Recently (on the 5th, 6th, and 7th - I've been in a post-vacation exhaustion haze since then) I took a vacation to San Francisco, meant to be kind of a last good bye to one of my favourite cities. New York may have my educational opportunities but San Francisco will always have my heart, and I could think of no better way to celebrate my graduation/leaving California than to go do things in the city by the bay. (Though honestly I hope to go back at least once more before I leave it for good.)
My itinerary was meant to be a combination of things that I already know I love to do and things I'd always wanted to see, and all in all it was practically perfect.
So what did I do?
DAY ONE
Our first stop was the Buena Vista, a cafe famous for introducing Irish Coffee to North America. I don't know how true that is or not, and I don't care because their 'world-famous' Irish coffees are fucking delicious. It's always packed there every time I go and nearly everyone gets at least one of those warm sweet drinks. They're so delicious that the cafe could get away with having nasty food and nastier staff and still succeed. But here's the thing - they don't. We sat at the bar and saw just how hard the staff works, and even with their hustling they still took time to talk to us. (One waitress kept calling me 'an academic' and boy did that fluff my ego for days.) And the food, though simple, is delicious! I had a vegetarian eggs benedict with the creamiest hollandaise sauce and the freshest avocado, perfect with a nice piping hot Irish coffee! I definitely recommend this to anyone visiting the city.
Next, we (very briefly) hit up the Musée Mécanique. This is one of my favourite spots in all of San Francisco and I would have been heartbroken if I had not gotten the chance to say good bye. For those who don't know, it's one of the few things on Fisherman's Wharf worth risking the tourists for - an arcade where antique means an-fucking-tique! Some of these machines date back to the late Victorian era! And let me tell you, if you've never placed a quarter into a machine that once took a penny from a woman in a bustle, you haven't lived.
Our third stop - and the reason we were hanging around the wharf - was Alcatraz. Is it cliché and touristy to go? Maybe. But the fact remains that despite living in California for a very long time, I had never been there, and I felt like I would have regretted it if I hadn't seen it at least once. And it's definitely something to see at least once. The main prison building has a self-guided audio tour, which meant one could go through as quick or slow as one liked.
Even in broad daylight, it's pretty creepy, and I learned quite a bit even though we only had time to visit the main prison building. For example, I learned that Alcatraz actually started as a military base during the Civil War. (It was pro-Union.) I found the escape attempts fascinating even though I didn't think going in that that was what would interest me. One group of escapees dug out part of their walls with spoons and crawled up a vent to get out of the building, but they probably drowned after that. Also, the prisoners actually ate very well! That was surprising. All in all, I'm glad I saw it once.
We ate dinner in the Mission District, a part of San Francisco I've never spent much time in and was eager to see. We went to a Polish restaurant (which I was delighted to see in SF - apparently it was owned by a Cleveland native) called Stuffed. I had a mushroom pierogi in a spinach dough, and two goat cheese and spinach pierogi, as well as sauerkraut. As someone who often craves pierogi but is unable to get it (there aren't a lot of us Polish folk here in California), it made my tummy very happy! The music was very loud, but the service was good, and it seemed like it'd be a fun place to hang out on a busy night, like they had board games and such. I think the server was hitting on me though... poor lad didn't know I'm gay...
DAY TWO
I didn't sleep very well the first night, so Day Two was not as action packed as Day One, but we still got a lot in.
We started our morning at the California Academy of Sciences. I've been a couple of times before, but the few times I went before, I never got to see all of it since it was always near the end of the day. So we went as soon as it opened to avoid that problem. (Fun fact - when I was engaged, this was where I planned to have my wedding! I suppose I'll have to pick a new venue in NYC if I get engaged again.) The photo above is from the indoor rainforest, which was just as incredible as it seems, with birds and butterflies and snakes and frogs galore.
But the museum had more than just that. For example, the African Hall with its taxidermy animals and exhibit on human evolution had me majorly geeking out because you don't even know my love for evolutionary theory. The earthquake exhibit was set up very well and even included a room set up to simulate the 1989 and 1906 earthquakes, so that was an experience. And upstairs was a Naturalist Centre that I really loved. It was basically like walking into a giant cabinet of curiosities, with different sections devoted to different fields. (Like an anthropology one, a geology one, a herpetology one, etc.) There was a case of human/proto-human skulls, mostly casts but I was able to pick out the real one, thank you anthropology training. And I got to hold a prehistoric obsidian blade and a pair of Saami sealskin boots from the early 1900s, which had me majorly geeking out! (I did ethnographic research of the Saami as an undergrad.) All in all this museum way exceeded my expectations.
We also had tea at a restaurant called the Rotunda on the top floor of the Neiman Marcus in Union Square. Holy shit was this like stepping into another world - Neiman Marcus is where the richest of the rich shop. The hostess outwardly sneered at us as if she couldn't believe that people as poor as us even dared to set foot in the building. But honestly I got a kick out of that, it really made the experience. The waiter himself was kind and very accommodating of my dietary restrictions though.
This place was expensive, but it's an experience I'm glad I got once even if I probably won't ever do it again. Everything was delicious. The tea was amazing (I got Earl Grey), the sandwiches were delicate, the scones were fresh with some of the best jam and lemon curd ever, and the sweets were perfect. But honestly, though it was all amazing, I've been to cheaper tea rooms with similar quality food and tea. We were paying more for the experience than the food itself.
At this point, I was crashing hard. I was so tired. Our plan had been to dick around Union Square a bit and maybe even Chinatown but there was just no way it would happen. But rather than mope, we decided to make the best of a bad situation. Our hotel was literally right next door to the Lush in Union Square. And as stereotypical-white-girl as it is, I love Lush. Because of a severe perfume allergy I can't use a lot of mainstream cosmetics and soaps. I can't even walk into a Sephora without risking anaphylactic shock. But I've never had an issue with Lush products, and have been a long time loyal customer. (I've been using their I Love Juicy shampoo for years now.)
We decided that since we were in for the night, we'd make it a bit of a spa night, working with the Lush staff to pick out products that were relaxing, such as the Wiccy Magic Muscles massage bar and the Rosy Cheeks fresh face mask. They worked beautifully. I also got the gift of an all-natural perfume that I'm not allergic to, their Imogen Rose rub-on scent that makes me smell like an old lady in the best possible way. (And also I bought Sarah some bath bombs.) Then we ate some overpriced crepes and went to bed.
DAY THREE
Thanks to sleeping pills and ear plugs, I was much more well-rested for our third and final day.
We started at my favourite art museum that I've ever visited, the Palace of Legion of Honour. It was just as big and beautiful as I remember it being, it took a few hours to get through all of it because I didn't want to miss a single inch, not knowing when I would get to come back. We actually started in the lower floor where there is a ceramics gallery, a cafe, Greek and Egyptian and Mesopotamian artefacts, and a special exhibit on the art of the "Wild West" - which I thought would just be paintings of cowboys, but it was so much more than that and I'm glad I saw it. There was art both modern and old about Native Americans, Spanish migrant workers, gold rush miners, national parks, suburban sprawl, and only very few cowboys.
The permanent collection of European masterpieces is upstairs, where they also had an exhibit on mummies and medicine in Ancient Egypt, so that was cool. And I got to say good bye to my favourite painting in the entire museum, the one pictured above: "The Russian Bride's Attire" by Konstantin Makovsky. While the museum does house other paintings that are perhaps more famous, this one is large and detailed and beautiful and photos don't really do it justice.
From there it was only a short drive to the ruins of Sutro Baths. Once a massive Victorian bathhouse complex, it now lies in sprawling ruins that you can climb all over. The best possible word to describe it is 'haunting'. Walking up the ruins of stairs that some Gibson Girl once walked over while on holiday, or through a man-made tunnel once used to channel sea water into a swimming pool, sends chills down my spine. Honestly, Sutro Baths has been one of my favourite places in San Francisco since I discovered it in 2003, and I would have been heartbroken not to see it one last time.
We took a short walk from the ruins to the Cliff House, which overlooks the ruins. This is high end dining, much higher than I'm used to, but no one here was snobby to us. There are two restaurants in the historic structure, and we ate at Sutro's, sitting at the bar with the most delightful bartender I have ever had the pleasure of conversing it. He was raised in the Bronx, and highly intelligent - when I told him what my degree was in we started having a full-on conversation about Nordic archaeology and this guy knew his stuff, name dropping anthropologists that even some of my professors have had to look up! (His explanation was 'I have a buddy who's an anthropologist.')
He also made us recommendations and steered me towards the most divine drink I've ever tasted in my life. I don't often drink alcohol - rarely ever - but I make an exception for absinthe, and he convinced me to try a drink called an absinthe suissesse, which mixes absinth with almond syrup, cream, egg whites, and crushed ice. It was like drinking a sweet candy cloud. The food was delicious, both the simple and elegant cheese plate and the lemon soufflé pictured above. I wish I had been hungry enough to get an entree but I wasn't. Still, what I did get, I was highly impressed with. A perfect end, all in all.
We drove down Highway 1 through Pacifica and Half Moon Bay before finally arriving back in San Jose, exhausted and happy. Though it was only three days, it was a wonderful vacation. San Francisco, I will miss you. San Jose, it's good to be back.
-Nym-
No comments:
Post a Comment