Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - San Francisco Trip Report

Here's "Part 2" pasted to "Part 1"

Author: Kerry392
Date: 09/04/2006, 11:25 pm
We arrived back in the city late afternoon from Yosemite. After relaxing at the hotel, we went out exploring.
We went to Alamo Square to see the Victorian houses and tried to walk to Golden Gate Park. The houses in this area were just beautiful. I found many that I would love to live in. I would love to go inside and see what they look like. I am sure that some of them had beautiful views. We did not realize that there was much more to see further inside the park. But, at that point, we were so exhausted we decided to get back on the bus and find something to eat. We wanted Italian so we went to North Beach. There were many restaurants to choose from; we wound up at US. I had a delicious plate of pasta called spaghetti cecca; it was spaghetti (DUH!) with basil, garlic, tomato and mozerella cheese.
For dessert, we went to Pier 39 and had crepes with Ghiardelli chocolate. YUMMY! We went to bed early because we were exhausted and had a trip to Sonoma planned for the next day.

After another early start, we made our way to Sonoma over the Golden Gate Bridge. It was neat to drive over it! Our first stop was at Muir Woods. We got there as soon as it opened and it was very peaceful. The age and height of the trees amazed us. We were also surprised at the holes in the trunks of some of the trees; they were still very healthy. Some of the trees were more than 1,000 years old; this is very hard to comprehend! Some were so tall that you couldn't see the tops of the trees! We took a beautiful nature trail that we really enjoyed because it was so peaceful.

Then, we made our way to Sonoma. THe town was very nice. We went to Ravenswood, Mayo, Valley of the Moon and BR Cohn. The grounds of BR Cohn was very interesting; inside, they had a lot of Doobie Brother's memoribilia. Ravenswood was also very pretty; the owner had his 2 young children working there with him. We tried to take an advertised tour at Valley of the Moon; first, they suggested that we go to another winery for their tour. Then, we decided that we would rather stay there and asked again about the tour; the woman got very nasty and told us we would have to wait. Finally, when we were on the tour (it was only my husband and I), the woman told us that they were short staffed and normally didn't give tours when that happened. If I would have known that, I wouldn't have asked about going! She gave us a tour but did not seem to know a whole lot. This was somewhat disappointing.
For lunch, we went to Mary's Pizza Shack. It was really good! The name does not match the restuarant. Once again, we had pizza with no sauce.
Finally, in Sonoma, we stopped at the Mission. It was pretty but not quite the same as the Santa Barbara Mission. However, it did give some interesting information about the founding and settlement of California.
That night, we did some more exploring in San Francisco. We went up to THe Top of the Mark to check it out; it was early evening and they were just starting to enforce the dress code and charge a cover. Later, my husband told me that he really wanted to stay to have a drink.
We wound up going back to Chinatown for dinner at Great Eastern. We had something different and it was equally good. I am going to miss this place! Later that night, we walked around Fisherman's Wharf and back to Ghiardelli. I had my last hot fudge of the vacation- how sad

This was our last day in San Francisco; I was very sad to be leaving.
First, we took a tour of Alcatraz. The island was very windy. I was very impressed with how well organized the program was. The Audio tour was very interesting. I could not believe how small and sparse the cells were. It must have been very depressing to see the beautiful views of the city and the bridge and know that you would never get there. The boat ride to and from the island was very nice; there were wonderful views of the city.

We ate lunch at Boudin in Fisherman's Wharf. I had the clam chowder in a bread bowl; it was quite tasty!
After lunch, we went to Coit Tower (we took the bus all the way to the tower; the hills were getting to be alittle much!). The murals inside the building were beautiful. The elevator we went up in was PACKED! THe views from up top were very nice; it would have been helpful if there were signs that told you the different landmarks.
AFter leaving the tower, we took the steps down; I was determined to find "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill". We did not see any up close, but we did see and hear a couple of them fly by. We then started walking towards the Financial District. This part of the city was very pretty. I love the rowhouses!
From the Financial District, we went to Yerba Buena Gardens. The park was beautiful; very green with lots of open space. There was a fountain dedicated to Martin Luther King Junior that was very pretty. The buildings surrounding the park were very unique.
For dinner, we went back to North Beach to find something to eat. At this point in the trip, we were getting kind of cranky and said to be be leaving so we had a small argument about where to eat for dinner. We wound up at Franchino- it was a delicious Italian restaurant with Mama cooking in the kitchen and the father singing in the restaurant. The food was so good and the people were so nice. It was the type of place you picture when you think of an ethnic Italian restaurant- it was very small and simple. My husband had veal parmesan that was amazingly tender; I had chicken parm that was equally good. It came with a side of pasta that had tomato sauce that I liked (that doesn't happen too often!) We also had bruschetta with dinner; the toast it was on was perfectly crispy and the ingredients were mixed expertly. It was a real find!

Sadly, we headed for the airport for a red-eye flight back to Philly. Our adventure was over...