OVERVIEW

Dear San Francisco, why are you so cold in the middle of May? I should have brought sweaters, pants and jackets - not short sleeves and flip flops. Apparently, Reading, PA is warmer than SF in May!

FOOD

Its all just decent. Nothing completely blew me away, but that could be my "food snob" coming out. The nice thing was there is no shortage of anything - Indian food, Mexican, and Michelin star rated.. yummy ...restaurants.

SCOMAS We've been told there are mixed reviews. There are definitely some Chef Ramsey "No-no's". The food we got was good, but it wasn't anything super special. I probably wouldn't go back. The risotto was decently made. It wasn't underdone, so that's a plus. The views are beautiful! They are literally right on the water. I'd recommend dressing WARM. The wind will literally blow you away!

DEL TACO This was definitely the best fast food experience ever! Super friendly for fast food. They use this local SF company called Square for all their credit card processing. You sign your name on this cell phone thing. OH! And the food is all fresh. Del Taco is definitely not your average Taco Bell!

MEL'S DRIVE-IN Breakfast at noon? Why not! Welcome to the 50's! A+ on the portion sizes. Good food but its not fantastic. Would recommend going once for the experience. Apparently its a chain, and none of them are actually drive-ins. This is a diner, except the one your parents' parents went too.

R&G LOUNGE Authentic Chinese food. And I do mean authentic. Sorry, know General Tao's chicken. No fried wantons either! If you order seafood, prepare to get the head of whatever you ordered. Face & all. Um, GROSS!

Besides that, I'd recommend to stick with the salt & pepper specials/entrees. OH! And they don't tell you this (at least its not in English anywhere), but this is definitely FAMILY STYLE. Portions are for like 4 people!! We ordered 4 things and 2 would have been way more than we needed! I like our Americanized Chinese food... but we're branching out. So, cheers to branching out.

Poor lobster ):

TROPISUENO Mexican food! Its like REAL Mexican food. Like... Tacos and burritos and chips and spicy salsa that you can barely eat. Greg loved it! I was in the mood for some food from the baseball stadium. Maybe branching out in the food department is overrated!

ONE MARKET This is fine dining! We went there after visiting Alcatraz (sweatshirts and jeans). We were TOTALLY under dressed. Not sure if it was just because it was a week night (probably not, although I'd like to tell myself this). Guys in all professional suits. Girls dressed like they just came from work or in fancy dresses. Sometimes you just don't want to dress up on vacation. This is definitely not one of those times. Put on your skirt and heals (guys... ignore this, although if we were in Vegas... ) and take the train ride over!

Scallops were to DIE for. The lemonade was some kind of insane strawberry lemonade mix that tasted like it came straight from heaven! Everything was fabulous. This place comes highly recommended. I only wish they had more seafood & pasta mix choices! I know, I'm a picky eater... I highly recommend, and I don't do that lightly! Oh, and the souffle... WOW! Everything was perfectly made. Its pricey and its worth EVERY penny. YUMMMMMMMMMMM.

AMBER Indian food! Its something different, so lets give it a try! Greg loved it! I liked it. It was definitely something different! I don't even know what to compare it to. I will say that everything was very well made and not overly expensive. I would go back here!

SEARS FINE FOOD My grandparents would love this place. All 50's stuff - even had a milkshake mixer and super old stoves! It was seriously cool! Tables were super close together though, it was like you were sitting with the table next to you. Its good breakfast though. Its definitely like taking a step back in time. I would definitely come back here (and we did!).. yum on their hash brown/potatoes!

HOTEL - MARRIOTT MARQUIZ It was a beautiful hotel in the lobby. The rooms had some of the nicest layouts that I've seen with a Marriott. The views - oh wait, there wasn't one! We had a view of the roof. Awesome! The sink, sortof scary. It had two temperatures. Ice cold and scalding hot. In that order too. Thankfully, the shower worked a little better. It was nice overall. Besides the sink and oh, the carpet. I just don't think I'd walk around barefoot, that's all. *sigh*

SPORTS!

The whole point of Greg visiting any city is to see the sports stadiums. I'm definitely not the sports "expert" but I'd love to tell you what to expect if you visit. From a girl's point of view, that is :)

OAKLAND A's I thought I left the ghetto behind when I drove past Reading on my way to the Philly airport... not so! The A's stadium is VERY old. They were giving away free hats to the kids. Apparently they think I am under 14 because the usher said to me, "Hey kid, here's your hat." LoL. I had to laugh, then I took the hat. And I wore it! It was A's VS. Detroit Tigers. I always root for the home team. Plus, there were some obnoxious Detroit fans behind us, so I couldn't help but root against them! A's did end up winning (go home annoying Detroit fans!). Go Ghetto Oakland!

AT&T PARK Note to self: Do not stand on a balcony next to the water with a hat on. It WILL blow over! Good news is, I got it back - thanks to a homeless guy, 2 innocent bystanders attempting to help us take a picture, and a Giant's usher/employee. How can you worry about anything in SF, its incredibly beautiful and there wasn't a single cloud in the sky! GO San Fran Giants! Very nice stadium, especially compared to the A's stadium.

LOCAL TOURIST STUFF

AMC THEATRE - We went to see Avengers and Safe. Both were good movies. This is a BIG theatre!

CITY TOUR - We went all over San Fran and got some city history. By the end, I felt like I sat through a really long day of school! We started in the SOMA district. This is south of Market. There are 43 named hills in SF. We then went to Chinatown. This place is a beehive on Sundays! Cafe de la Perez - we want to go there next time around! Recommended by our Tour Guide, who was very savvy.

Chinatown - Everyone speaks Cantonese (not Mandarin!) You'll walk through the streets and see food hanging from the balconies. We've been told several restaurants have been shut down due to major health regulation issues (think rats).

Italian District - Next to Chinatown! Lots of restaurants and right next to a street full of strip bars (where is Tony Soprano??). The green, white and red on the poles (representing their flag) mark the start & stop points of the district.

Telegraph Hill - The bay bridge and city of Oakland are here. Washington Square - Not sure what to tell you, but we drove through here. There was a really beautiful old church, and lots of views of the city!

Bay Street - Huge demographic growth. Over 80 piers have been built as an extension of the city streets.

Fisherman's Wharf - This is where you go to see the seals! Tons of people and definitely someplace you have to visit as a tourist.

West Fisherman's Wharf - Used to have a Russian population but not much of one today.

Russian Hill & SFAI - The SF Art Institute is so pretty! I wish PSU looked like this! The view from their roof was amazing! You could see everything! Angel Island, Treasure Island, and Alcatraz! Lombard St is famous in Russian Hill for being so crooked!

Pacific Heights - Most expensive area of SF. Largest house has 55 bedrooms. Its also home to Presidio cemetery.

Haight & Ashbury St - Hippie wardrobe is essential here! Pretty Victorian homes. SO pretty. We saw a purple house that was home to the Grateful Dead!

Twin Peeks - You can see everything from here! Definitely the most beautiful views.

City Hall - Tallest dome! Very ornate.

Alamo Square - Named after the trees that used to be there. Famous for filming of Full House! & Yes, we totally saw the houses they always showed on TV.. SO COOL!

Theatre District - Lots of places to see shows!

Golden Gate Bridge - Its really big! One of the families on the tour with us got a picture of me and Greg with the bridge in the background!

ALCATRAZ Winds like you have never seen! It was hard to walk out in the prison recreation area! It definitely had this weird vibe to the place. It must have been difficult to be trapped there on the island. You had views of the city, and could even hear the city but it was out of reach. The prison part is now closed due to high costs to maintain everything and sewage issues. Now Alcatraz is home to beautiful plants and wildlife. There are no predators on the island, so its just a safe haven for birds. Its considered a sanctuary and is protected.. so no picking the pretty flowers!

SF ZOO Why San Fran are you so cold? Even the animals in the zoo look cold. Smaller zoo but still nice. I love that they rescued Henry and Silent Night. Two seals that were injured and would have died if the zoo had not rescued them. Someone actually shot the one seal and he's permanently blind. Who would do something like that? Thank goodness for the good people in the zoo that gave them such a happy little home!

FINAL THOUGHTS- SF, The NY of the West Coast!

Everywhere you look - breathtaking views! I really liked SF. The only thing that wasn't nice was the amount of homeless people that were literally everywhere. We literally got bombarded by homeless people following us and trying to get us to tell them where we were going so they could give us directions .. in hopes that we would give them money. It was creepy. But, if you have to be homeless I guess SF is a good place to do it. It gets cold, but it doesn't seem to get freezing. Plus, the city is so beautiful. I mean, who wouldn't want to just live on the beach?

San Francisco is the New York of the west coast (minus all the hills!). Both cities are very "union friendly" except the unions in NY are more mafia controlled and the ones in SF seem more legit! Both have really big bridges - the Golden Gate Bridge was the longest constructed suspension bridge until the Verranzo (in NY). Both have big island prisons (although Rikers Island is still open). Both cities are are built right on the ocean and have big harbor bay entrances. The skyline in NY is second to none though. The buildings in SF are not as impressive, but that's because of all the earthquakes.

I would love to go back, and next time - I will dress warmer! Their 60-something degree weather is not the same as ours! Think 10-15 degree wind chills and super super big wind gusts from the ocean!