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A BIG Thank You for all of you who helped us plan our trip to San Francisco! It was great. Here are the details…

Monday we arrived at our hotel, Petite Auberge, at about 1pm. We went to Scala’s for lunch. Our food was good and the atmosphere was pleasant. It was a bit spendy but was fine for lunch. From there we headed to Union Square to get our 7 day Muni pass that allowed us to get on all of the cable cars, buses, etc. for the entire week. It was definitely worth the $20 as we used it a lot. Next we jumped on the Powell Hyde cable car and got off at Fisherman’s Wharf. The Fisherman’s Wharf area wasn’t worth spending more than the hour or two that we did. It was incredibly touristy with little junky shops. Ghirardelli Square had some more interesting shops but again very touristy. We ultimately walked over to Pier 41 for our night tour of Alcatraz. I had purchased the tickets before hand on the internet. Probably was a good choice because they were sold out for that evening’s tour. The ferry ride to the island was nice and the views of the bay were great. The tour lasted 2.5 hours and it did actually take almost that long to see everything. Once we got back to the pier we decided to skip Pier 39. We had seen the sea lions outside and figured there wouldn’t be much to see inside. We grabbed a cab and went to Moose’s for dinner. It was a little more upscale that what we wanted for that night but the food was good. I’m not sure I’d go back but it was very nice. We headed back to the hotel and collapsed!

Tuesday we battled with the transit maps with no help from the person at the front desk of our hotel. We got a little confused on the bus and did more walking than we should have. We ended up doing the Sacramento Street shopping area which I wouldn’t go back for. We had an amazing lunch at Ella’s. If I lived there I’d be going ALL the time. It was sooooo good! We shopped on Fillmore Street in Pacific Heights. I did go into Paper Source and walked out with a bag of goodies. How great is that store?! We did coffee at Peets and bought some coffee to take home for family. We kept walking on Fillmore until we got to Japantown. We walked through the Japan Center which is a mall filled with all sorts of little stores and restaurants. The Kinokuniya bookstore was great. I picked up some books for my nieces and nephews and my fiancé checked out the anime section. It was fun just to look around. The stationary store across the hall was also fun. And how could I forget the Hello Kitty Store! Next we went to the Kabuki Spa for our half day of treatments. The spa was very nice and soothing. We both had the Nirvana package (60 minute massage, body scrub, facial, paraffin hand treatment) and a half session of acupuncture. Everything was wonderful and incredibly relaxing. This is a spa I would go back to again and again! After we finished up there we headed in our zombie like state back to the Japan Center for dinner at Maki. The service was great and the food was interesting but I’ve now come to the conclusion that I like the Americanized Japanese food. It was interesting having chicken teriyaki taste so different than what you are used to! We hopped on a bus back to the hotel.

Wednesday we took the Powell Hyde cable car to Lombard Street. We stared down at the crooked street for a moment and walked over to the Russian Hill area. We walked down Polk Street enjoying the little shops and French cafes. I loved this area! It was so cute! A gal in one of the restaurants recommended a French café. I wish now I could remember the name of it. We passed it by even though it was packed and smelled great because we were planning on Rose’s Café on Union Street. In retrospect we should have just stopped. We walked to the end of the shopping area on Polk and walked back to Union Street on Van Ness. Union Street was filled with more shops and restaurants. Both Union Street and Polk were filled with cute little upscale boutique stores. I don’t think there were any chains. Coming from NYC this is truly the kind of unique shopping you hope for! It was by far my favorite day of shopping. We ended up at Rose’s for a late lunch. It was quite busy but we were seated quickly. Neither of us were impressed with our meals. Maybe it was what we ordered or perhaps breakfast is better. After eating we walked down Fillmore to Chestnut Street. We stopped at one store and walked around for maybe 30 minutes. Since we were in the area it was a good stop but I wouldn’t go out of my way to hit the shopping on Chestnut again. We went back to the hotel and relaxed until 9:30 or so assuming dinner wouldn’t be a problem. Big mistake! Everything was closed. We ended up grabbing a cab to North Beach and had dinner at Mona Lisa. Dinner was very mediocre and expensive for the quality of food. I wouldn’t go back.

Thursday we cancelled our rental car to head out of the city and do Muir Woods. We just weren’t feeling up to it. Instead we took a bus to Ella’s for breakfast. Another amazing meal! We headed out to the Haight Ashbury area. The shopping area wasn’t more than 10 blocks or so but it was fun popping into the stores that were loaded with Grateful Dead paraphernalia, pipes, tie dyed shirts, incense, etc. From there we grabbed a cab to the Japanese Tea Gardens and walked around. I felt like an idiot then and I feel stupid typing this but I thought there would be tea there. Tea plants or something of the sort. I was slightly disappointed about that but it was completely my fault for reading into the name. The gardens were beautiful and nice to walk around. It was a bit of a pain trying to get a cab out of there and quite frankly if we did it over I don’t think I would take the time out to go there. We then hopped in a cab to Hayes Street and meandered down the blocks. Nothing special although we did stop Frjtz’s for a crepe and drinks. They had comfy seating and the crepe was great. We hopped on a bus to avoid walking the hill up to Alamo Square. As recommended by Stu we saw Postcard Row on Steiner, walked north on Steiner 2 blocks past the park, turned left on Golden Gate, saw the Chateau Tivoli, walked back on Steiner and took a right on McAllister to the Victorian Stick homes numbers 1443 to 1499, turned left on Scott and went south, corner of Scott and Fulton is the Westerfield Mansion. It was great walk and we snapped lots of pictures! For dinner we caught the bus to the Mission and had dinner at La Taqueria on 25th and Mission. It was very casual. We ordered a chicken and beef burrito. Both were yummy and very filling. It was a cheap good meal that allowed to see another area of SF. We caught the bus back to the hotel.

Friday we went to lunch at Tadich’s Grill. It was right in the middle of the lunch rush so we ended up sitting at the bar. The portions were generous. The seafood was fresh. It had this very old San Francisco vibe. I would go back in a second. It was a nice lunch and I’m picking up the cookbook for the restaurant. After lunch we walked to Union Square and did the standard shopping in the area (Nordstrom’s, Neiman Marcus, Puma, Niketown, etc.). Neiman Marcus had this wonderful stained glass skylight. It was definitely worth popping in and taking a look at. After hours of shopping we headed back to the hotel to freshen up and drop off our bags. We went to dinner at Trattoria Contadina. Dinner was a solid good but not amazing. It was a great choice for location. Beach Blanket Babylon was right around the corner. We arrived at Club Fugazi an hour before the show and were seated in the third row from the front right in the center. The show was funny and very creative. We are truly spoiled by all of the Broadway shows we go to. It was great though. A must see for San Francisco! After the show we grabbed a coffee at Café Trieste. I’m not a huge coffee drinker but it was very good. I purchased more coffee to take home for family.

Saturday we waited for the cable car for 20 minutes and decided to get in a cab. It was our first day of dealing with the cable cars with the weekend tourists and they were running much slower. We had a reservation at Slanted Door for lunch. The restaurant has very modern clean décor with enormous windows looking out at the water. The menu was interesting and we ordered items that sounded good. And let me tell ya! What sounded good tasted wonderful! The food was different and presented nicely. The mixture of flavors was top notch. We ordered the grilled chicken with tamarind sauce, the shaking beef, and the eggplant. Needless to say our plates were clean at the end of the meal. We ordered the strawberry basil turnover with coconut ice cream. YUM! I wish we would have gone earlier in the trip so we could have gone twice! Make your reservations because this place is worth a few meals! Amazing! We walked through the Ferry building. There were many gourmet food shops and stores. They all looked very interesting. The crafts market was outside and we wandered through it picking up a few items to take home. Next we went to Chinatown. We preferred Japantown of the two. Chinatown was loaded with touristy shops. Perhaps we were comparing to our Chinatown. I’m not sure but we weren’t impressed by it. We did have fun walking around looking at things but I wouldn’t spend a lot of time here. That night we went back to the hotel exhausted. We didn’t feel like going out so we ordered in pizza from NorthBeach something or other. The pizza was okay. It was nice to have a night to relax.

Sunday we took the J to Noe Valley. We had breakfast at Savor. The food was great and worth the trip. There wasn’t a long wait either which was nice. We walked around 24th Street until the shopping seemed to disappear. There were some nice stores. A lot of them weren’t my style but it was fun walking around and seeing an area that had a definite neighborhood vibe. We took the Bart over to the Castro area. The views from Dolores Park were beautiful of the city. We walked on Market Street from Castro to Church. It probably wasn’t the best day to go. I imagine the evenings are buzzing. We had wanted to have dinner at Nirvana. It was recommended by quite a few people once we arrived. After breakfast at Savor we just weren’t hungry yet. We went back to the hotel and relaxed for a while. We ended up going to La Barta for Mexican. It was the typical huge portions of fried cheesy food on a platter. It was great!

Monday we planned on going to Mama’s for breakfast. We got there and it was closed. I grabbed another coffee at Café Trieste and we got in a cab and had lunch close to the hotel at Café Bastille. Lunch was good but again not fabulous. We walked back and got a cab to go home.

Overall the hotel, Petite Auberge, was good. We only paid $110 a night and the room was cute. The bathroom was dated. The shower leaked and the shower head fell off one morning. The front desk help ranged from great to useless. It all depended on who was working. There were two gals that were very helpful. Often times there was no one at the desk and there was a sign out to go to the White Swan two doors down. I would have found this more frustrating it I was depending on their help with things. The cookies were a nice perk. Although when the weekend hit the cookies disappeared. Breakfast in the morning was an upscale continental. They had cereal, oatmeal, bagels, croissants, fresh fruit, and an egg dish each morning. One nice thing was a refrigerator stocked with water, Coke, Diet Coke, and Sprite and that was free. I would definitely go back if the price was similar to what I paid. There rate sometimes goes up to the $170 range. At that price I would shop around for somewhere else. The location was good. It was two blocks from Powell, close to bus stops, and close to Union Square.

All in all it was a great trip and we look forward to our next trip back to explore more!