First Day in San Francisco

Wow!! What a day!! We certainly made up for missing our first day in the city by become the quintacential tourists today!

After a short, yet refreshing, night's sleep, we were up and at 'em... having our first Californian meal at Joanie's Diner... which is across the street from our hotel. We each had AMAZING breakfast burritos... Jocko had a charizo burrito, and I had a veggitarian one - which had avocado... they were absolutely delish!!!

After breakfast, we made our way down to tourist office and got a sweet deal on a 3 day, unlimited riding pass for the double decker tour busses, and tickets to Alcatrez. Our city tour on the double decker followed... Nathan was our tour guide... a young, punky, wize-ass kid... hilariously funny & bruttally honest... GREAT GUIDE!! What a beautiful city! From the architecture to the cultural diversity, to the opulance... we learned soooo much!!! For example, although the city is only 45 miles square, it had eighty-some-odd Starbucks, and a houndred and some-odd Walgreens... they are literaly on every corner! We also learned that the world famous sea lions of San Francisco arrived unexpectedly and unwelcomed into the piers just after the 1989 earthquake... and they haven't been able to get rid of them since! Theres roughly 300 at any given time, sunning themselves on the rafts... and about 600 that make San Fran's Pier 39 their home... CRAZY!!!

After our great city tour, we strolled down to the piers to check out Fisherman's Wharf... had a nice bowl of clam chowder in bread bowls for lunch at #9 FW... saw the antique arcade... then continued on to Pier 39 to see the shops & sea lions. Finally, we made our way to pier 31, which is where the ONLY Alcatrez tour of the rock leaves from. It was absolutly, possitively AMAZING!! What a cold, sad, historic place!! If you ever come out, you NEED to do this! The tour is given by listening to an audio tour from an old guard, heard through ear phones. It was phenominal! Very moving, very sad... very real!!

Our afternoon ended with another ride on the double decker... this time it was for the evening view of the city, and followed a different route. Our tour guide wasn't very good this time... and some ass who was a know-it-all, and apparently interviewing for a guide possition soon, sat behind us and RE-narrated most of the tour... very abnoxious... but he didn't say the whole tour... thank the lord! One of the coolest things we saw on this tour was the opening scene from Full House - the street they lived on, its called the seven sisters... with a breath taking view of the city behind it. We also drove thru Chinatown as well as Japantown, and got to see Nob Hill... very cool!

One thing we didn't realize about the city was how cold it gets at night. Although the tour was great and we got to see and learn about some really interesting parts of the city... we FROZE!!! The weather during the day today was cool and dry and absolutley BEAUTIFUL!!!!(A welcomed change from the sweaty weather we had yesterday in Boston...) it felt like a New England mid-Ocotber day... but tonight... FREEZING!!! haha!!

To warm up, we took advise from our first tour guide, and ate at an amazing place called Scoma's... unbelievable sea food!! Great wine!! Kind of reminded me of the No Name restaruant in Boston... pictures of all the famous people who have come to eat there since it opened in 1965. Jocko got a lamb dish and went with a scampi type dish... both excellent!

Well, after this novel I just wrote... you can see, we had great day in our new favorite city... the city by the Bay!! Looking forward to Sausalito, Golden Gate & Chinatown tomorrow...