San Francisco - Anne's Birthday Trip May 2010

For my birthday this year Tim and I headed out to the west coast, to San Francisco. 

We flew out during the day on Friday, it was actually quite nice not to just rush from work to the airport on Thursday night like we normally would for a long weekend, but its does mean you lose most of that day, however we were much more relaxed!

We were staying at The Clift, a hotel that I had found on my latest obsession www.jetsetter.com. Turned out well. We were a few block from Union Square and the Trolleys. Once we got in we set off in hunt of some food for a picnic lunch the next day. We used the Trolleys, which although are a tourist trap and actually pretty handy to get around. We bought 3 day passes which turned out to be pretty worth the money. 

Those trolleys are mad, there is a poor brake guy with and actual giant lever on the back of the trolley, and is the only thing stopping you from flying down the super steep San Francisco hills. Rather him than me. We hopped off near China Town and wandered towards the Italian area, where we found lunch for the next day and a lovely bistro/cafe to sit in the sun and watch the world go by. Good espresso too.

Saturday (birthday day) was jam packed. We took the trolley down to Fisherman's wharf. I love being down by the sea, hanging out with boats and seafood is one of my favourite pastimes. We watched them turn around the trolley at the end of the track, amazing that they still just do it by hand, and then headed off towards the Golden Gate bridge for our picnic. It was an irritatingly hazy day (as I'm told it often is in San Fran), so we couldn't quite see the top of the bridge, but it was awesome to see it anyways.

After the trek there and back we went for a quick walk through Fisherman's wharf, lots of yummy looking crab and seafood stands. And of course the pier 39 Sealions.

We then jumped on the Ferry to Alcatraz Island. There is a great audio tour around the old prison island. It's amazing to imagine what it would of been like to of been there, both as a prisoner or as a guard or their family. You can even hear to sounds from the city from the Island, must of been tortuous on its own. There's a great view of the city from the ferry and from the island. We returned back to the hotel to discover we both were seriously sunburnt.... you would of thought we'd learnt by now. We met a bunch of Thoughtworkers that Tim and I are friends with for a birthday dinner. Awesome to see everyone again, and also to meet new people that I'd heard an awful lot about.

On Sunday I decided that I hadn't eaten enough of the seafood at Fisherman's Wharf so we headed back there for lunch in the Ferry Building. Really good fresh crab cakes and shrimp sandwiches. We then met up with Ian and Suzi and headed towards the Haight district. Forgetting that it was the Bay to Breakers fun run that day, the place was a mad house. Definitely a time to see the more erm eccentric side of San Francisco.

 We had a lovely time in San Francisco. A great place for eating! We didn't go to the Wine Country on this trip as we thought it would be too rushed, so I'm definitely looking forwards to that someday in the not too distant future hopefully.