I came. I saw. I conquered!

The title of this post reminds me of fun times in high school marching band. There was this girl, Sara, that marched behind me one year and insisted on singing, “Rice-a-roni, the san franisco treat!” pulling my braid for the “DING DING.” Aah, yes we were so mature back then!

Now I will get back to the point of this here story!

Had a lovely weekend in the sunshine state! I guess we had an abnormally sunny couple days, which of course I am not arguing with!!

My traveling went incredibly smoothly both ways. This is something new for me; I’m usually delayed and sprinting to my connecting flights, et cetera. Fortunately I beat the “snow storm” Raleigh was having and flew through warm connections (Atlanta and Ft. Worth, Texas). Ding!

What is an adventure without some good exploring? We found an extremely hot Goodwill in downtown SF on Thursday night, where I got some extreme book bargains! Ding. If only we had enough time to look at the clothes! Then we headed to the Mission district for a Mediterranean meal that had incredibly bad service but tasty food. Fire-baked bread is just so fun!

Friday Shira had a serious presentation/practical thing at school, so I headed to St. Helena for some shopping and lunch at Model Bakery. I must say I felt very posh while eating my panini. There was a magazine photographer taking pictures for part of the time I was there. Maybe I’ll be in some famous magazine someday. Keep your eyes peeled for me!

Once Shira was all finished up, we went to a wine tasting at Merryvale vineyards. We got a bit tipsy off of what was probably about 2 glasses of wine total each and had fun pretending to be Wine Snobs – “This has ABSOLUTELY no Tannins! Now we know THIS one wasn’t OAKED!” The other “tasters” there had lots of useful terms to pick up along the way; they also had tons of fun bragging about their extensive wine cellars as well. Well, perhaps one day I will be among the Wine Snobs and will totally understand! lol.

Then it was off to Trader Joe’s! This place was just so incredibly hot. Sure, we have the Whole Foods and Fresh Market, but they just don’t compare. We got a variety of potstickers and some other tasty morsels and headed home for some piggin’ out and movies.

Aaah, the next morning. We had some incredibly tasty crepes (with Nutella, of course) and then headed out on the long and winding roads to San Fran. It was after this experience that I realized how FLAT North Carolina is. You just don’t see the big mountaintops and stuff in Raleigh.

This time into the city we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge! This was just exciting. We stopped at a park on the water with a bazillion cute dogs running about. People were wind surfing in the water (are they cray-zee? burr!). I took the obligatory pictures of the bridge.

North Beach was next. We found Shira’s favorite, XOX Truffles, where we had a couple tasty morsels and to fuel our shopping efforts. We even found the Rogue brew pub and bought a bunch of brews for Oak. Needless to say he was very happy when I brought those puppies home!

Since I’m such a fan of sea lions, Fisherman’s Wharf was a must. The sea lions were absolutely hilarious…. ORP ORP!!!! There was also a Tulip Festival which was tres disappointing (flowers in planters? that’s a FESTIVAL?). That’s okay though because we had corn dogs and I bought a pair of really hot knee socks.

Chinatown was next. The old Broadway geek in me couldn’t help singing “Grant Avenue” from Flower Drum Song in my head most of the time we were there. I think Chinatown was my favorite part of San Francisco, it really feels like you’re in another country or something. I also bought some Sushi Candles, which we have been in desparate search of for several months now.

(SF Travel Tip: Make dinner reservations!)

Back to the mission district. Oh boy this is the place to shop for even more Hot Stuff. Gotta love the cheap goods! We were SO focused on the shopping that it was like 10pm when we realized we had to EAT some dinner!

Oh dear. We drove around San Fran like maniacs, in desparate search of something that was not Indian, Chinese, or Italian. In other words, we were being incredibly picky. Every place that looked enticing had hours of waits. I think we had some hallucinogenic moments when Shira was convinced that a small Chinese woman on our (short) return to Chinatown was Out To Get Us. (Okay I agree she was pretty sketchy..). I am still entertained by this. (Carrie is quite easily amused!).

We finally found Zuni, which was amazingly STILL OPEN at 11:30 pm. I had a very Fancy belgian endive salad and a delicious gourmet burger. Shira and I were both pretty unimpressed with the apple tart. Quel Horreur! They obviously need Shira to take over as pastry chef. We found out later that Zuni is one of the hippest places in San Francisco. (i.e. most customers were wearing Cool Funk glasses) So the search was worth it – Shira after that struggle I am glad we didn’t just Go Home or eat at McDonalds or something! haha.

Well, I am exhausted just recording all of this! I had an awesome time, but more exploration is definitely needed (hellow… a bazillion wineries, boutiques, et cetera – who can resist?).

Now I’m bi-coastal, baby yeah !

Posted by Carrie on Wednesday, March 3, 2004
Categories: blog · 5 Comments »