Christine's San Francisco "Firsts"

Christine and I took over 250 pictures during our trip to San Francisco, and we thought that a fun way to recap the entire 3 day visit with my friend Diana would be to highlight a few of the "firsts" Christine experienced during our adventure. So get comfortable, scroll down, and enjoy.

Airline Firsts

First Time Flying ...
Virgin America Airlines
Southwest Airlines
Without Sedatives!
In an Exit Isle

Picture Taken By Christine
On Flight from JFK to SFO

San Francisco Sight-Seeing Firsts

First Time Seeing ...

Sea Lions
Bay Bridge
Golden Gate Bridge
SF Neighborhoods
City Lights Bookstore
Amoeba Music
Haight Street
The "Real" Ghiradelli (Disney World doesn't count!)

Bay Bridge

Ocean Beach - the Pacific Ocean

Cliff House Lookout: Golden Gate Bridge

Shopping on Haight Street

Fisherman's Warf

Firehouse Firsts

First Time ...

Meeting a SF fireman (Diana's friend)
Riding in a firetruck (to a cafe in North Beach no less!)
Touring a firehouse

...while we didn't use the pole, we did confirm that it is indeed faster than taking the stairs

Food Firsts

First Time Eating...
Ethnic Food: Vietnamese, Indian
Sweets: Kara's Cupcakes, Sees Candy, Chocolate-Banana Bread Pudding, Sharffenburger Chocolate, Julian Pie
Beer: Weihenstephan
Coffee: Blue Bottle, Pete's Coffee
Fast Food: In and Out Burger

Dinner at Ana Mandara
Vietnamese Restaurant

SFO to JFK: Home Bound

After 5 days in California, Christine and I are home with a lot of fantastic memories. We took Virgin America from SFO to JFK, and Christine was amazed that they had individual touch screen monitors on the back of every seat. Of course, one could use these little personal media portals to access such humdrum entertainment options as watching television programs or movies on demand... but we opted to use its map feature, which tracked our plane's progress as it made its way across the United States, while providing up-to-the-minute flight details such as altitude, temperature, speed, and distance remaining. We also used the touch screen to order snacks: an "adult drink" for me, a Ghiradelli hot chocolate for Christine, and chocolate chip cookies for us to share.

As we sipped our drinks and munched on our cookies, we began brainstorming plans for our next adventure... Alaska anyone?

San Diego Day 2

The day started with a trip to the Reins stables to visit my mom's passion - horses. Reins is a therapeutic riding program, and my mom's second home. My mom had polio at the age of 5 and spent a year in the hospital. They said she'd never walk again, but she proved them wrong. Not only can she walk - but she is an incredible rider - training for the paralympics.

After a visit to the stables, Christine and I ventured on a 9 mile "hike". Fallbrook is known for beautiful trails, but we chose probably the only non-scenic walk in CA. It started out hopeful enough ... but then twisted and turned past freeways, an abandoned drive in movie theater and swamp-like marshes. Oh well...at least it ended at the ocean.

Start of 9 Mile Hike
Hopeful our walk will be somewhat scenic

Middle of 9 Mile Hike
Trail is dubbed "The Denny's of Hiking Trails" by Christine

End of 9 Mile Hike
Pacific Ocean

By the time we got to the end of the trail, we were too tired to do anything more than snap a picture of the beach. We then proceeded directly to "Pappy's Bait and Tackle Shop" for ice cream.

One thing that kept our spirits up on the trail was the thought of pie. Not just any pie, but the best pie I've ever had in the world - which was waiting for us at home.


So after we had pie and ice cream, we showered and changed for dinner with my sister in Claremont (now THAT's a vacation). My sister's in medical school, and this was the first time I got to see her new place and meet Lil - the cutest, littlest dog in the world:

My Sister's Dog Lil

After a tour of my sister's digs, we went to a gastropub, The Back Abbey , for dinner. It was delicious; the pommes frites were particularly tasty - twice fried in duck fat.

It was a short visit, but I miss my little sister very much, and it was great to see a little slice of her "new life" as a medical student. I'm very proud of her.

San Diego Day 1.5

After three days of serious sight-seeing in San Francisco, Christine and I decided that we'd relax our first night in San Diego with a movie - so we grabbed some snacks and an electric blanket, and plopped in a VHS tape (yup - they still exist) of my favorite movie of all time: Now Voyager (Bette Davis).

On a side note, Now Voyager is also my mother's favorite movie...we argue over who picked it as their "favorite" first. If you haven't seen it - you're missing out on a true Hollywood classic.

THE untold want, by life and land ne'er granted,

Now, Voyager, sail thou forth, to seek and find.

- Walt Whitman

San Diego Day 1

Ahhhhh ... My mom's house has everything a girl could ever want:

Sunshine and a pool ...

My dogs: Christine with "The Gretch" (above) and Bently (below) ...


Charley and his shinanigans ...





...but best of all, it has my beautiful and amazing mom -


serving up her homemade lasagna with love and a smile ;)

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San Diego Bound

Di dropped us off at SFO around 6:40 am ... but that didn't stop us from getting in one last SF treat: a loaf of sourdough for breakfast.


Next stop San Diego!

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San Francisco Day 3

On Monday, we enjoyed another sunny day (despite the Weather Channel's gloomy predictions), and visited the epicenter of the 60's Hippie movement: Haight-Ashbury.

The day started with breakfast at Crepes on Cole with Diana's friend Rich. Then we walked down to the Haight for some shopping and a trip to Amoeba Music, which is a music-lover's paradise in one big building.




After several hours of strolling amongst the nostalgic tell-tale signs of an era of free- love and flower-power, we drove out to Ocean Beach to watch the sunset over the Pacific.




Next, Diana and I saw her niece's basketball game (she's in 3rd grade) while Christine packed. Afterward, we picked up some Pete's Coffee and Sees Candy



before heading over to The Clay Oven (Indian food) for dinner.

On a side note: Christine's chocolate and coffee gift purchases turned out to be very pricey indeed since they pushed her luggage over the weight limit - which cost her a whooping $50! Well worth it I say ;)

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San Francisco Day 2

We lucked out with the weather on our second day, and started our adventure at the Ferry Building in the Embarcadero. The Ferry Building is a little like Chelsea Market ... full of venders selling organic produce and handmade crafts. It is also home to perhaps the unhappiest barista in the world - this guy:



at Blue Bottle Coffee - made legendary for their individually "dripped" cups of delicious joe. It's ironic that the customers who waited over 20 min for their pricey to-go cups of caffeine were less annoyed by the whole process than he was- but perhaps that added to the mystic of it all. Christine anyway was all smiles with her mocha:


Then we bought some Scharffenberger chocolate and took in a glorious view of the Bay Bridge before heading over to Pier 39.

Now Pier 39 is indeed a tourist trap - complete with knock off pocketbook stores and "I Love SF" t-shirts - but I used to live three blocks from it, and would fall asleep every night to the barking lullabye of sea lions.

For as long as anyone can remember, hundreds of these wild creatures took up residence on the pier's floating docks, but earlier this year they just all left.


Their sudden and mysterious dissapearance was really upsetting to SF natives and tourists alike - with full page articles in The Chronical speculating why they would just up and leave ... I was so happy to see at least a few returned.

Next it we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge into Sausalito for lunch.







After lunch, we came back into SF and headed to the Marina for some shopping and a sweet sampling of Kara's Cupcakes (SF's equivalent of NYC's Magnolia Bakery).


We tried lemon, coconut, and walnut banana - each better than the next.

After a quick stop at UN Plaza to see City Hall:


We went back to Diana's place to freshen up and change into cute dresses for dinner at Ana Mandara ... an upscale and insanely good Vietnamese restaurant.



On the way home we drove down Lombard- the crookedest street in the world - for a breathtaking view of the city at night.

It was a perfect day with my two best friends in a city I love and miss.

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San Francisco Day 1

Christine and I left JFK around 7:20 am and arrived at SFO at 11:00 am (love that 3 hour time warp). First order of business: take Christine to an "In and Out Burger" joint.


Then it was off to North Beach for a visit with Diana's friend at his place of business: SF Fire Dept.


After a quick tour of the firehouse, we headed over to Cafe Greco for coffee and the best chocolate banana pudding I've ever had - right out of the oven.


Then we walked down the road to the mecca of independent bookstores: City Lights Books.


We finished up our day at Una Pizza Napoletana- owned by Anthony, an old biking buddy of Christine's husband. Anthony was a pretty big deal in the East Village NYC before moving his operation out west - and I can say from experience that his pizza is delicious on both coasts.

All in all - a good first day.

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San Francisco Bound

In two days, I will be on a plane back to San Francisco, where I lived and worked for over 9 years. My ears are infected and I have the worse flu, but I don't care. I've flown more sick than this before. (I know, I know... save the horror stories of congested eardrums bursting mid-flight... if the cancer didn't kill me, this flight certainly won't.) I've tried everything I know in order to get better - even the unthinkable of taking two days off from work. So far, nothing has helped.

I need this trip. I haven't been back to SF since I moved to Jersey, and I miss my sister, my mom, and my friend Diana. One of the things that I am most looking forward to is sharing a glimpse of my past with my amazing friend Christine, who has never been to SF before. I'll be providing daily blogposts via my iphone app with some of our adventures... but for now, I'm going to take a forced nap in an effort to feel better before our early departure Sat. morning.