Dragon Rambles

A.K.A: San Francisco – Part 5

Through all the walking of my Wed morning, I was planning the most indulgent lunch. And that meant heading to the Bay. Not the Fisherman’s Wharf part, but a much, much better part. On the way I passed the end of a cable car line and realised I hadn’t taken a photo of one yet. Perfect opportunity.

The place I was headed for lunch was just a block away from here, I was headed for Ghirardelli Square.

This was once where there was a Ghirardelli chocolate factory. I think maybe the first but I can’t remember and can’t be bothered looking for the history page I picked up. While the choc factory is no longer there, there are 3 choc shops. I of course headed for the biggest

Because my target for lunch was the ice cream shop attached to its side.

Doesn’t the menu look tasty?

Since I prefer dark chocolate I was eyeing those ones up (top right of the menu). I was tossing up between the choc and the mint. I chose the mint one, but there was a bunch of screaming kids right behind me in line so the guy behind the counter didn’t hear the mint part and I got the choc one. I didn’t really mind though.

But I did wonder if it was meant for two people after it arrived with two spoons. I had a go trying to eat it all myself though.

But it defeated me

Alas on the last day of the conference I only had to see two talks and 1 poster. I was absolutely devastated that I only had to be there from 9 ’til 10ish. Just what would I do with the rest of the day? Why, sightsee of course! Thankfully I was smart enough to drop off my conference gear at the hotel before heading off because I ended up walking pretty much the length and breadth of the city.

To start off the day I walked down to Colt Tower. Sure it would have been MUCH quicker to catch a bus but it felt like a lovely May Spring day so I was enjoying the warm walk.

Colt Tower was built in 1933 and inside all around the base are some great depression-era murals.

You can also pay $5 to take the lift to the top to check out the view. It was a great 365º view too, but my favourite was just from one side.

You can just see the Crooked St just to the left, although of course the obvious landmark is the bridge. While I was up there I also got a good view of Alcatraz.

Before leaving Telegraph Hill, I got a great shot of Crooked St from the Tower parking lot. It’s not really called Crooked St, it’s actually part of Lombard, but I think everyone refers to it by its crooked name. And you can see why

I got the bright idea to walk up to the base of it to get a good shot. OMG! What a steep hill. And just when you don’t think it could get steeper, it does. The view from the base of the crooked section isn’t as great as from Telegraph Hill, but it’s still crazy. And you can see some cars making their way down.

After this energetic morning, I decided to head to the bay for lunch. Thankfully it was mostly downhill from here

Ok, I’m home and I’ve recovered enough from the jet lag to start uploading my photos and blogging about the rest of my trip. On the 3rd day of the conference (Tues), I finally didn’t have to be in all day, and with what ended up being a 1.45pm start at the conference, I headed off in the morning to do some sight-seeing. I started with all the others (as we were all playing hooky) and we rode a cable car down to Fisherman’s Wharf. Where to? Why Pier 39 of course. I had heard that all the sea lions had gone, but as we got close we heard them so decided to check it out.

And yep, while not all the sea lions were gone, most had obviously swam off to better seas. Look at all the empty pontoons.

But those that were still there were still fun to watch. There was the big daddy standing proud and statue-still for so long that one of the guys thought he WAS a statue.

And a little guy going off for a swim, but he took so long getting up the courage (maybe the water was a little too cold), that I caught him in a very undignified position.

The others all headed off to Alcatraz after that but I wanted to check out the Palace of Fine Arts before heading back to the conference. Vicky said I should and I figured there’d be a good reason. On the way I passed some great bread art in the big Boudin bakery on Fisherman’s Wharf.

I also visited Ghirardelli Square to pick up some chocolate. I found another treat for myself too, but I’m going to blog about that later as I haven’t taken a photo yet of my present.

There were some great houses on the way to the Palace, here are a couple.

There were some great houses just across the road from the Palace of Fine Arts too, but I was too distracted taking photos of their view, that I didn’t take any of them. To be fair, none of them could live up to their view.

See what I mean! Gorgeous view. I took a stack of photos of this beautiful place (Miss Vicky was SOOO right). Unfortunately there was a big rent-a-fence all around the actual palace so I couldn’t go in and gaze at it’s gorgeousness. Probably a good thing or I’d never have made it back to the conference centre in time. But with the bits I could see, and by sticking my camera through the fence I got some great shots.

And since I couldn’t walk through all that beauty, I had time to walk out to Crissy Field and take a photo of the bridge disappearing into the rain.

The rest of the day I was at the conference. I’ll blog more later on what I got up to Wed and Thurs before coming home.

A.K.A: San Francisco – Part 2

Today has been a mammoth day walking what feels like the length and breadth of San Francisco. I certainly feel like I’ve walked my feet off. I was originally going to head to Alcatraz this afternoon, but headed to Golden Gate park instead. And walked the length of it (a very big length). That may not have been so bad for my feet if I hadn’t walked from the hotel to the bay this morning (with several detours and very steep hills in between). I have lots of photos to show though from yesterday and today so if the jet lag doesn’t hit me too bad, I’ll be posting a few blogs this weekend.

Well, here I am in San Francisco and I have some time to kill between talks so thought I’d stop by and blog a little about the trip so far. Sorry, no photos yet and nothing exciting, but as this blog is supposed to be about me keeping in contact with people better, I thought I’d go ahead and post something.

We had about a 10h flight from London and since it was during the day (mostly), I found it a great opportunity to relax with some knitting and watch some movies that I have been wanting to see for a while (Julie & Julia and Up). We flew Virgin Atlantic, and I have to say that this was the least pleasant long-leg trip that I’ve had. The leg room was the smallest I’ve had and the food was even more mediocre than usual. And they make you buy snacks rather than having them available between meals. So by the time the plane landed, my stomach was protesting loudly that it hadn’t had dinner yet. Alas it wasn’t going to get any either, because it took 2h (possibly longer) to get through customs. I think I had the slowest moving line in history. Seriously, they should have had the refs from the world record book there as I’m sure the attempt would have made the top of the list (or the bottom, depending on your point of view). So after finally getting to the hotel, then stopping by the conference to pick up the program, badge, etc, dinner ended up being a bag of chips and a yoghurt from the local 7/11.

Day 1 started at 1.30am local time. Luckily I got back to sleep…. for 30 min. I was then pretty much waking up every 30-60min until the alarm went off at 6.30. Yes I know, that’s a hideous time to get up on a Sunday, but at least my body was pretty sure it was 2.30 in the afternoon The day was incredibly long and had my poster presentation as well, so I think outside of about a 30min lunch break I was pretty much busy with conference stuff from 8am til 6pm. The plan was to go out for dinner, or at least be able to stay up a bit later than the night before, but alas, I fell asleep around 8.30. Which is probably why I woke up at 4 this morning.

Today has been better and since we had a later start and the hotel restaurant was open for breakfast today (it’s not on weekends, go figure), I was looking forward to something I’d eyed off the menu on Sat night: french toast. But not just any french toast. This was made from raisin brioche and served with caramelised walnuts and banana, not to mention coming with a nice little jug of maple syrup. Yuuuuummmm. If you’re ever in San Fran, I highly recommend heading down to the financial district and going to Midi (that’s the restaurant’s name). You don’t have to be staying at the hotel, and the french toast is well worth the trip. I’m wondering whether I will succumb again If I do, I’ll be sure to take a photo next time.

Today is a much lighter day than yesterday and I’ve had a few breaks where I haven’t had to have talks (I’m now in the second such break since starting this post). Some of the presentations I’ve been to have been really interesting, others.. not so much. Then of course there are the ones that you are really not interested in at all, but that you see because you can’t be bothered leaving the room for just the one talk. Or when a session is running late so you go in to see something and end up bored out of your brains with something you would never have inflicted upon yourself.

Lunch today was in a cute old-style diner on Mission St, just round the corner from the conference centre. Has a great atmosphere and despite being quite busy, they brought out our food about 10min after we ordered it. Quite tasty if simple fare – so another recommendation if you’re ever in the area. I think the diner was called Mel’s drive-in. It had this really cool 50-60s theme to it.

Well that sums up the trip so far. Hopefully the conference days will get lighter as the week progresses so I’ll have time to do some sightseeing.

And because of the photo that Vicky posted for windows, and the comment she put with it, here is Notre Dame (or at least part of it) in spring