The Not So Great Pumpkin: Photo #61

What happens when you throw your Halloween pumpkins onto the dirt pile in the back yard?  About 7 months later a 12 – 15 foot long pumpkin vine begins to take over your back yard in a quest for world domination.  And you get baby pumpkins!  So far we’ve counted at least 4, with the possibility of more.  I can’t wait for Halloween night.  Surely the Great Pumpkin will pick our patch.

Inner Child: Photo #60

Is it wrong that I reacted to this license plate like a 9-year-old boy today?

Immunity: Photo #59

I think my immune system wants me to go back to San Francisco.  Ever since we got back, I am a snot machine.  I guess its allergies because all of the cavities in my head are itchy – though I’ve never really had allergies before.  Blaaaahhh.  I want to go back to San Fran – where every day is a vacation and there is no snot to be found. 

Vacation Recovery: Photo #58

This is what Einstein did today.  Surprisingly, he was the most productive member of the family today.  It was that kind of a day.

30 Again: Photo #57

Today was my birthday and I’m kinda glad its about to be over.  I feel a little gloomy because I’m tired from the trip and wish we still had it to look forward to.  And though I don’t have any hang-ups about turning 30 in general, I do have hang-ups about turning 30 childless.  I wanted to accomplish so much more by now.  I feel like I keep getting older but my contemporaries are all leaving me behind.  I know I’m not the oldest person to be  stuck in the trying to create a family mode – by far – and that in the Assisted Fertility world I’m still a younster.  And I know that I am so lucky in a lot of ways and that many people would love to have what I have in life.   But its hard to tell yourself what to feel.

Come Fly With Me: Photo #56

We spent the day traveling back to Cincinnati, leaving our hotel at 10 am and arriving home at 11 pm.  A couple of highlights:

 

The plane we rode on from San Francisco to Salt Lake City sported screens in the back of every seat that you could use to watch TV for free (lots of channels including Discovery, Food Network, Comedy Central, etc.), to listen to a large variety of albums from which you could make your own playlist, or to track everything about the flight from the air temperature outside the plane to the distance we’ve already traveled in miles.  It also had a feature that shows where you are on a map – like in a cartoonwhen you see the line the character travels all across the country.  I loved it and I think planes should be required to have this feature.

 

 

When we were about a hundred miles away from Cincinnati we flew around a big thunder storm and it was awesome.  We could see the lightning flashing through massive cloud columns and everywhere we looked there were enormous cloud formations that made everything outside our windows look like the landscape of some alien planet.  I’m glad we weren’t traveling through the storm, but it was really cool to be able to see the storm.

Hole: Photo #55

So there’s a hole in this street near our hotel.  We noticed the hole and did a massive double take on our first day but I didn’t remember to snap a photo of it until today.  This is actually two streets but I still can’t figure out how the top street doesn’t collapse onto the one beneath it.

Today’s itinerary also had lots of holes in it.  Originally we wanted to go to Muir Woods across the bay to see the Redwood Trees and planned to take the shuttle that runs there from downtown.  Sadly, we realized too late that the shuttle only runs on weekends and somehow, it seems that no other public transportation goes there.  No problem – we’d still have plenty to do by visiting some museums in the morning (the Museum of Modern Art, the Cartoon Museum, and the Craft and Folk Art Museum), some neighborhoods in the afternoon, and then taking a trolly tour of the city.  Upon arriving at the museum district we realized that Wednesday is the day all the museums are closed.  Again, bad planning on our part.  So we spent the day wandering the streets of some of San Francisco’s neighborhoods.

First up, the Castro – widely considered the world’s best known gay neighborhood (according to my guide book).  We had a nice, peaceful walk and went to some fun shops, but there wasn’t much going on on a Wednesday morning, so we didn’t stay long.  We checked out the Castro Theater – which is a historic movie palace that shows old and classic movies (they’re hosting a silent film festival in July) and we enjoyed walking among some cool old houses.

 

Next, we walked over to the Mission District, a neighborhood which is about 50% Latino.  We decided to get lunch at one of the Mexican restaurants here.  The restaurant we chose had soccer playing on the television, had only one waiter who was rushing around superhumanly, and was covered in memorabilia that looked like it had been lovingly collected over many years by the owner.  Randy got a burrito and I got a quesadilla.  Both were scrumptious.

 

We sat by the window and guzzled Diet Cokes, hot and thirsty from our walk.  As we waited for our food, I saw what I think is my new favorite car ever.

 

After lunch we hopped on a crowded bus and went to Japantown, a district we didn’t plan to spend much time in as our guide book downplayed its appeal.  We are sorry we didn’t go earlier to eat lunch there at one of the many adorable restaurants and spend more time cruising through the shops.  Our guide book was right about most things but it got Naan-n-Curry and Japantown all wrong.

Note: This is not my picture of Japantown – I was so tired by the time we got there that I forgot to even get out my camera.

Next, onto the trolley tour of the city included in our Go Card!  Oh, ooops.  That’s right.  The last tour of the day left 10 minutes before we arrived at the depot.  Well, darn.  Hmmm.  What to do now?  Oh!  We haven’t gone to Lombard Street, the “crookedest street in the America” yet.  Lets take a cable car to Lombard Street!  It will save the evening!

After a half hour of standing in the cold, brisk wind at the cable car stop with at least a half hour’s wait still to come and our dinner reservations looming, we scrapped this plan too, and found a bus to take us to The Stinking Rose a half hour early.  Luckily, they had room to seat us immediately, and we were glad for the warmth and the rest.  The atmosphere was fun, but the food was nothing special.  Still, it was a nice end cap for the last night of our trip.

I Haight San Francisco: Photo #54

Today’s Itinerary:

-Take an early streetcar to Bay City Bike Tours and rent bikes for the day, included in the Go Card (regular price $28/person)

-Ride bikes along bay, through the Presidio, and on to Golden Gate Park

-Tour the Conservatory of Flowers (admission included in Go Card, regular price $5/person)

-Lunch at DeYoung Cafe in DeYoung museum

-Tour Hagiwara Japanese Tea Garden

-Ride bikes to the Haight Ashbury neighborhood and do some shopping

-Tour the Exploratorium, included in Go Card (regular price $14/person)

-Eat an exhausted dinner at Naan -n- Curry, the strangest Indian restaurant ever

Sum total of admission prices covered by Go Card today: $47/person

Sum total of admission prices covered by Go Card so far: $193/person

We are ahead by $63/person

 

Today’s Topic: Tips for Visiting San Francisco

1.  Go ahead and rent bikes.  Its a great way to see the city and the feeling of riding along the waterfront with the Golden Gate bridge in the background is kind of surreal.

 

2.  Bring along a hat to cover up your helmet-hair.

 

3.  Don’t forget to pack a water bottle, so that once you reach your destination at the top of a big hill, you can enjoy views like this one (complete with decorative 1930s newspaper reporter) instead of panting and gasping and generally wanting to die.

 

4.  Take lots of pictures at the Conservatory of Flowers but don’t expect it to rival Cincinnati’s Krohn Conservatory.  Both are nice, but I think I prefer Krohn.

 

5.  Refuel next door at the DeYoung Museum cafe so that your blood sugar rises out of the negative numbers.  The gourmet burgers come with “fries” which are actually roasted potatoes with a scrumptious pesto garnish.  While you are at the museum, go up to the glass-walled observation room and check out some cool hanging sculptures on your way up.

 

6.  After lunch, head next door to the Hagiwara Japanese Tea Garden.  It is peaceful, lush, and charming.  And it has a pretty sweet bridge.

 

7.  Don’t wear an I Heart SF t-shirt you bought for $3 in Chinatown (because you ran out of short sleeved shirts and the weather has been warmer than you expected) to the Haight Ashbury district (the supposed center of love and free thinking).  Because whatever it was in the 60s, the neighborhood is now home to lots of spoiled teenage street kids sitting against buildings all day, whining about how the people who pass by are not generous enough and pointing out that they deserve a hand-out because, after all, they are “American citizens, for God’s sake”.  And as you pass by, minding your own business, one of them will yell “Dude, I f****n HATE San Francisco!”  If you do happen to find yourself in this situation and in need of a witty response, you might try: “Man, me too!  But they were all out of ‘I Hate San Francisco’ t-shirts!” or “I don’t know what you’re talking about!  SF stands for Stupid Freaks.”

 

8.  Visit The Loyal Army: A Salute to Cute, a store that is a breath of fresh air among the dark, lazy head shops that fill most of the Haight.  Buy a t-shirt like this one.

 

9.  Do not try to ride your bike from the Haight to the Exploratorium.  Do yourself a favor and go straight to a bus stop and wait for a bus that has a bike rack.  Enjoy the flood of relief that washes over you as you the bus climbs a hill for the next 10 minutes straight.

 

10.  Go to the Exploratorium even if you don’t have kids with you.  Its a hands-on science museum and the really cool thing about it is that it is totally laid back.  There is a workshop in -house where you can watch them actually making the exhibits, which are built for function, not show.  As a result, you can eat and drink throughout the museum, you can touch everything, and the exhibits are ever changing.  Their special feature right now is on reflections, so they have lots of crazy mirrors everywhere.

 

Bacteria behind glass.  Looks really awesome until you know what it is.

 

This mirror shows Randy’s evil, conjoined twin, Larry, who is usually invisible to the naked eye.

 

Randy is magical…

 

Am I really tiny?  Or is this chair really gigantic?  Guess we’ll never know.

 

The outside of the Palace of Fine Arts, which houses the Exploratorium.

 

11.  Ride back to Bay City Bike Rentals and drop off the bikes after a long, adventurous day.  Take a cable car the neighborhood where you want to eat dinner and stand on the outside running boards for an exciting, albeit somewhat scary ride.

 

12.  Do not eat dinner at Naan -n- Curry on the outskirts of Chinatown.  It is the most bizarre restaurant I’ve ever been to.  Randy and I were the only patrons and there were two male employees who gave us the impression we might get from two people who had just robbed the place and had the real employees tied up in the back, and were pretending to run the restaurant so as not to arouse our suspicions.  They seemed irritated that we were there and did not answer our questions about the menu.  We had to get our own plate, napkins, silverware, and cups from a shelf near the counter – I was actually surprised they even brought us our food.  The food was edible but not enjoyable and Randy’s had big chunks of cinnamon bark all throughout that he had to spit out with almost every bite.  The decor was dingy and unkempt.  There were giant murals covering the walls but most of them were obscured by large framed prints still sporting the cardboard corner protectors they came with from the store.  And then there was this inexplicable hanging tapestry:

 

13.  Finally, end your evening by picking up some Coldstone and eating it in your hotel bed.

Alcatraz: Photo #53

Today’s San Francisco Itenerary:

-Streetcar to the Ferry Building Market for late breakfast

-Cruise to and tour of Alcatraz begining at noon (included in Go Card, normally $41/person)

-Late lunch at Boudin’s Sourdough Bread Company

-Hour-long cruise around the bay and under the bridge (included in Go Card, normally $22/person)

-Walking tour of Chinatown

-Dinner in Chinatown

Sum total of admissions covered by the Go Card today: $63/person

Sum total of admissions covered by the Go Card so far: $146/person

Price paid for Go Cards: $130/person

Amount we are now ahead by: $16/person……sweet

 

Favorite things about the Ferry Building:

• Its sort of an upscale, indoor farmer’s market and reminded me a lot of Findlay Market in Cincinnati
• They had an entire store of gourmet mushrooms
• Its right on the waterfront so you can purchase some yumminess and eat it out on the boardwalk
• This store, who’s slogan is refreshingly straight-forward and veegan unfriendly (Tasty Salted Pig Parts):

 

Favorite things about Alcatraz:

• Birds everywhere – they’ve taken over the island – but not in a frightening, Hitchcock way, in a cute little bird-society way.
• It doesn’t dissapoint like some historical places – if you were to dream up what Alcatraz should look like, this would be it.  It had so much creepy atmosphere it seemed like an amusement park - like it was dreamed up by Disney as their ganster-era prison portion of MGM Studios.  Can’t believe its real. 
• The island has a lot of history I didn’t know about.  For instance: the original structures started out as a military base in the 19th century, then became a military prison, and then, finally, a federal penatentiary. 
• The island had some amazing, unexpected beauty.  Its covered in lush trees and vibrant, flowering vegetation planted by the families of soldiers and prison guards and by prisoners temselves.  Also, prison guards and their families lived on the island too.  So there was a little community with housing and recreation facilities including a bowling alley.  Many kids grew up on Alcatraz and took a ferry to school on the mainland each morning. 

  

 

We ate lunch at Boudin’s Sourdough Company where Randy had clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl and I had sourdough pizza – and Randy modeled what is sure to be the new fall fashion in men’s hats:*****The

 

After our late lunch we took an hour-long, narrated Golden Gate Bay cruise included in our Go Card.

*****

 

Favorite things about Chinatown:

• The front gate.  I think every community should have a cool front gate to let you know you are entering somewhere special.
• The realness.  The front streets are touristy, but when you go further in you realize its not for show – its people living their everyday lives.  Laundry drying from third story windows, dads and their daughters riding the streetcar to the grocery store, a man sitting on his front porch playing an ancient Chinese instrument I’m too lazy to look up the name of right now.
•  The YMCA andlocal  banks have all their signs and posters written in Chinese.
• We visited a park in the center of the neighborhood where we were the only non-Chinese people.  There were old men doing tai chi in one corner, parents and kids at the playground, and a large group of adults playing a game at some picnic tables.
• Basically everything about it.  Chinatown was my favorite neighborhood.  It fascinates me.

 

 

We rounded out the evening by eating dinner at a restaurant recommended by our guide book.  There were a few other tourists inside but much of the restaurant was occupied by a large Chinese birthday party, so the atmosphere was quite festive.  Randy and I ordered a family style meal which included curried egg rolls, barbecued pork ribs, won ton soup, fried rice, cashew chicken, and sweet and sour pork.  We could have gotten much more authentic dishes, but they contained a lot of scary ingredients and we weren’t feeling quite that adventurous.

Wine-o: Photo #52

As a part of our Go Card we were able to take a full day bus tour of wine country including Napa Valley and Sonoma.   The tour’s full price is $68, which is half of the cost of our Go Card.  So far we’ve done $82 worth of activities a piece (including the aquarium and tour) – so I think our $130/a piece Go Cards will be well worth it.

As we were getting dressed this morning I put on my beautiful new sneakers and this happened.  A rip right through the shoe-lace hole.  I’m not a Nike expert but I think they are supposed to last for longer than one evening of wear.  Grrr.

 

The Gray Line tour trolley picked us up at our hotel and took us to the transportation center, where we boarded our tour bus.  The day included tours and tastings at three wineries and a lunch stop in Sonoma.  Randy and I loved getting to go out into the country-side without having to rent a car and we enjoyed seeing the beauty of wine country.  But we decided that the wine culture is not our scene.  Firs of all – neither of us like wine.  We tasted most of the wines and apart from a very sweet dessert wine, I hated them all.  I just don’t get the attraction.  Also, I think the whole wine scene is a bit pretentious for our liking.  By the end of the day I was completely wineried out.  But I’m glad we did the tour.  It was gorgeous and gave us a completely different scene than yesterday.

Grapes at the first place we stopped at: Madonna Winery – a small, organic operation.  The grapes won’t be ready for harvest until September or October.  I love the different shades of green in this photo.

 

Main building at Madonna Winery.

 

Rows and rows of leafy grape vines.

 

Tasting wine in the cellar at Madonna Winery.

 

We think these are apples.  Maybe they make apple cider too…

 

Trees, vines, hills, and sunshine.

 

Randy and I ate lunch at a french restaurant called The Girl and the Fig.  Randy had a duck and potato confit with poached eggs and mixed greens.

 

I classed it up and had grilled cheese.  But it was fancy grilled cheese.

 

Giant tree in the Sonoma town square.

 

The next stop was Jacuzzi Winery.  Yes, that Jacuzzi.  The family who owns this place is the family who invented the submersible water pump and in tern, the Jacuzzi.  So even though I don’t care about wine, I’m grateful to these people for their contribution to relaxation.  The other cool thing about this winery is that it is also an olive press, so they had olive oil tasting as well.  It was my favorite of the three we visited – it had the most breathtaking views and facilities. 

 

 

A baby olive.

 

This tree was shading us as we sat on a bench at the last winery, waiting for the tour bus to leave.  By this time we were done with wine, wineries, and winery employees and just needed a little break, so this is the only photo I took.

 

Randy and I enjoyed the ride home.  We each took pleasant naps, waking up just in time to see this out our window:

 

This evening we took it easy.  We went to a small Thai restaurant for dinner and then took a walk around Union Square, which is about a block from our hotel.  We found these gigantic mystery flowers on the square.

Can’t wait to see what San Fran has in store for us tomorrow…