A San Francisco Get Away

ES and I spent a long weekend over President's Day in San Francisco.  We'd both visited SF in the past (I about 12 years ago and ES over 30), but never together.  The weather varied from cold (heavy cold kind of bone chilling cold) to sunny and warmish.  I hesitate to use the word warm when it comes to a fall afternoon in San Francisco.  Open unexpected event during our trip - the Chinese New Year Parade.  I'm glad I ended up buying tickets for the bleachers.  This at least got us out of the cold puddles on the road...

Day 1 - A Rainy Bone Chilling Saturday
We'd actually flown in late the night before and got up bright and early only to find...rain.  Not unexpected, but a bit chagrinned given the parade was in the evening.  We used our Muni passes (part of our City Passes - highly recommended and available for lots of larger metro areas like DC, Philly, SF, etc) and hopped on the "cable car."  Sadly, the California line was down and we ended up on a bus.  I'd read a lot of good reviews about the amazing farmers market and food stalls available at the Ferry Building down at the Embarcadero.  We decided to head down and see what we could find for breakfast.  While we made an attempt to see the outside vendors, we ultimately took shelter inside and found a bounty of wonderful places to choose from.

We ended up eating at Salted Tasty Pork Products.  Nothing like cider aged ham and smoked gouda in the morning.  Wished we could have brought home some of the cheese from the Cowgirl Creamery.  Samples were yummy!

We hopped on the street car (so vintage!) and headed down to Fisherman's wharf.  It was a rather cold day, so we headed inside to the Aquarium by the Bay.   It's one of the smaller aquariums we've been too, but we had tickets as part of our CityPass, so off we went.  We must have caught it as just the right time, as when we got to the end and headed out the door, the line was huge.  The best part was the "tunnel" of fish - lots of sharks and the jelly fish.  Love jelly fish.  I think it's because they're exceptionally photogenic.

We walked along the Wharf, stopping to see the bread animals at Boudin's Bakery and eyeing (but deciding against) Ripley's Believe it Or solely because it was raining and we were looking for things to head inside to see.  

We headed up to Chinatown in the afternoon.  It was the day of the annual Chinese New Year Parade.  Needless to say, there were a lot festivities and people despite the cool weather.  At one point, it looked liked a sea of umbrellas.  We found a yummy place for lunch (and a place to re-charge our camera battery - opps both batteries died in the AM).

We found our seats along the bleachers and hunkered down for the parade.  Amazingly, the rain stopped just minutes into the parade.  Down went the umbrellas and out came the camera!

We finished up the night having dinner at Herb Keller's Burger Bar in Union Square.  Amazing end to our first day in the city!

Day 2 - Museums and Golden Gate Park

We woke to an amazingly sunny morning.  The view from our room was equally as amazing.  Coit Tower, the Golden Gate Bridge, and if you craned your neck really hard to the left you could see the TransAmerica Building.

We decided to head to Golden Gate Park for the day.  As part of our City Pass, we had tickets to the De Young Museum (art and antiquities) and the California Science Center.  We stopped at Alamo Square on our way, home of the "Painted Ladies."  These are Victorian houses often pictured/characterized for San Francisco. 

We then headed museums, seeing a really interesting special exhibit at the de Young on the Olmec.  The Science Center was cute and more geared to kids.  Given the day was so lovely, we took a stroll around the Japanese Tea Gardens and the Botanical Gardens.  

We headed back downtown for dinner.  The muni/public transportation was great.  Easy to navigate and our passes worked on the cable cars, busses, streetcars, and light rail trains.  

We ate at a little slip of a place in North Beach called L'Osteria del Forna.  We had Speck (arugula, parm reggiano, and white beans) and a basil, proscuitto and parm pizza.  Quite yummy.  

Day 3 - Muir Woods, Muir Beach, Marin Headlands, and dinner with an old friend

We got up bright and early and headed to pick up a rental car for the day.  ES has always wanted to see the California Redwoods.  Although Redwoods National Park was several hours north, Muir Woods National Monument was only ~30 minutes away.  We got there so early, that we were one of a few cars in the parking lot and had moments on the trail when it was just the two of us.   While it was a bit overcast, the rain never materialized and it ended up being a nice morning.  Its hard to get an appreciation of just how big these trees were.  Feet and feet in diameter.

We stopped by Muir Beach before heading to the Marin Headlands (National Park area directly across from SF).  We got some pretty great views of the Golden Gate Bridge.

We headed back to the City and dropped off the car.  We had a little bit of time before we needed to meet up with an old classmate of mine so we stopped by the Cable Car Museum (free!).

We ended the day with dinner with an old school chum from Casper.  Amazing how the years can be transcended by a mutual appreciation of food, wine, and travel.  Nice to hear how others are doing and always neat to meet old friends as adult, having only known them before as children.

Day 4 - Tuesday - Breakfast at Buena Vista Cafe, Coit Tower, and a Boat Ride in the Bay

Another amazing weather day.  We decided to have breakfast at the world famous (translation - caters to tourists) Buena Vista Cafe.  Home of the Irish Coffee.  Good, bad a tad overrated.  We strolled around the Maritime National Park down on Hyde St. Pier and see the ships that were a bit too rainy to see earlier in the week.  

We hopped the bus and rode up the windy road to Coit Tower.  Gorgeous day for a view!  The Diego Rivera inspired WPA murals along the ground floor of the tower were quite interesting as well.

We headed back to the water to catch the afternoon boat ride in the Bay (another of our CityPass tickets).  The water, with the exception of a few moments, was relatively calm and we got an underbelly viewing of the bridge.

We wrapped up the day at the Yerba Buena Gardens and the SF Museum of Modern Art.  Most of the galleries were closed (2nd-4th floors), so we strolled through the "How Wine Became Modern" exhibit as well as a photography exhibit.  My favorite part of the wine exhibit was the "sniff" test area.  Glass beakers with a long neck and a bulb attached to them were meant for "sniffing" to see if you could determine the primary flavor of the wine.  The most interesting ones - petrol and green peppers.  The really amazing part - you could smell those flavors.  May not have hurt however, that I inadvertently looked before I tried to determine the smell....

We ended the day at Rue St. Jacques.  A small French Bistro in North Beach (and right along the cable car line).  Given it was a weeknight, there were only a few tables.  It was dimly lit and quiet.  The fixed prix menu was phenomenal.  1st course:  Me;  charcuterie plate, ES:  tomato salad.  2nd course:  Me: diver scallops with butternut squash voulette, ES:  fillet with roasted baby potatoes.  3rd:  Me:  Napoleon with creme Anglais; ES:  Cognac-infused chocolate mousse.  Bon appetite!

Day 5:  Golden Gate Park and Palace of the Legion of Honor

We spent our last part of the day (flew out later that day) seeing  the Conservatory of Flowers.  Amazing orchids and water plants.  The building itself was from the 20's and had a lot of interesting architectural features.  The special exhibit detailed how flowers had played a role in the California train system.  The mock up in the exhibit recycled everyday objects (used type writer keys for the TranAmerica Buidling) to construct SF landmarks interwoven with the flowers.  

We headed next to the Palace of the Legion of Honor.  In addition to the over 4,000 pieces in their permanent collection, we also saw the "Pulp Fiction" exhibit.  An artist had faithfully recreated costumes from over the last several centuries out of paper - including shoes, scarves, and head dressings.  The artist had designed the exhibit so that you can walk up pretty closely to the dresses and through a tented area (again all made of paper).  ES and I thought that it seemed a little bit of a bad idea, given what looked to be really fragile paper.  I even asked one of the docents about this, and she said the artist wanted it this way. In fact, she'd made 2 of everything (there were 50+ costumes on display) in case something happened.  Sadly, I couldn't take photos in the exhibit.  Although I'm not sure they'd do justice to the works.

All in all - a great trip!

Shedding a New Light on the Subject

In our never ending quest to reno or refresh the various rooms in our house, we decided to tackle our office/den.  In the last year, we've place our treadmill in the middle of the room.  This lead to a lot of treadmill use, but made it challenging to get around the room.  The preverbial elephant in the room except this one was visible and we constantly had to shimmy around it.

After watching one too many home reno shows, I decided it was time to make a change - an inexpensive change.  Paint, a new light, and the relocation of our treadmill upstairs.  We couldn't decide between yellows, blues, and browns....And were finding it a bit challenging when the paint chips at the store were 2 to 3 shades lighter when we painted them on the wall...Finally we found one we could compromise on.  The one we liked was  a brown shade from the Martha collection. 

The painting was a lot more involved than I remember....although it HAS been awhile since we did a full size room and not a slip of a room (i.e. bathroom).   And the tape we used for protecting the trim decided to bleed....After those few false starts, the room was done.   Following a  re-arrangement of the furniture and the light swap, we were done.  I'm pretty happy with the results.

Oscar approved!

Leic-ya? No Love-ya!

So we took the plunge.  Some people buy fancy cars or fancy jewelry.  We buy cameras.  Or specifically 1 camera - a Leica.  Normally priced way in the stratosphere (e.g. a sizeable down payment on a car...) for the Leica M8, I was was pleasantly surprised to find a smaller fixed lens digital that had great reviews, and amazing focal length, a high megapixel resolution, and a very small (in comparison) price tag.   Plus it was small.  Not quite as small as our little Canon (which ended up failing on us as the years took their toll), but not small enough (and came with a free leather case to boot) to fit in your pocket.

After drooling over it for a few months, we decided to "give" this to each other for Christmas.

Here are a few snap shots from our newest acquisition.

A Sweet Realization in NM and Christmas Adventures

ES and I spent our Christmas holiday in NM this year.  We had a wonderful time visiting with friends and family over the week.  As usual, we hit our "haunts" - Blakes, Dion's, and LIttle Anita's.  Restaurants - of course.  We got our green chile fix.  Some highlights:  Christmas dinner were ES dressed up as Santa for the kids after dinner, game night and learning how to dominos (and getting beat again at Settlers of Catan - I actually think I'd be disappointed if I won!), taking our new toy our for a spin (see "Leica" posting), and finding some new places to add to our "must stop" list (P'tit Louis French Bistro - amazing Croque Monsieur).   

The day after Christmas, we went up to Blanco to see ES's two aunties. 

We also saw Auntie Corky. It was so cute. She admitted from the outset that she had memory gaps since her stroke. She kept asking about my younger brother. I kept telling her that I was the youngest. Nonplussed, she led myself, ES, and my BIL to her bedroom. She jokingly referred to it as her cell. She then pointed to the Christmas card we sent to her and said, "this fellow, how is this one?" I said, "Tia, that is me." She had a look of absolute recognition and relief wash over her face and she fell backwards onto her bed and said, "how I have been waiting to see you! I am so happy!"  It was a such a sweet moment, especially in light of the fact that she's 95 years old.  She's written us a Christmas card this year that we needed to come visit her before "God called her home."  She chuckled when we reminded her of her card and just kept repeating how happy she was to see us.  

The Fine Art of the Settling Things Right (or Getting Your Money's Worth)

We all have our pet peeves (and no this isn't a blog about pet peeves, per se). My biggest is not getting your money's worth.  Even at a young age, I remember writing letters to the editor and companies when I felt their products were not substantial.  In the same storage box (see entries below) was a copy of my "letter to the editor clip."  My friend and I went to our local park (Washington Park/Casper, WY) to practice only to find the court in terrible shape.  Feeling outraged, as only an 8th grader can, we decided to write a letter to the editor together.  And not just letters.  I learned how to take my dissatisfaction and turn it into a resolution.  No one responds well to angry, grouchy customers (just watch when you see people trying to re-book a flight after a delay, bad weather, or cancellations....).  Not that I, mind you, think one should be a push over.  Rather, expression dissatisfaction, but making it about how we can work together (e.g. myself and the person "behind the counter") to find a better solution.  This skill has come in handy in many situations and in most cases, I was very pleased with the outcome.  My key:  deliver it with a smile.  A meaningful smile.  Let them know the situation isn't acceptable, but that you hope you can work together to find a way to resolve the situation.  

Cases in Point

• When returning some duplicate bridal gifts to store X, I was treated jeered by some of the seasonal Christmas help and called a liar and that I wasn't told the information I claimed I was told.   Note:  I'd called ahead and checked the return policy given I had to drive several hundred miles to get to this store...I documented the person whom I spoke with, the time of the call, and the exact information/items I needed to help facilitate the return.  THe clerk helping us (I was with my mom) was rude and frankly quite nasty.  I left the store, having not spend serious dollars buying several items remaining on our registry.  I called and spoke to the store manager.  I relayed the events of the visit and she apologized profusely and asked what action I'd like taken.  Rather than say "fire her!," I figured what good what that do for me, so I asked that she be told her behavior was unacceptable when dealing with a customer.  In response, the manager offered to ship all the items off my registry I was going to buy 'on the house,' where they'd absorb the cost of the shipping.  I love the bed, lamps, and bench we ended up buying.
• ES and I bought a airfare+hotel deal on one of the discount travel sites.   It was a great deal at a nice hotel in Montreal for 4 nights.  On our first night, we kept hearing the ballroom below us until well after 4 am.  I called downstairs during the night inquiring when it would stop.  15 min. was the common refrain.  The next morning I let them know it was unacceptable and if the situation could be remedied. I think they felt sorry for the circles under my eyes, as they gave us a huge room service credit and moved us to a much higher floor with a view of Mount Royal Park. Lesson learned:  I find that consolidator services for hotel rooms aren't always the best solutions, despite the appearance of money saved on teh site.  Bottom line - you get what you pay for.    Hotels don't have much incentive to give you a great room off the bat, as you've paid the consolidator for the room.  The hotel itself sold it to the consolidator in a large block and I'm sure they didn't get nearly the price as Joe Q Public who pays rack rate through the hotel.  So I try to find the good price on a discount site and call the hotel directly to see if they'll match the price.  I've never been turned down by a hotel.  It's a win-win.  They get my business and a better price than if they sold it to a 3rd party consolidator and I get the hotel to take more of an investment in me as a guest.  We've never gotten a crummy room booking in this manner.  Another tip:  read reviews.  If the hotel you really want to stay in has some suspect reviews, email the hotel manager (if you can find the information) and ask if the issue in the review (construction, pool out of order, etc) is still an issue and what remedies (if any) have been made.   I've found this results in a bit better service from the hotel as well.
• Last Memorial Day weekend, ES and I were on vacation in a National Park.  We'd stayed a few days in our location and we ready to move on to our second spot, where we'd see a little more remote part of the park.  The hotel's valet was getting our car.  We waiting and waited and it dawned on me things weren't right when we saw him with an ashen complexion.  He'd gotten into an accident with our car.  The car was drivable (rear-end damage) but understandably not happy.  Rather than get angry, yell, ect, we made sure no one was hurt then got down to getting the accident report and information from the hotel about how we needed to go about getting our car fixed.  They were very professional and there was never any doubt they'd pay for our car.  I requested and received several free nights for a follow up visit.  I booked just this week for next May (a good time to visit the park) and extended our stay beyond the visits they'd comp'd us.  I got a pretty good rate (as compared to the rack rate on the website) by going through the hotel manager's admin (as his letter to us offering the free nights suggested).  We're excited to head back for our days.
• Free dinners.  When in DC, at a restaurant that is part of one of our favorite groupings/restaurant holdings, we had some less than par service.  We stood up to leave and expressed our displease and surprise the manager of our poor experience and what had happened.  We were on our way out and she asked us to stay and said she'd make sure we were "taken care of."  She did.  The food was excellent and the bill was taken care of.  The same thing happened tonight at a local restaurant (which prompted me to get this post finished).  ES expressed his surprise at 1)  picking up our take out order and 1/2 of it was missing, and 2) when he went back to the restaurant, it took 1+ hours to get the right food (his dinner was at home now stone cold) and the order still wasn't ready.  After asking the manager to please cancel the order (and explaining to him what happened), the manager gave him a small gift card and said to come back another night and all would be taken care of.  True to his word, he remembered Eric and dinner was excellent tonight.  I understand that things can sometimes go awry, but good customer service can go along way to making things right.
• Free oil change.  We noticed about 1 week after we got our oil change that we could smell a burning odor from the engine.  Shortly thereafter I noticed a bit of oil on the front bummer.  Fearing the worst, ES opened the hood.  Worst fears realized - the oil cap wasn't replaced during the oil change (despite what we later learned was 2 checked that are supposed to happen during the process).  Thankfully, the oil light never came on and there was still enough in the engine.  A quick call to the service center and oil was being driven over to our house.  We took the car right away into the service center, they detailed the car, and rinsed out the residual oil.  And after many apologies, said the next change was on them.  Now normally I'd just take my business elsewhere at this point, but given their response to our problem (and complete acceptance of making it right right away), we're going back.  

Bottom line - the situation usually won't change.  I've found the only thing I can do is change my reaction to situation, whether it be a wrecked car, a surly employee, or loud hotel room.    One of my friends noted - "wow how does this happen to you guys (and something a lot)."  Another followed up with "in fairness, they get the short end of the stick a lot."  In reality, I think we all run into issues, but it's how you go about letting a service provider/business know (and make them want to keep you as a customer) that makes the difference. If I was a business owner, I don't think I'd response very favorably to someone who was screaming and demanding lots of irrational things.  On the other hand,  I slap on a smile and try to see how we can all make it right - or at least moving in a positive direction.  If that means free stuff, well, I'll good with that.