The Slow Lane

Here is a link for our pictures that we shall be updating daily! We’ll also do our best to post about everything:

http://www.paulgarvin.net/gallery2/v/sanfran07/

Paul posted our 1st day on Preludeonline.com:

” Irene is getting ready so I figured I would post. Our first day of vacation was LONG. It was raining cats & dogs when we left Philly. The was airport busy w/ delays. Our flight boarded on time. But we had to taxi to BFE to take off and then wait in line. So we spent 45 min on the tarmac. The flight was short due to a tailwind in our favor. And the weather is beautiful here in San Fran.

We didn’t do a lot on our fist day here. We were both very tired. A busy week + getting up at 4:45am + the time zone adjustment. We got a shuttle to the hotel but our room wasn’t ready so we dropped of our bags and headed out for some food. We went to Scoma’s for lunch. Its only a few blocks from our hotel. Good seafood. I have been there before about 8 years ago on my uncle’s recommendation. Top 5 seafood I’ve ever had. ”
I thought the food was okay. I wish we had both ordered something different. Portions were HUGE. I would have enjoyed myself more if I had a bigger appetite and wasn’t soo exhausted.

” Then we went over to Ghirardelli Square and bought some chocolate to take back to our moms… and for us. Then bought some shot glasses for someone the requested them at the touristy Fisherman’s Wharf shops. So we got that out of our system.”

Ghiradelli Square is under tremendous renovations right now but it was still nice to do. Shot glasses are for you, Tony! I bought 3 so you can pick one and I can keep the other 2.
“Then we went back to the hotel and crashed for a while. Later we went to dinner at a place called Blue on Market St. in the Castro neighborhood. Excellent food. Haven’t uploaded to pics from that yet.

Today we are going to be doing a walking tour of Pacific Heights and Telegraph Hill. Prob be back online tomorrow to post more pics.”

Dinner:

I had the spinach salade with currants, craisins, feta lightly tossed in a lemon vinaigrette. Paul had some kind of pork (you can find the pictures in the link)

Saturday:

Cable cars!!!!!!!!! So much fun. Weather was so warm and great. Locals were all in jackets and sweatshirts. We thought it was too warm! Bought the 7 day Muni pass (cash only folks).
On the cable car:

Well.. we didn’t do either walking tour. I’m way too out of shape. We didn’t get to Telegraph Hill on time because of it. We walked up 3 blocks or so. Wow, try walking 3 blocks uphill all the way!!!
We did get to Coit Tower, paid $4.50 to get to the top. We had a great view of all the Bay Area. I was so impressed with the views. This place is truly amazing. We even saw some of the Chinese New Year’s parade floats.

We walked down another hill (it was so steep.. you can see pictures of Paul with his snapple and pictures of me with the tower in the background to truly understand)

We walked to Chinatown because their new year’s celebrations are going on!

We had some Dim Sum at The Pot Sticker. Most people probably pass by it since it isn’t on any of the major streets. Food was good but we didn’t have great service. We asked for tea but never received it. We had some pot stickers and some kind of pork rolled in pancake with onion. They didn’t have the pu pu platter so we were recommended that.

We heard from all kinds of people about the parade at 5:30pm. Well, we wanted to get back to the hotel to freshen up and use the computer to find the route. We walked from Chinatown back to the hotel through Little Italy where we passed many open air restaurants. Mona Lisa restaurant had lit up grapes all over the front. Also passed by many locations within stumbling distance where we can drink.

We are watching the Chinese New Year Parade on TV. I guess you guessed we didn’t get to the parade. We went over to Starbucks thinking they had free wireless, as most know, it isn’t. It’s the same price per day as hotel so forget it. We’ll pay the $10/day.

Tonight we’ll be going to Truly Mediterranean (trulymed.com) and probably getting some drinks somewhere. It’s Saturday night after all.

Tomorrow we’ll be going to the Golden Gate Bridge and doing a tour of Nob Hill.

Miss everyone but not really at the same time. This is a great place to be.