California Wine Trip

08/09/05 - 08/23/05

American Airlines - Rental Van & Auto

Clay & Pat Stahl, Bill & Val Clark,

David & Allison Rodgers, Dick Demchak, Michele Heaton

Tuesday, 08/09 Flight & San Francisco, CA

Penny drove us to Dick's house and since Dick (and the others) are only staying the first week, Dick drove and parked at SunPark, one of the many shuttle companies near the airport. Bill, Val, and Michele are traveling on another flight, with David and Allison on still another with everyone meeting at the hotel in San Francisco. I95 traffic wasn't too bad and the shuttle took us to the airport in good time. We checked our baggage at curbside and forgot to mention that we had pre-printed the boarding passes on a computer. The porter asked where we were going, and also for photo IDs, so all three of us gave him our driver's licenses. He disappeared for a long time, and we were getting a little concerned, but he finally showed up with his boarding passes, and we were on our way.

We had almost two hours, so we ate breakfast and still had a while to boarding time. Clay had a beer at the Independence "Brewpub", while Dick and Pat went to the boarding area. We remembered the bar as Dock Street from passing time while waiting for other flights departing from Philadelphia. They don't brew beer here now and of course didn't in the past either, but now they have various Philadelphia micro brews on tap. Clay didn't find Pat and Dick at the boarding area and wasn't sure that he was at the correct one! A cell phone call located them in the same area but facing the other way! Score another point for modern technology!

Boarding was on time and so was the departure, but we waited about 15 minutes for ten or so planes ahead of us. Then the pilot announced that we will be about 15 minutes early(!) at San Francisco and we were! It was an uneventful flight, and we passed the time with a couple of wines (at $5 per and a lunch at $7 per - welcome to the new airline policy). There were movies, but we didn't rent headphones and just read and dozed for most of the time.

At the San Francisco airport, we got our luggage promptly, a cell call brought our pre-arranged van, and we were promptly on our way north on RT 101 in moderate traffic to our hotel near Union Square. The Beresford is definitely old-style, the same hotel that we used on similar trips in 1985 and 1988. Again it was fine, they have kept it somewhat up-to-date even enlarging the elevator to carry 4 people at once, without luggage of course! We are all on the fourth floor, but only David and Allison were there before us, and they were waiting in the hallway as their room wasn't ready. After switching our bathtubbed room with Dick's shower-only room, we let David and Allison put their bags in our room as we had a while until we will meet the other three.

Dick crashed in his room, and David and Allison invited us to go with them to the Carnelian Room on the 52nd floor of the Bank of America building a few blocks away for a drink and some city views. When we got there the guard at the main desk told us that it didn't open until 3 o'clock, 45 minutes yet. We then went to the E & O brewery and restaurant, about halfway back in the direction that we came. The E & O was listed on the Internet as a brewpub, but they had long ago stopped their brewing of beer. However, they do have an excellent selection of draft microbrews, including the number one (according to at least one source) Anderson Valley from Mendocino County. Pat got a wine, and the other three of us had an Anderson Valley Boont Ale. David couldn't resist an unusual tequila that he said was very good. Clay had forgotten his camera and went back to the hotel, while the others had a second round. It was well after 3 when we returned to the Bank of America building and we had our drink in the Carnelian room. There were of course excellent views of Northern San Francisco and the mid afternoon sun provided surprisingly great visibility. Clay and Allison were taking pictures outside the building and a nicely-dressed man told Clay that photos taken on the property were not allowed - security gone amok! We already had our photos by then anyway.

We headed back to the Beresford to meet Bill, Val, and Michele at the appointed time and at the appointed place, the hotel bar. However, the bar hadn't opened yet and there was no trace of them. A look around the immediate area found them at the Piraat Pizzeria and Rotisserie, an unusual German-owned place with an Italian menu and German beer on tap! After a drink and some slightly loud conversation in the small place, we headed out to take a nearby cable car down to Fisherman's Wharf for dinner. But after watching quite a few cable cars bulging with people pass us by, we along with Bill and Val got in a taxi as did the others agreeing to meet "at the end of the cable car run".

Of course the two taxis dropped us off at different places and we looked for the others for quite a while with no success. Finally, we decided to find a restaurant on our own, and ran into David still looking for us. Bill, Val, and Pat headed up to the bar of the Franciscan, one of the many restaurants on Fisherman's wharf while Clay waited for David to corral the others. Finally, we were all seated with a nice view of the bay and had our dinner together.

It was suggested that we stop at an Irish bar on the way back that has great Irish Coffee. Five of the group did that, while Clay, Pat, and Dick took a taxi back to the hotel, and had a drink in the adjoining hotel bar before retiring. Pat didn't think much of their Irish Coffee!

Wednesday, 08/10 San Francisco, CA

Pat had a printout from the Internet that described a City gourmet walking tour, but it only had a meeting place, with no mention of any way to schedule the tour, except on-line! A telephone call to the store at the meeting place was answered with no knowledge of the tour, but we decided to walk there anyway and see if there was something there. We started out from the hotel, walking the length of Chinatown, although it was early in the morning and most places were closed with very few people out and about. Our destination was a cigar store in North Beach, an Italian neighborhood just north of Chinatown. There are even red, white, and green rings painted on all of the utility poles. There was no mention of the tour anywhere and since the telephone call to the store was futile, we decided to bag the gourmet walking tour for now.

In the middle of North Beach is Washington Square, a couple of block square park. Even though it was still early in the morning, there was a big group of mostly older people following a leader doing tai-chi. Even though we are now in the middle of Italian North Beach, most of the tai-chi exercisers were Oriental! In addition to the main group, there were lone people in all areas of the park exercising with them somewhat in unison. Pat went in the Saints Peter and Paul Church on the square. Since we were already two-thirds of the way to Fisherman's wharf, we decided to walk the remainder as it was mostly downhill from that point.

We bought tickets for the 1-hour harbor tour. Alcatraz is the most popular tour by far, but we had already done that on a past visit. Good thing too, because now they are limiting the number of people, and you need a two-day lead time to guarantee a place. It was still early and foggy, so we decided to take our harbor tour a little later, our ticket (price) allowed us to go any time up to noon. We walked around Pier 39, with its two-level mall-like shops and restaurants, although it was still early and there wasn't much of a crowd and some of the shops weren't yet open. A fixture in the shielded harbor is a group of fifty or so sea lions sunning themselves on floating docks. Anticipating a cold and windy boat ride, Pat bought a nice reversible sweatshirt/jacket, later finding out that Val and Allison had bought similar ones, although at different shops!

It was still somewhat cool and foggy, but we thought that it was not going to be much better anytime soon, after all it is San Francisco, so we decided to get the 10:45 tour and were let on the boat from the front of the line. It wasn't too cold sitting in the harbor, but soon we backed away from the dock, turned around, passed the noisy sea lions, and headed out into the bay. Since we were outside on the top deck at the railing, it was considerably windier and quite unpleasant. Moving to the center of the deck brought a much more comfortable feel and it was the strong wind from Pacific Ocean that was the culprit, not necessarily the temperature.

Once out in the bay, there were wonderful views of the city with the tops of the buildings still shrouded in fog. We headed due west with only the bottom of the San Francisco tower of the Golden Gate Bridge visible and recognizable as such, and only because you know it is supposed to be there! Of course, we heard again that the Golden Gate is the entrance from the Ocean into

the bay, and the bridge is not a gold color, but "international orange", although you couldn't prove that by us on this trip today! We passed just under the bridge, still not being able to see the top and turned around. What a surprise! It was no longer cold and windy - we are now travelling with the wind! There was a nice narration for a good portion of the ride, and especially when we passed near Alcatraz on the way back. We heard the usual stories about the many notorious "residents", and the Native American occupation of the island. Alcatraz was named in 1775 as the Spanish "La Isla de los Alcatraces" - The Island of the Pelicans! It was fortified in 1853 and became a Military prison in 1907. It was redesigned in 1933 as a Federal Maximum Security Prison. The cost of upkeep was brutal and the Federal Prison was closed in 1963. Alcatraz made the national news once more from 1969 to 1971 when a group of Native Americans and political activists occupied the island. Finally in 1972, it became part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and over the years since, a major tourist attraction. The narration also mentioned that it is a no-no to refer to their city as "Frisco"!

The sun is out now and it is quite pleasant, a typical day's weather pattern in San Francisco! After walking around tourist-choked Fisherman's Wharf for a while looking for lunch possibilities, we decided to head back to Italian North Beach and one of the many ristorantes that we noticed on our way here. After deciding on a nice-looking corner place, but upon entry, finding it undergoing renovation, a Kobe beef hamburger sign in the Rogue Ales Public house window caught Pat's eye. It was a perfect place, one of six restaurants in the Northwest owned by the Oregon-based Rogue Microbrewery. We both had the basic(!) Kobe beef quarter pound burger including


fries and mayo(!), with a draft St. Rogue Red Ale (one out of 15 draft Rogue Ales) for Clay and a shared bottle of wine. Of course they were very good, both done rare as requested, and although they didn't give anything away there, we felt that it was a good value - at least for San Francisco!

Even though we had done a lot of walking, Pat wanted to go through Chinatown on the way back, with the shops sure to be open now. We looked in a few stores before finding a


suitable pair of nice chopsticks for ourselves. Pat also looked in many other stores and only found a pair of earrings. Again since it was mostly downhill, we walked back to the hotel. Walking to Fisherman's wharf and back, whew! Even though it was broken up into multiple segments, it was still a long walk, and required an hour or so crash in the hotel room to recuperate! As the bird flies, it was probably about two miles each way, and we did a lot of other walking around also.

Pat later found Bill, Val, and Michele in the hotel bar and since Michele, Dick, David and Allison were heading over to Oakland for dinner, and also since Bill and Val's initial dinner choice (at Gary Danko's) was no good as they require advance reservations, Bill and Val were open to our suggestion of Tadich Grill, recommended by a few people back home. Even though it was not too far from our hotel, with all the walking earlier, we gladly shared a taxi. They don't take reservations which was good, but they were packed and we had an hour's wait which was both good and bad! The bar was also packed, and we were shooed away from the bar seats that became empty as most of them are reserved for diners! So we left our name with the host and went outside where two doors away we found Aqua, an upscale restaurant that was busy, but had some room. We sat in cushioned seats in the comfortable bar area and milked a bottle of pricy, but very good, Groth Chardonnay.

Finally, we went back next door to the Tadich Grill, and only had a short wait for our table. We all had seafood with a couple of bottles of Jordan Chardonnay. The ambiance is terrific - busy, but efficient. Our waiter missed his calling as a stand-up comedian, and cut the capsule on the wine bottles such that the top was a complete ring which he folded over to hold the cork! We gotta learn to do that! But you do need a metal foil capsule, plastic won't work!

After a nightcap in the hotel bar, we retired after a long and extremely active day. A knock on the door found David and Allison back from their Oakland dinner excursion and wondering if we wanted to do anything else! It was a nice gesture, but we were beat and suggested that they try the next room with the other young people (Bill & Val)!

Back To The Top Of This Page                                           Forward To The Napa Valley Page