I spent this past weekend in San Francisco. The two-day, two-night adventure began with a BART ride to the Powell Station on Friday evening. I've only stayed in the city once in my life and that was for a conference in college many years ago. I met M at the station and dropped my luggage off at the hotel. We then wandered through the shopping district surrounding Union Square.
Afterwards, we had dinner at Puccini and Pinetti. The food was ordinary (farfalle with chicken and rapini), but the drink was quite good (The Nutty Italian: a combination of amaretto, irish cream and coffee).
Saturday morning found me walking down Market Street towards the Embarcadero Center. I was in search of any local cafe that served coffee and a hot breakfast. Starbucks was off limits. After a solid fifteen minutes of passing nothing but Starbucks, I caved, bought an overpriced cup of coffee and looped back towards the hotel. That's when I found Franciscan Croissants. I ate a hot ham, egg and cheese croissant while sitting by the window and writing. It was a great way to start the day.
I then ventured over to SBC Park to see what McCovey Cove was like without the usual throng of baseball fans. It was relatively peaceful and would have been a great place to hang out and read if it weren't for the flock of scalpers, perched at various street corners, looking to buy tickets to resell at game time.
In the afternoon, we walked over to Justin Herman Plaza for the Expo. Vendors were selling running shoes and apparel, health foods and power drinks. There were also organizers from other marathons and race events trying to recruit participants even before one mile had been run in San Francisco. Interesting, but way too crowded.
We escaped to Japantown and had dinner at Kushi Tsuru, one of many sushi options in the area. The meal was quite good, but I want to try some of the other restaurants next time.
Sunday was race day and it started early, earlier than any Sunday should legally be allowed to start. After the run, we saw Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle at the Metreon, which kindly shows twenty-five minutes of commercials and previews before every film. I won't watch another one there unless I have a book and reading light handy. The movie itself was hilarious. There were gross out moments, but many more laugh-out-loud moments. Both leads were likable, especially John Cho, who played Harold. It'll be fun to see again when it comes to the cheap theater.
To finish off a great weekend in San Francisco, we went to a Giants game. Last time, the Padres pounded them. This time, the Cardinals clobbered them 6-1. St. Louis proved why they're leading their division by 10.5 games. Although the home team lost (again), being at the ballpark is still the best way to enjoy the sport. Of course, I wouldn't mind if Bonds hit a homer and Schmidt actually won while I was in attendance. I'm just saying.
