Day 28: San Francisco
Woke up this morning ready to go and see the city we worked so hard to get into. We walked through Chinatown toward a restaurant called "The House" that we had made lunch reservations for. If you're ever in San Francisco and like Asian food, this place is a must. The house made warm wasabi noodles with grilled pork and kimche were maybe the single best things we've had this trip. Absolute noodle perfection. I want some right now. After lunch we strolled through some nice little shops here and there on our way down to Fishermans' Wharf where we decided to rent bikes and ride down to the Golden Gate bridge and across it. This was an excellent idea. The bay area is really a charming place with colorful buildings, dogs everywhere playing, beaches, boats, and all with the Golden Gate as a backdrop. Truly a great part of the city.
On our way the the bridge we came across Fort Point after a wrong turn, but decided to go in after the park ranger told us it was the oldest military fort west of the Mississippi and that it was also one of the most well preserved. Really cool place and definitely worth a visit.
Time to cross the Golden Gate bridge on bike. This was super cool and we highly recommend it. The experience of riding a bike up that high up above the ocean was kind of surreal. It was SUPER windy and fairly cold. Luckily we had brought our wind jackets unlike some other poor souls as they were made for these conditions.
After crossing back over it was time to mosey on back to the bike rental place and walk down to Pier 34 for our night tour of Alcatraz prison! The only way out to the island is via ferry which is a fun way to travel.
Alcatraz is a national park complete with ranger led programs but the star of the show here was the audio tour which guides you around the prison into the mess hall and cell-blocks describing the daily life of inmates and some of the most notorious events of the prisons history with sound effects and stories told by actual inmates. It allows you to tune out all the other people around you and really focus on what life would have been like there. Such a great experience.
The ferry ride back to the city was beautiful and was a great way to end the tour.
We took an uber to a little cocktail and small bites bar to end the day The special for the evening was a Vieux Carre, the cocktail Lonni had made us in Portland on a whim. Nice.
Day 29: San Francisco
Nothing on the docket today other than washing some clothes then riding out to the Mission District for some shopping. This is another one of those hip parts of town where a sketchy area is being "reclaimed" by trendy shops and restaurants but it had some really neat stuff that can't be found elsewhere.
We bought a couple odds and ends and kinda meandered down the main road until we found ourselves and a nice little park in the Hayes Valley(where Full House was shot) when we noticed an interesting ice cream shop. As we walked in we found that they make ice cream to order using liquid nitrogen and cream from Petaluma, a place we had passed through on Hwy 1 on the way to San Fran. We had to get some and it was delicious.
After hitting a couple more shops we caught an Uber back to the hotel to get ready for our one big night on the town. We had reservations at Liholiho Yacht Club for dinner. Its is not an actual yacht club, but it is maybe the most sought after reservation in San Francisco right now and we had made reservations the day they became available months ago.
It was worth the trouble because this place was dynamite top to bottom. The story behind the place is that the owner is from Hawaii and he and his friends used to wheel a setup out to the beaches where they would cook and make drinks for local beach-goers and basically just party. They called themselves the Liholiho Yacht Club. The centerpiece of the restaurant is an enormous and absolutely beautiful picture of owners mother which really captures the vibe of the restaurant and its food.
After some excellent cocktails we had tuna poke on nori crackers, poppyseed steamed buns with beef tongue and kimchi, shrimp and house-made spam fried rice, and dinosaur ribs(beef) with a spicy kimchi bbq sauce. The whole meal was out of this world.
We had started the night off with some drinks and pinball earlier and after the cocktails we were dancing around to the 90's hip-hop and pop they had been playing all night. We even had some of the staff dancing. We finished up the meal with coffee and their signature desert which is called "Baked Hawaii" Its a vanilla chiffon cake wrapped around homemade pineapple ice cream and then flash baked to a crispy exterior. Its almost like a meringue but has a marshmallow like consistency. Freaking delicious and a great way to end the best meal of the trip. We even got a chance to thank the owner/chef for an awesome experience!!!
