in, we were ready to explore! Our plan for the afternoon was to head down to Fisherman’s Wharf and that area. I actually am not a huge fan of this area as it is so touristy, but it kind of is a must do for a first time visitor, which Michael was. And for me it is actually full of memories from my previous visits, so it was nice to walk down memory lane! My research had shown me that it should be walking distance from our hotel. It was 1.5 miles, so really not too bad. There would have been buses as well though.

The weather was wonderful, sunny, but not hot at all! And I really enjoyed the walk. The first thing we came across was Ghirardelli Square, the old chocolate factory which still has Ghirardelli shops, but is kind of a mall with all kind of shops and restaurants. http://www.ghirardellisq.com

But we continued down towards the water front. I really liked the look of the Maritime useum, that is supposed to look like an ocean liner:

We skipped the museum though.

We then entered Ghirardelli Square from the front entrance:

From there we had some really great views across the Bay. In the first picture you can see the museum ships at the Hyde Street Pier, which is actually a National Park https://www.nps.gov/safr/index.htm More on this later!

And then a zoomed in picture of Alcatraz:

Our first stop was to get dessert at Ghirardelli’s! They had lots of different chocolate souvenirs:

I was all in favor of sharing a sundae, but Michael did not want to hear anything about this. So, we each got one. I think it was the Butterscotch Hot Fudge Sundae: Butter pecan ice cream smothered with butterscotch and golden almond nuggets under a layer of vanilla ice cream and our freshly homemade hot fudge. Topped with whipped cream, chopped almonds and a cherry.

It was delicious! And we had a nice table at the window overlooking the bay and enjoyed sitting there while trying to make a dent into our huge sundaes!

I don't share ice cream. Ever. I also don't joke about it. Something M learned recently without being thrown head first out the window!

Once we were done, we explored some of the shops there and found a really neat shop that had all kind of “pretty things”. We found some really nice retro postcards and magnets there, this was the one I got for my fridge:

By then we both were totally happy with life, it just seemed like a perfect day where everything just fell into place.

We found the second Ghirardelli’s shop:

Continued in Part 2

 

[Flossbolna]

Golden Gate - Part 2

And then headed down towards the water front again. Another picture of the Maritime Museum:

They had these concrete steps for people to hang out on and I tried a panoramic view there:

Golden Gate in the distance:

We crossed the cable car line:

And then we continued to Hyde Street Pier. This was really interesting. It used to be part of US 101 before they built the Golden Gate Bridge. The traffic would be taken by ferry from here across the pier and they even had one of the old ferry boats there.

There even was a sea lion sunning:

View back towards Ghirardelli:

Our next destination was Pier 39 to go and watch the sea lions. On the way there we got into the really touristy part of this area. They even had a very fancy In-n-Out Burger there:

And your typical tourist shops like this candy shop:

The candy shop actually lead to a new discovery for me. They had a lot of Sour Patch Kids merchandise there and I commented to Michael that I find this candy a bit disturbing – who wants to eat kids??? We then came to talk about what kind of candy they are and Michael said that they were similar to the sour gummy bears that we had picked up earlier in the trip. Oh, this sounded interesting! We ended up looking into a CVS shortly after to pick up some essentials and I ended up buying my first box of Sour Patch Kids there. Oh my, those are delicious!!!

Holding back on pointing out that every few years there seems to be a report of a German (or Austrian, but they are all the same, right? -NOT!! ask @dizneeat!- ) finding someone who 'wants' to be killed and eaten and does the deed. Seriously. But I am refraining ... and just saying them candies is mighty fine!

One really neat feature in San Francisco is that besides the cable cars, they also have a streetcar line on which they use historic street cars from all around the world:

And I guess now we made it officially to Fisherman’s Wharf:

We had a peak into the Boudin Bakery where I could have picked up a million food souvenirs, but refrained myself. They had an interesting bread display:

I guess we could have felt like we were back in DCA with Ghiradelli and Boudin. ;-)

Another attempt to catch the view over the water:

And then we entered Pier 39, which is the epitome of touristy cheesiness:

All kind of weird shops, some were actually fun to check out. But we were here for the main attraction! The sea lions!!

There used to be far more sea lions who would come to this area. It is interesting that the sea lions only started to hang out there in 1989, before they had other preferred areas, now it seems that they have found other attractive hang outs as well. You can see in this picture that there is room for a lot more sea lions!

There are wooden steps that you can sit on (like blachers) to watch the sea lions and we spent quite a bit of time there. It was funny to watch them, how they would just crawl over everyone else when they wanted to got to a specific spot. And some sea lions did not appreciate this behavior and complain loudly. I think Michael tried to find out if these sea lions had any info on the love of his life: Cassandra. He met her on our port adventure of our Panama Canal cruise (if you want to know more: If You See It: Eat It! Via Panama to Disneyland) and has since had some trouble to stay in touch with her since communicating with a sea lion isn’t the easiest thing…

She still has kissed me in a way no one else ever has and likely never will. I miss Cass terribly sorta like a visitor in Delaware misses indoor plumbing.

I am sure no one else has ever kissed him with the same fishy breath as her...

After hanging out with the sea lions and a few more pictures we started to head back to the hotel:

The way back was definitely more of a hike since be had to go up some quite steep hills. The problem is also that you never know where the hills are and depending on which roads you choose on the grid system you might end up going up more than you need to. For San Francisco it would be perfect to have a city map with contour lines to help you figure out the route with the least elevation gain!

After the strenuous hike back to the hotel we relaxed for a bit and then headed out for dinner at a restaurant across the street from our hotel.

It is a small chain that has several locations in San Francisco and Hollywood. One of their San Francisco location is famous for featuring in the George Lucas film American Graffiti.

They definitely played up that history on their menu:

For me it was a really nice place as it was delivering that old fashioned diner flair and did very well in that regard.

We both got sandwiches, I had a BLT with Avocado and onion rings as my side:

It was very good, but also a lot of food.

Michael had a meatloaf sandwich and got a soup as his side. Our server told him that the soup of the day was beef and vegetable (when she said it I knew that this was what Michael would order) and then when his soup arrived, he really liked it, but commented on that he thought that it was odd that they put so much beef in a vegetable soup and how this might mislead some vegetarians. I told him that it should be obvious that a beef and vegetable soup has beef in it. It turned out that he totally had missed out on the beef part! Luckily he likes beef, so he was still happy with the soup! No picture of Michael’s dinner…

It was very good. I used to enjoy the Mel's on Sunset Blvd when I lived in 90210 despite it being a tourist haunt. Parking was atrocious so a few times we would be headed there for midnight breakfast only to wind up at the West Hollywood I-Hop where I usually ran into soap opera actors.

Up Next: The Sights of San Francisco

 

[rndmr2]

Glad to see an update!

Nice start to the San Francisco leg of your trip you lucked out on that great deal on your hotel. Nice room, too.

Love the pics of the Sea Lions! They are cute, I did a fun excursion in 2013 on a cruise that had a stop in the Dominican Republic (Samana) where we swam and played with the sea lions, it was so neat!

yummy dinner!

 

[franandaj]

I think it said something mocha on the can, so I told him to stop whining, it was him who made the choice which cans to pick up. We started the packing process and the complaining about the iced coffee continued. Well, after some time when he had woken up a little bit more, Michael actually looked at the can in more detail and it turned out it was indeed chocolate milk, no coffee in sight! Michael does not like chocolate milk, so now I did understand his complaining.

This is funny! But how can someone not like Chocolate Milk???

Since we were late in departing, we decided to grab a quick and cheap lunch at one of the fast food options around our hotel in Fairfield and picked the Del Taco. I don’t have any notes about it, but I remember that it was tasty.

I like Del Taco better than Taco Bell. If you order the basic tacos, Del Taco packs them full of shredded Cheese while Taco Bell is very cheap about it. I have to order "extra cheese" at Taco Bell just to get a taco made like they do at Del Taco.

I already had a very good impression about the hotel. We then got to our room and this was very spacious, recently renovated and even had a view!

That looks like a very nice place for a reasonable price. I never get to stay in the City because we can stay for free at my parents 40 miles away.

I don't share ice cream. Ever. I also don't joke about it. Something M learned recently without being thrown head first out the window!

This is a very interesting statement!

We found the second Ghirardelli’s shop:

This is the one that I know of and if I were to say we should get an ice cream sundae at "Ghiradelli's" This would be the location. Do they serve meals there any more? I also wondered how you had a view of the Bay as this one is tucked into the back of Ghiradelli square.

And I guess now we made it officially to Fisherman’s Wharf:

It's really too bad that Michael doesn't eat seafood. You can get some tasty snacks from the street vendors located between the two pictures you posted from "on approach" and "arrival at Fisherman's Wharf."

And then we entered Pier 39, which is the epitome of touristy cheesiness:

I remember when Pier 39 opened. I'm pretty sure it's sole purpose was to revitalize the waterfront. When I was in High School. I used to spend a lot of time on weekends driving around the city doing touristy things (much to my parents chagrin). I never understood why people thought it was a nightmare for driving, I even had a stick shift car at the time. We hung out at Pier 39 a lot playing arcade games.

It is interesting that the sea lions only started to hang out there in 1989, before they had other preferred areas, now it seems that they have found other attractive hang outs as well.

I was long gone by then. No wonder I don't remember Sea lions being very prominent.

I used to enjoy the Mel's on Sunset Blvd when I lived in 90210 despite it being a tourist haunt. Parking was atrocious so a few times we would be headed there for midnight breakfast only to wind up at the West Hollywood I-Hop where I usually ran into soap opera actors.

I used to eat at the one on Ventura Blvd in Sherman Oaks. They had one in Los Alamitos on Seal Beach Blvd as well, but that closed down a few years ago.

 

[dolphingirl47]

I would say that San Francisco is only very slightly behind New York City with regard to crazy expensive hotel prices!

That is could to know. We fell in love when we had our overnight stop on the Wonder in 2013 and we will definitely go back. At least we will be prepared.

There was a street, Chestnut Street, that ran parallel to Lombard one block towards the water that was supposed to have lots of restaurants and shopping.

That sounds perfect.

So, looking at a map on how to get there and also knowing that driving in San Francisco is a nightmare, it became very obvious that the best route was actually across the Golden Gate bridge as this is US Route 101 which we then would just follow into town directly to our hotel.

That sounds like a win win situation to me.

On the approach we had a very nice view of the skyline of San Francisco:

That view is beautiful.

The first thing we came across was Ghirardelli Square, the old chocolate factory which still has Ghirardelli shops, but is kind of a mall with all kind of shops and restaurants. http://www.ghirardellisq.com

I loved Ghirardelli Square. It has a lovely quirkiness about it.

Butterscotch Hot Fudge Sundae: Butter pecan ice cream smothered with butterscotch and golden almond nuggets under a layer of vanilla ice cream and our freshly homemade hot fudge. Topped with whipped cream, chopped almonds and a cherry.

That sounds amazing and I am with Michael there: when it comes to ice cream, I don't share.

One really neat feature in San Francisco is that besides the cable cars, they also have a streetcar line on which they use historic street cars from all around the world:

I loved those. I was thrilled when I got to ride on one that came from quite close to here.

All kind of weird shops, some were actually fun to check out. But we were here for the main attraction! The sea lions!!

Oh, I wish I had known that when we were there. We kind of just passed through that area.

Michael had a meatloaf sandwich

That sounds delicious.

Corinna

 

[Steppesister]

Cow Hollow Inn

My parents stay at that very place every visit they make. They were just there a few short months ago.

I think it said something mocha on the can

Coffee with ANYTHING "mocha" listed will most certainly not taste much like coffee.... but especially one that doesn't say COFFEE anywhere on it. LOLOLOL!

It was delicious! And we had a nice table at the window overlooking the bay and enjoyed sitting there while trying to make a dent into our huge sundaes!

I may just go for an entire dinner at Ghiradelli at DTD when I'm there.

One really neat feature in San Francisco is that besides the cable cars, they also have a streetcar line on which they use historic street cars from all around the world:

Ok, that's pretty darn cool!!!

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

The evening before I had asked Michael if he wanted something and he had decided that he would have the last can of iced coffee drink that we had gotten at the 99 Cents Only store in Garden Grove. So, I got back and woke up Michael and gave him that can. He drank it and started to complain that it did not taste like coffee at all, more chocolatey. I think it said something mocha on the can, so I told him to stop whining, it was him who made the choice which cans to pick up. We started the packing process and the complaining about the iced coffee continued. Well, after some time when he had woken up a little bit more, Michael actually looked at the can in more detail and it turned out it was indeed chocolate milk, no coffee in sight!

Isn't she an angel folks? And my return to this 18-year endeavour to tell the tales of our amazing summer month in The Golden State (or paradise as I call it) and she is immediately taking shots at me?!?!?

Well, I mean...you kind of brought it on yourself there.

For $ 160 a night (excluding tax, but with free parking) it seemed a great deal for San Francisco. Reviews on tripadvisor were pretty good as well.

Spoiler alert: It was a great deal and a great place for a first visit to San Francisco.

Thanks for the tip! I'll need to remember this for the future.

And then we were on the bridge:

Very cool! I hope I get to see the Golden Gate someday.

The best visit was with Katharina in 1992 when the bridge was mainly in the fog and just looked so massive as it came out of the fog. We walked a bit onto it and at some point it felt like all land around us had disappeared!

That sounds amazing. I'd like to stand on the point nearby where you can get a full view of the bridge.

The first thing we came across was Ghirardelli Square, the old chocolate factory which still has Ghirardelli shops, but is kind of a mall with all kind of shops and restaurants.

I don't think I'd ever get Julie out of that building.

I don't share ice cream. Ever. I also don't joke about it. Something M learned recently without being thrown head first out the window!

Note to self: don't go near Michael's ice cream.

We found some really nice retro postcards and magnets there, this was the one I got for my fridge:

Neat! My daughter would love that.

By then we both were totally happy with life, it just seemed like a perfect day where everything just fell into place.

Gorgeous weather, affordable hotel, ice cream...sounds pretty good to me.

They had a lot of Sour Patch Kids merchandise there and I commented to Michael that I find this candy a bit disturbing – who wants to eat kids???

Well people eat brussels sprouts. That's almost as disgusting.

One really neat feature in San Francisco is that besides the cable cars, they also have a streetcar line on which they use historic street cars from all around the world:

I'd love to see these! My boys would be fascinated.

And then we entered Pier 39, which is the epitome of touristy cheesiness:

It doesn't look so bad. I've been to much scarier tourist traps.

There used to be far more sea lions who would come to this area. It is interesting that the sea lions only started to hang out there in 1989, before they had other preferred areas, now it seems that they have found other attractive hang outs as well. You can see in this picture that there is room for a lot more sea lions!

I'm sure it's fun to see them all hanging out there!

She still has kissed me in a way no one else ever has and likely never will. I miss Cass terribly sorta like a visitor in Delaware misses indoor plumbing.

...says the guy who can't tell the difference between coffee and chocolate milk.

I am sure no one else has ever kissed him with the same fishy breath as her...

Have you ever tried after eating raw tuna for dinner?

For San Francisco it would be perfect to have a city map with contour lines to help you figure out the route with the least elevation gain!

At least you can justify eating huge meals! You'll just work them off later.

Our server told him that the soup of the day was beef and vegetable (when she said it I knew that this was what Michael would order) and then when his soup arrived, he really liked it, but commented on that he thought that it was odd that they put so much beef in a vegetable soup and how this might mislead some vegetarians. I told him that it should be obvious that a beef and vegetable soup has beef in it. It turned out that he totally had missed out on the beef part!

So looking at our food choices carefully is evidently not a strength.

 

[Flossbolna]

Glad to see an update!

Well, and now another month has passed...

Love the pics of the Sea Lions! They are cute, I did a fun excursion in 2013 on a cruise that had a stop in the Dominican Republic (Samana) where we swam and played with the sea lions, it was so neat!

Sounds like our experience in Puerto Vallarta!

 

[Flossbolna]

This is funny! But how can someone not like Chocolate Milk???

I have no idea. I would say that man has strange taste. But then, what does that say about him liking me...

I like Del Taco better than Taco Bell. If you order the basic tacos, Del Taco packs them full of shredded Cheese while Taco Bell is very cheap about it. I have to order "extra cheese" at Taco Bell just to get a taco made like they do at Del Taco.

Interesting. Here tacos are becoming more popular, but more like in a gourmet burger kind of way. Not fast food...

That looks like a very nice place for a reasonable price. I never get to stay in the City because we can stay for free at my parents 40 miles away.

I can imagine that. But it is really nice to be in the middle of everything!

This is a very interesting statement!

I survived two months with him without going out of the window head first...

And he likes to pretend to be an evil guy from a movie... Ask him to talk like Christoph Waltz the next time you see him! He even found the perfect spot for his evil lair in Prague. Lucky for me, he only pretends.

This is the one that I know of and if I were to say we should get an ice cream sundae at "Ghiradelli's" This would be the location. Do they serve meals there any more? I also wondered how you had a view of the Bay as this one is tucked into the back of Ghiradelli square.

I think this one was only chocolate shop, but they might have had a small ice cream selling place, too.

It's really too bad that Michael doesn't eat seafood. You can get some tasty snacks from the street vendors located between the two pictures you posted from "on approach" and "arrival at Fisherman's Wharf."

Yes, I saw them and I am sure if it had been my sister and me, we would have tried one of the places there...

I remember when Pier 39 opened. I'm pretty sure it's sole purpose was to revitalize the waterfront. When I was in High School. I used to spend a lot of time on weekends driving around the city doing touristy things (much to my parents chagrin). I never understood why people thought it was a nightmare for driving, I even had a stick shift car at the time. We hung out at Pier 39 a lot playing arcade games.

I would think there are worse things one can do during high school than touristy stuff in San Francisco!!

And while I am used to stick shift cars (those are standard here in Europe), I would not want to deal with them on those hills in San Francisco!!

I was long gone by then. No wonder I don't remember Sea lions being very prominent.

I am happy that I could clear up something for you!

 

[Flossbolna]

That is could to know. We fell in love when we had our overnight stop on the Wonder in 2013 and we will definitely go back. At least we will be prepared.

You definitely should go back! You will absolutely fall in love with the Walt Disney Family Museum (unless you saw it then) and it is such a laid back city which seems to be a perfect for Graham in my mind.

That sounds amazing and I am with Michael there: when it comes to ice cream, I don't share.

That's understandable...

Oh, I wish I had known that when we were there. We kind of just passed through that area.

I hope you can see them on your next visit!

 

[Flossbolna]

My parents stay at that very place every visit they make. They were just there a few short months ago.

How funny that I found your parent's favorite place! But I can see how this is a hotel that has a lot of repeat guests.

Coffee with ANYTHING "mocha" listed will most certainly not taste much like coffee.... but especially one that doesn't say COFFEE anywhere on it. LOLOLOL!

It is so strange. Here Mokka is used for the Greek and Turkish variety of coffee. So, really strong and dark.

I may just go for an entire dinner at Ghiradelli at DTD when I'm there.

Interesting concept... Unfortunately sweets don't really make me full.

 

[dolphingirl47]

You will absolutely fall in love with the Walt Disney Family Museum (unless you saw it then)

I did visit the Disney Family Museum while Graham cycled over the Golden Gate Bridge. I did love it.

Corinna

 

[Flossbolna]

Thanks for the tip! I'll need to remember this for the future.

I am not sure that they fit 6 people in one room though... But it seems that the hotel is also @Steppesister's parents approved

Very cool! I hope I get to see the Golden Gate someday.

I think your whole family would love San Francisco!

Neat! My daughter would love that.

I actually picked up a lot of those historic post cards (or made to look like historic) and kept thinking of Sarah.

I'd love to see these! My boys would be fascinated.

The cable cars are really cool, too. And there is an excellent cable car museum. See, you would love that city!

...says the guy who can't tell the difference between coffee and chocolate milk.

Have you ever tried after eating raw tuna for dinner?

Hmmm. He really does not like me eating sushi...

So looking at our food choices carefully is evidently not a strength.

Yes, it is kind of a pattern!!

 

[Flossbolna]

The Sights of San Francisco - Part 1

August 25: Japanese Tea Garden, De Young Museum Observation Tower, Shopping and Pizza

Today I wanted to get to one of my favorite places in San Francisco: The Japanese Tea Garden in the Golden Gate Park. Don’t be confused, the Golden Gate Park is not where the Golden Gate Bridge is, it is a very large part in the western part of San Francisco, a little south of the Golden Gate Bridge.

My research showed that there was a bus leaving directly in front of our hotel that would eventually get to the Golden Gate Park close to where the Japanese Tea Garden is. So, this was our mode of transportation. I have used buses in San Francisco before. They are usually clean, reliable and not expensive. And this trip we had only good experiences as well. I think one bus was really crowded once, but that’s part of the deal of a large city. The only thing that I did not like about the buses is that if you don’t have a day pass, you need exact change for the ticket. A single fare is $2.25 (cheaper than a single fare here in Nuremberg). A one day pass is $20, three days $31 and four days $40. If you want to ride the cable cars those multi day passes might make sense as a single fare on a cable car is $7, but they are included in the day passes. For us they did not as we only wanted one day of access and were only using buses. So, single fare it was. Luckily, the hotel was very happy to change a note for us, I guess they expect their tourists to need that for the busses (and tips and so on).

So, we got on our bus and were even treated to a tour of the Golden Gate Bridge again as the bus first went there before it continued on the park.

At the park we got off and started walking into the park through the rose garden.

They had a lot of really beautiful roses there and this was definitely an added bonus!

We continued through a part that looked really rural and so remote from any big city.

And then got to the Japanese Tea Garden. http://japaneseteagardensf.com It was originally developed for an exhibition in 1894, but then stayed on under the care of the Japanese landscape designer who had designed it. It really is very beautiful!

Already the outside was quite interesting:

Our first stop (after a very disappointing bio break) was the little tea house they had there in order to have some tea – our breakfast for the day!

Here you can see the patio of the tea house:

This was there menu:

You ordered at a counter and they brought you your order. We found a nice spot with a view (kind of looking back into the direction of the picture above):

And then our goodies arrived:

Michael had an iced green tea, I had a hot tea, I had the one that came with roasted rice, it is called Genmaicha. I really like this tea because the toasted rice adds some additional depth. The colorful squares in the front were some kind of candy and the crackers and fortune cookies are self explanatory.

All was really good and I absolutely enjoyed sitting there, like I had on all my previous three visits!

Our fortune was a bit ominous (as always):

I am not sure if Michael ever got that unexpected gift??

I don't think so!

After “breakfast” we explored a little bit. The garden is not large, but it has so many different areas and so many different vistas, it is really quite a gem!

Continued in Part 2