San Francisco, CA.

     No matter how many times we visit San Francisco we can never get enough of it, we both enjoy the City by the Bay quite a bit.  After letting the rush hour traffic of which I just read an article yesterday stating that this was the 3rd most congested city for traffic in the United States, we headed into the City for the day.  After a late breakfast of clam chowder and sour dough bread from Boudin bakery (the supplier of sourdough bread for the city the past 100 years or more) we decided to take one of those tours.  It was a trolley type double-decker bus so we could sit up top and see everything from that perspective.  As we have learned from trips past to San Francisco you take sweaters and jackets and dress warm because as Mark Twain once said "The coldest winter I ever saw was the summer I spent in San Francisco." and goes for me too!  We wore jackets and long pants but still got freaking cold on the tour, especially when you approach the ocean and near the Golden Gate bridge.  The tour was actually a good one, and we learned more this trip than ever before, and it ate up over an hour and a half of our day.  The first place we looked for when arriving back from the tour was a coffee house for some Chai for "B" and coffee for me.........warm-up time.
     The wharf is a freaking zoo compared to years past, one big tourist trap selling everything from chocolate (Ghirardelli) to bread (Boudin) to Alcatraz prison clothing and T-shirts touting the "City".  The wharf other than #8 and #9 of pier 39 has changed immensely and just not as quaint as years gone by.  By #8 I mean Alioto's sea food and #9 the Grotto and those couple of stands in between.  Fresh clams, oysters, crab and fish right in front of you.  That's what I call "shucken and jiven"

      
     China town and little Italy are exactly as they were the first time we visited, narrow streets lined with stands selling every kind of Chinese treats under the sun to narrow streets of small Italian restaurants serving the most tasty Italian dishes you could imagine.  As a matter of fact today is Chinese day with a visit to China town on the agenda for lunch...........no not the little joints off those narrow streets down the alley ways, but the joints right along the main streets (that way we kind of know what the meat is we'll be eating)!  By the time dinner time rolled around rather than leave the wharf walking a mile or so, or getting the Jeep out of our $28 eight hour parking spot, we had the two day tour pass and decided to jump back aboard and take the trolley tour up to Little Italy for dinner then ride it back down to the wharf for the Jeep.  We hopped aboard and when we arrive in Little Italy we started off and I asked the driver what time about would the next tour vehicle came by and he stated this was the last one of the day (it was now 5:00 p.m.).......holy shit, we hopped back aboard.  Rather than walk  a mile or so we ended up taking the whole tour once more and getting in the Jeep a hour later driving to Little Italy for dinner, man were we both glad I asked the question!  The meal was great, the wine was good and the joint was Italian all the way............loved it!  Not sure if we'll park at the wharf again today and take the trolley to China town or just drive there, parking is a bitch but the experience is always worth the trouble and cheaper than another $28 bucks to park.  To tell you the truth between the Pacific coast of Oregon and now the Bay area I'm almost seafood'd out for a while, but we've had some very fine chowder in both places.
     Heading to FB now to post a few pic's of yesterdays excursion, check it out and I promise to be here tomorrow!