peterkim blog

Here’s a rundown of what we did during our four day trip to San Francisco:

Day One
Flew from JFK to SFO via Virgin America. Arrived around noon
Took the BART to Powell St./Union Square; checked into our hotel
Took the BART to 16th Street Mission; walked around for a bit
Early dinner at Delfina Restaurant; grilled calamari was excellent
Ice cream at Bi-Rite Creamery; delicious coffee toffee ice cream!

Day Two
Woke up early
Walked a few blocks to pick up our yellow Mini Cooper
Drove to Glen Ellen; discovered the only thing open at 9 AM was the Glen Ellen Village Market. Got some homemade steel cut oatmeal, carton of fresh fruit from the salad bar, and french bread and ate in the car.
Stopped by Loxton Winery, hoping they’d be open early. No cars in parking lot but the owner said he’d do an early tasting for us. Tried their Chardonnay, Syrah, Shiraz, Port and something else… we bought a bottle of Port.
Drove to Benziger Winery. Went on a great tracter-pulled tram tour with one other couple. Did a tasting. Picked up a bottle of Muscat.
Had lunch at Cafe Citti, a great little Italian restaurant alongside Sonoma Highway.
Drove to Santa Rosa to visit Charles Schulz museum. Walked around the museum. Had coffee at the Warm Puppy Cafe.
Decided to take the scenic route back to San Francisco via Route 1. Was much scarier than I expected. Sunset over the Pacific Ocean was breathtaking though.
Quick takeout dinner from Tian Sing Restaurant (next door to our hotel). A little overpriced but not bad.

Day Three
Took the Powell-Mason cable car from the Powell St. turnaround to North Beach.
Didn’t realize the boutiques in North Beach would not be open at 9am, but also didn’t realize North Beach was a predominantly Italian neighborhood, which was a pleasant surprise. Got an apple turnover and hot cross bun from a local bakery.
Walked to Ghiradelli Square; had a hot chocolate, some free sample chocolates from the Ghiradelli store. Bought a sweet vanilla cupcake from Kara’s Cupcakes. Delicious.
Walked toward Fisherman’s Wharf. Walked around the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.
Had a quick lunch at In-N-Out.
Took the F streetcar from Fisherman’s Wharf to Van Ness and Market.
Walked a few blocks to Hayes Valley neighborhood. Stopped inside some cute boutiques.
Visited Timbum2 store and Flight 001 store. Kinda wanted to buy a Timbuk2 bag but decided not to.
Took Muni Metro from Van Ness station to Powell St. station.
Passed out in hotel room for a couple hours.
Took BART from Powell St. station to Downtown Berkeley station to meet up with Lance.
Walked through campus, then had dinner at Naan N Curry on Telegraph Ave.
Then met Lance’s SO at Cafe Strada on UC Berkeley campus.
Took BART back to hotel.

Day Four
Took Muni Metro from Powell St. station to Van Ness station to go back to Hayes Valley because we liked it so much
Had breakfast at Stacks. Regret not getting the pancakes since the place *is* called Stacks, but my crabmeat frittata was pretty good.
Went back to hotel to get ready for wedding.
Took Muni Metro from Powell St. station to Embarcadero station. Walked to Bently Reserve where the ceremony and reception were held.
Took little Jarrett to Jamba Juice for snacks and Jamba Juice, of course.
Got hungry waiting around so we went to Rubio’s in 4 Embarcadero Center for fish tacos and shrimp burrito.
Got back in time for hors d’oevres and reception.
Persian food was awesome! Some of the best wedding reception food ever.

Day Five
Walked to Chinatown to Dol Ho for dim sum. We were the only non-Chinese, under-40 people in the restaurant for the whole time. Great, cheap food.
Stopped by Chinatown post office to send off some post cards.
Stopped by a bakery to get some roast pork buns for the road.
Looked around some stores in the Union Square area before going back to the hotel to get ready to leave for the airport.

Highlights
Taking four of the five major forms of San Francisco public transportation: BART, cable car, street car, muni metro. I liked the Muni Metro the most.
Great wedding reception food. More people should take food into consideration for their reception.
Seeing all the cows grazing on the farms in Sonoma County.

Thoughts
Too many homeless people. The city really needs to do something about this.
SF is very liberal. I don’t know how Republicans can survive in San Francisco without being completely ostracized by everyone else.
I once considered possibly living in San Francisco, but no more (not because of the politics; I’ve lived in Boston and New York—I can deal with liberals). It’s fine for visiting but I don’t think I’d live there when I have other, more preferable cities to choose from.
Virgin America: the RED entertainment system is cool… when it works. On the return flight, there were problems with the “Premium TV” part of the system, so they tried doing a complete system reboot. The system didn’t come back up at all after the attempted reboot. Noticeably more leg room in coach than United, American, etc. I don’t think I’ll fly this again if JetBlue is an alternative.
Since the entertainment system was down for the return flight, I started reading The Kite Runner. Pretty good read, but a lot of the themes in the book were not completely original or unique. I think I will still get A Thousand Splendid Suns.