The Golden City (Part 2)

As promised, here is PART 2 of my San Fran blog post!

DAY 3

We decided to rent a car for our third day in San Francisco. Since we wanted to stick with a pick-up and drop-up location that was within walking distance to our hotel, we were very limited with our selection of car rental companies. Being one of only two companies that fit our strict criteria, we went with Alamo.

Spoiler alert: Unfortunately for us, we didn't realize that Alamo had two locations by Union Square.

Yes, you guessed correctly. We showed up to the wrong location and waited in the check-in line for a good half hour only for them to tell us that we were supposed to pick up our car at their location on O'Farrell Street, not Bush Street. After some friendly negotiation, the woman at the counter agreed to give us a car at the same rate from their location. However, she warned that the only vehicle they had available was a pickup truck. Not wanting to go through the hassle of walking to the other location and potentially standing in line all over again, we agreed to make do with the pickup truck. I was so happy (happy, with a side of guilt) that I wasn't going to be the one to drive it. Good luck Sameer!!! The pickup truck turned out to be a white pickup van. We were so stoked ... not! But, a car is a car and we only needed it to get around for the day. The only real setback was that it restricted our ability to park in the smaller spots along the street.

At least the van was new (or smelled like it) and looked kind of sporty.

And it had a Utah license plate!

Once we picked up the car, we headed over to the Haight Ashbury area (aka The Upper Haight) in search of the breakfast/brunch restaurant that I wanted to try - Zazie.

Top - Foutainbleau scrambled eggs & Bottom - Albert poached eggs.
Stay tuned for my my post about Zazie on my food blog!

After eating, we wandered around the Haight Ashbury area to see what all the buzz was about. The district is well-known for being the centre of the 1960s hippie movement / "Summer of Love" era. As we walked around, it was evident that much of the neighbourhood had been substantially modernized. Still, the presence of colourful murals and kitschy vintage stores were enough to preserve lingering hippie vibes.

Next on our itinerary was the Painted Ladies. The term "Painted Ladies" was first used by authors Elizabeth Pomada and Michael Larsen in their book Painted Ladies (surprise surprise) to describe Victorian houses in San Francisco. Now, the term is widely used to describe Victorian or Edwardian houses; specifically those that are painted in three or more colours to enhance their structural elements. We drove over a few blocks from Haight Ashbury and parked on Hayes Street to walk over to Alamo Square Park. The park was actually closed for maintenance work, so we couldn't walk through it.

The houses faced a yellow-tinged, grassy hill that was rather unsightly at its current state. In all honesty, the view was a bit underwhelming. The rowdy adolescent crowd that we encountered likely had something to do with that. Nonetheless, we took in the visual and appreciated the houses for their iconic essence.  I am almost certain that the view of the houses would've been much better from further up the hill in Alamo Square. I'll have to test out my theory next time I'm back in San Fran.

I know you're probably sick of seeing pictures of this bridge by now ... but, here's another one.

Onto to the Golden Gate Bridge!!! I would have to say that this was the highlight of the trip for me. From the Painted Ladies, we drove north to Crissy Field to get a hold of some rental bikes. We rented a couple of bikes from Sports Basement. Sports Basement is located right next to Crissy Field and has a huge array of sports apparel and equipment for purchase and rent. Being not too knowledgeable about bikes, we went for the most basic type they had - Hybrid/Comfort. They rent bikes out for a minimum of 3 hours at a time ($24/3 hours). They provide you with helmets, storage pouches, and bike locks for free! After about 15 minutes devoted to changing my wardrobe and feeling insecure about my cycling abilities, we were on our way! We biked along Old Mason Street, then crossed over to Lincoln Blvd that eventually connected to the bridge. There was a good amount of uphill leading up to the bridge that reaffirmed the fact that I am not a trained cyclist. I walked my bike up most if it. 

We were both very excited at the prospect of biking across the Golden Gate Bridge. It obviously wasn't a Tour de France-like undertaking, but ... SO COOL!!! It was a tad difficult to get started because of all the pedestrian traffic at the beginning of the bridge. Luckily, the congestion seemed to dissipate as we got closer to the middle and it was smooth sailing (or should I say biking ...) from there. Once I stopped having to concentrate on dodging pedestrians, I started being able to enjoy the view. And the view was spectacular! Our original plan was to cross the bridge and bike down to Sausilito. However, Sausilito was another 3 miles from the bridge and our stomachs got the best of us. We decided to abort our Sausilito mission and ride back across the bridge to get some food.  

We stopped at Causewells for a very late lunch. It was around 4 pm by the time we sat down and we were the only two people in the restaurant. To our pleasant surprise, the food was very tasty!

Stay tuned for my post about Causewells on my food blog!

Our last stop of the day was at the Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District. I had seen numerous pictures taken by the Palace and looked forward to snapping some artistic photos there myself. Many descriptions of the landmark depicted the structure as being situated alongside a "swan-filled lagoon". To my disappointment, we did not see a single swan. BUT, the Palace was just a picturesque as I imagined. I can totally see why it's become a top destination for wedding photos.

The Palace was designed by Bernard Maybeck and was first constructed as a building to display and house artwork in the 1915 Panama-Pacific Expedition. Alongside the Palace of Fine Arts, other exhibit palaces were also constructed for the purpose of the Expedition. However, they were demolished once the Expedition was over. The Palace of Fine Arts was protected from demolition as a result of its popularity. However, as a result of significant vandalism and its unstable structure, the Palace was completely demolished and rebuilt in 1969.

On our way back to the hotel, our U.S. phone ran out of battery. We realized that the battery had been completely drained from our constant reliance on Google Maps throughout the day. It was about 5:30 pm at the time, so we were not too panicked since our car booking confirmation indicated that we didn't have to drop off our car until 7 pm (or so we thought). Fortunately, we somehow managed to head in the right direction, even in the absence of Google Maps. After stopping to ask for directions a gas station, we finally made it back to Alamo. We pulled our car into their parking garage right at 6 pm ... and to our shock and utter relief, we realized they actually closed at 6 pm! THANK YOU UNIVERSE FOR LETTING US GET BACK JUST IN TIME. We seriously thanked our lucky stars for helping us dodge a bullet. The thought of having to pay for an extra day of car rental (at an increased price from $69/day to $140/day) and having to squeeze through traffic in the pickup van for another day was enough to make us cringe. On that note, we grabbed a quick bite at the Westfield Mall food court and headed back to our hotel. We had enough excitement for one day.


DAY 4

Since this blog post is long enough as it is, I will keep day 4's debrief relatively short. Day 4 consisted of more wandering and shopping around Union Square. We checked out of our hotel in the morning and left our luggage with the concierge.

We had breakfast at Blue Bottle Coffee. We walked by this place on our first day in San Francisco and saw a big line up outside, so we wanted to go back and try it. The baked eggs we ordered were delicious. The New Orleans ice coffee is apparently really popular. We didn't order it that day because it was really chilly outside and I was more in the mood for a warm cappuccino. Can someone please try the New Orleans and tell me how it is??? 

Top - Tunisian Baked Eggs; Bottom (left to right) - Cafe Latte & Cappuccino. 

As an early-afternoon snack, we circled back to Mint Plaza (which is where Blue Bottle Coffee is) to try the Bolw'd Acai food truck that we spotted earlier on. Yelp seemed to indicate that their acai bowls and poke bowls were a real hit. Sadly, they were sold out of their Great White poke bowl by the time we went. I was really sad about this and yelled "NOOOO" out loud as I read their "Sold Out" sign. I ordered their Original Gangster acai bowl instead.

For our last meal in the city, we went to Box Kitchen. This was the restaurant we were searching for on our first day when we naively entered into extremely sketchy territory. SO WORTH IT.

Stay tuned for my post on Box Kitchen on my food blog!

Since there wasn't any seating left at the bar next door (they share seating with Box Kitchen), we brought our food to the mall food court and ate there. We inhaled the food, as we didn't have much time to spare before we had to head to the airport. After we picked up our luggage from the hotel concierge, we hopped on the BART and took the train back to the airport. Bye bye 'Frisco!

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I've already started making my list of things to-do for my next trip back to San Francisco:

- Alcatraz
- Sausilito
- Golden Gate Park
- Ghirardelli Square
- Bourbon & Branch / Wilson & Wilson
- Trolley to Castro
- Revisit the Painted Ladies and take a picture from Alamo Square Park
- Smuggler's Cove (The inside of this bar is decorated like a multi-story pirate ship. They also have world-famous rum drinks and an extensive cocktail menu.)
- Tommy's (This Mexican restaurant is renown for their margaritas and 100% agave tequila drinks.)
- Mikkellar Bar (Apparently one of the city's largest beer halls.)