SAN FRANCISCO/NAPA VALLEY: MARCH 2008

Here’s a little memoir on my March 2008 trip to the bay area.......

It all started when I got back into contact with my childhood friend, Adrianna. She invited me to her wedding in Sonoma, CA (Napa wine country). I thought I wouldn’t be able to go considering the fact that I had 3 kids and a husband that works a full time job that is 45 minutes away from our house. But thanks to my mom offering to fly down to help watch the kids; And to my good friend, Angela, who lived in the Bay area. She made it possible for me to go there without renting a car or getting a hotel; and last to my Chase United Debit card for getting me enough miles to get free airfare to Oakland, CA.

So here is my opinion of the places I visited:

Oakland! That airport rocks. If you are going to the San Fran area, consider Oakland airport...not too busy and very easy to get in and out of it. The Oakland Hills area is gorgeous, so many big homes on the hillside. We drove up there and the view was amazing. I think that is where we went on the kiddie train too.....or at least we drove threw it to get to the train park.

Pleasant Hills/Walnut Creek is very clean and nice. It is suburbia, but it is really nice. Ang’s House is in Pleasant Hills. It is in a late eights built area with very nice landscaping and lots of hills. It always amazes me that average middle class homes can be so expensive! I went to Walnut Creek with Ang to see her office....it had a nice view. Our main objective in Walnut Creek was to purchase Dansko shoes. I ended up getting 2 pairs of them (Marcelle Clog & Professional Clog) for the trip....since I was going to walk a lot while I was there! They are awesome! If you don’t have a pair of them, you need to get a pair! If you find yourself in Walnut Creek and you’re in a hurry, I suggest getting the Italian Combo sandwich at IlFornaio in Walnut Creek.....they are pre-made in the take out section of the restaurant.

My take on Napa county. Sonoma is a cute little town with several overpriced shops. The countryside of Napa county is very beautiful...rolling hills, vineyards, and eucalyptus trees. We spent the day in Napa County before the wedding. As far as spending days there...no way. The area was a nice....it did get boring after a couple of hours. I guess it would be fun if you wanted to drink a lot of wine...but definitely not a place to take the kiddies. Napa is a place you go with your friends or with your significant other. BTW, The wedding was classy and the food was good. It was at this sweet place called Ramekins. It was really nice seeing all of my old friends from elem and middle school.

Berkley! I loved Berkley when I saw the row of Prius cars parked along the street. I was told that Berkley sells the more Prius cars than any other city. There were several aging hippies selling anti war/bush stickers and cannabis bags on the sidewalks....Oh, and people with B.O.(the super earthy ones). Lots of posters for Obama were posted on light posts and homes all over the city. This is the most liberal town I have been to in a long time. I loved it.....no pro Bush/republican stickers in sight.....so nice. There were lots of great little shops and restaurants. We ate at this AMAZING place called Fonda Solana. It is actually on the border of Albany and Berkley. They have the most awesome tapas.

Since the weather was rockin at 65-70 degrees all week, we passed on heading out to Lake Tahoe to ski.....maybe I can do it on my next trip.

Monday in San Fran. We had 3 in the car, so we were able to drive in the carpool lanes....weird that it has to be 3 or more. First we hit the Nob Hill area of San Fran. We had coffee and went to some shops. The we headed to the Golden Gate bridge. We decided to drive across it instead of walk because we had sooooo much to do that day. We stopped at some soldier memorial to take pics of the bridge, Coit Tower, Sausalito, and Marin. Next we were off to Twin Peaks. The view is amazing, you can see every area of the city from there. From there were toured threw The Castro "San Fran’s gay village", Russian Hill to see the famous "crooked" Lombard Street, Pacific Heights, Marina District, Chinatown, a quick look at Telegraph Hill. We decided to eat in the Mission area. Ang lived in the Mission before moving to the burbs. We walked around and found the 2 rated Vietnamese restaurant....I believe it was called Sunflower. The first thing I observed was that San Fran called Cha Gio (Vietnamese fried egg rolls) Imperial Rolls. I would really like to know why they call them that.... The food was okay..we had Pho, Bun Cha, and Banh Xeo. I personally think Vietnamese food is better in other parts of the country. However, we were told that the best Vietnamese food in San Fran can only be found in the Tenderloin. The Tenderloin is an area know most for drug dealers, addicts, prostitutes, and mentally unstable street people....and Vietnamese people. It is dubbed at one of San Fran’s worst neighborhoods. We had Ang’s 2 year old son with us....so we thought we should avoid any area that is unsafe. So, if you can get past all of the dirt and crazy ppl, the Tenderloin may have the best Vietnamese food in the city. After lunch we went to downtown SF. There we walked around and had a couple of $2.00 a piece Teuscher Chocolates truffles. We headed back and stopped at a park in Lafayette. Lafayette is a cute town, too. That night I got to see my friend, Scott, whom I met while at IU. We always went to concerts together. He took me out for Dim Sum at Tin’s Teahouse in Walnut Creek. Tin’s Teahouse was delicious. My personal favorite was the Shrimp and Mango roll. I wish we could get good Dim Sum in Columbus!!!

Tuesday, part 2 of San Fran. This time there were only 2 of us. We headed to Golden Gate Park. We stopped at the Japanese tea house, took a few photos. Then to the beach across from GG park and Beach Chalet. The beach was pretty dirty, lots of garbage and glass. There was a fair share of drugged out people. Again, not the best place for kiddies.... chances were high for stepping on glass or syringes. Then it was time to hit Ashbury and Haight Street. The area made famous for the hippie movement. I saw my share of middle aged women smoking their crack pipes in the middle of the day. I loved the shops in the area....fun & unique. It felt a lot like Berkley. We decided to really do the super "tourist areas". So, we drove to Little Italy for lunch. We ate a quaint place with outside seating called Rose Pistola We had the raddest waiter. He gave us free drinks and told us about the 311 system in SF which is very helpful for visitors. So, if you visit SF, use the 311 system to get info. We had some devine Italian food at Rose Pistola. We were told that the menu changes daily....and up to 2 times a day...very cool. We were surrounded by lots of tourists. But it wasn’t as touristy was Fisherman’s Wharf. That place reeks of tourists and souvenir shops. Since we were on the wharf we had to try the Dungeness Crab and calamari. We got it at Nick’s on the wharf because the "crabman" was super kind. We walked around Pier 39 to see the sea lions and the Embarcadero. We saw a guy offering $10.00 boat rides. We took him up on the offer and we were able to get some killer pics of the GG bridge and Alcatraz. it was windy and we were ready to get off the boat after 30 minutes....an hour was too long. My favorite part of the Wharf was watching the famous "BUSHMAN" scare the crap out of tourist when they walked by....good times. On the way back to the car a Chinese woman suckered me into getting 8 SF shirts for $20.00 and a SF bag. I needed the bag for the trip home because the Dansko shoes were going to make my bag too heavy. The kids were happy when I brought the shirts home, so it all worked out. It was a lovely night drive back to Ang’s house on Bay Bridge.

Ang and I had so much fun that week....just like we always did in high school. Good Times