SF Queen Anne August 9, 2003
David actually took a day off and we headed out to San Francisco via San Jose. We had breakfast at Just Breakfast on Monterey, my old time favorite place from the days we lived there. Thanks to a trippy waitress, we now have the rooster menu framed on the wall at home in the kitchen.
A stop by Southern Lumber down the street (oh, a wood worker's dream) for wood to make large cooking spoons with, poplar, zebrawood and walnut.
Next, the Rosecrucian Museum on the Alameda, first visit in years and worth the return trip.
Finally we got to the Queen Anne Hotel in San Francisco. The room? 406, of course. Totally unplanned. We walked to the Fillmore, bought incense at the Japanese mall, peeked at masks in the Tribal Art Center store (eeek . . $650!), bought a small teapot for DL in a Japanese junk dollar type store, and it was uphill all the way home. Whew.
We centered this trip around the ghost tour we had been told about, leaving the Queen Anne every evening. We paid our outrageous fee ($20 per, I think) and to put it politely, we left the tour early. What a joke. We returned to our room to shower for dinner, but it had gotten quite late. The next hour was spent trying to locate a place still open and serving dinner, which was surprising, considering we are in one of the busiest towns in the world. Just as we were getting desperate, we saw Gaspari's, on Geary. Great dinner! Even David having empathy hot flashes didn't dull the meal.
The next morning we went for a brief tour in Whole Earth Foods store on Market, breakfast at The Ramp in China Basin and off to the Farmer's Market at the Ferry Building for unforgettable orange juice, fresh basil and an arm full of cactus prickles. I still have no idea how I got those but spent the rest of the day trying to get them out of my skin.
Chinatown for Chinese pajamas for my grand daughter, Em, incense for my son, John, fortune cookies for Jena. North Beach had a store, the Indian Trading on ??? where I spied an Afghanistan blue lapis necklace and earring set. David bought them for me, I was in seventh heaven.
To the Cliff House for drinks and nibbles during sunset, watching dogs play on the beach actually made us home sick for our monster animals. On the way to the Cliff House, there was a limo in Pacific Heights. The driver, making his way over a hill had actual gotten the limo stuck on the crest. We imagined the following scenario, "Sir, might I ask you to get out of the limousine for one moment, we seem to have a slight problem." Oh, to have stayed and watched him get out of that dilemna!
Back to the hotel and then off to Cafe de Paris once more. As always, steak with garlic sauce for David, salmon in ginger sake sauce for Anne. David poured Anne into bed that night.
Brunch was at Castagnoga's, crab for David, crab cakes for Anne. Back to another seagull feeding frenzy, a brown scarf was purchased, "Kings and Queens of England" found for five dollars at Barnes and Nobles, Jack London Square for David's British driving hat, a Jester hat for Anne, an anklet, garlic fries and we watched the Dragon boat races.
On the way home, the north bound traffic was so intense it almost looked like they had evacuated the valley.