Union Square

Leave a comment August 5, 2013 Michelle V

We awoke to a gray, foggy, cool and slightly damp morning, typical for San Francisco! Our intention was to go to the well-known and famous Sears for breakfast, until we saw the line…our the door and all up the street.

Um, no thanks.

So we walked up the street, past a man handing out flyers, to Loris Diner….another line, out the door.

Um, no thanks.

Hubby checked YELP while I took a look at what was handed to me. Hmmm, San Francisco Golden Gate Grill serves breakfast? Heck, why not? So, back to the little doorway next to Sears and up, up, up the 3 flights of stairs we climbed. Fate was kind, because hidden up those stairs, away from the chaos of the crowds, was a 50’s themed diner that was just wonderful.

Full of great antiques,

and ambience, it had a great breakfast menu that accommodated gluten free. My daughter had eggs and a grilled apple chicken sausage, the sausage was amazing.

Hubby had the Seafood Benedict. I will confess, I am rather a connoisseur of hollandaise, so when I say this was good, please believe me that it was! This was a homemade hollandaise, actually better than the one I make, and mine is killer good.

I had the Monterey Omelette. They used a basil chicken and gouda to fill it, and it was yummy.

The best part? That little flyer was a coupon, and we received a discount on our meal. The price point was very reasonable for the quality and portion size, (this is SFO, it can be overpriced in Union Square) but to get a discount was just the icing on the cake. What a way to start the day!

Next up was a little walk down to the shopping district to buy time while my oldest daughter, Big Sis, was waiting to get picked up by one of her Sorority sisters who lived in the city. She was going to spend the day with her friend while Hubby, Little Peanut and I toured Fisherman’s Wharf. Strolling along, we stumbled upon the cutest little cupcake store Cako. There were no GF cupcakes, but they did have GF macaroons and the cook in me had to taste/compare these little minis to what I can make at home.

The store was adorable:

The macaroon selection was amazing, truly unique flavors, all gluten free. They were not cheap, mind you, but they were sweet treats my no-wheat daughters could enjoy. (My oldest is also showing symptoms of intolerance now)

I tried the maple bacon cupcake.

It has bacon, so it had to be good, right? My critical opinion is that it was a little too sweet. I think the frosting could have had a little more salt to counter the sweetness of the cake. There just wasn’t enough salty bacon to offset the sweet. The macaroon were amazing, all of the ones we tried! We liked the Green Tea and Rose the best.

About this time, Big Sis’s friend picked her up for a day of fun, and the three of us took off for the Wharf. The concierge from the hotel told us that the official viewing for The America’s Cup was at Pier 4. The set up was impressive! A big screen jumbo-tron, a lawn with picnic tables, lounging bags, lawn games, elevated bars, artistic eating venues, shopping, and more.

We watched the Emirates boat race a time trial, then left to walk up up the wharf. About half way to Ghiradelli Square is a beautiful seafood restaurant, The Franciscan my husband had been to and enjoyed amazing seafood. So, we stopped in and since it was packed, waited. It was worth the wait!

We enjoyed fresh oysters, fresh Dungeness Crab, and sweet meaty fresh mussels. The price point is on the higher side because you are eating seafood that is perfectly prepared. While they have loads of other options on the menu, and they were helpful with selecting GF items, shellfish served on a sizzling grill is what they are known for. Be prepared to get messy!

While sitting there enjoying the view of Alcatraz Island and tasty eats, what goes by on a practice run?? The Emirates boat!

After lunch the three of us continued up to Ghiradelli, but holy cow…it was crazy busy there and we did not stay long. We thought we could catch a cab from there, but alas, we could not. So we started walking, and it just happened to be Hyde Street. It was straight up hill, past a flock of goats, (Yes goats. It appears they use them to eat the underbrush and maintain the open spaces that are too steep to maintain.) and quite a steep climb it was!

Yes, the road we were climbing is nearly that steep! At the top of Hyde we were treated to Lombard Street. Another, WAY TOO CROWDED, crazy tourist spot, so we took a quick picture but did not linger with the crazy masses.

We walked through Russian Hill, back through North Beach, and more. My FitBit said we put in 8 miles that day, and even my comfy Keen clad toes were feeling a bit tired. Back at the hotel, we met up with Big Sissy, freshened up and headed off to a lovely dinner at a wonderful little restaurant located in an alley-way, B44.

This place serves Tapas and we had a wonderful, naturally gluten free meal. After ordering, we were rather surprised at a personal visit from the chef. He was extremely apologetic that the stock he was using for the risotto was NOT gluten free, he had just checked. He offered to make a fresh batch, but it would take 20 minutes. We declined, but were impressed and grateful at the care and diligence the chef took to ensure ALL ingredients were safe for her to consume. He assured us he was changing vendors so that he could get a guaranteed gluten free brand to cook with. We did order the paella, which my daughter could eat, along with a skirt steak and a couple of appetizers to share. Everything is ‘shared’, which is my kind of meal. I always have the desire to taste everyone else’s food, and this way, I could!

With another tasty meal in our stomachs, we walked back to the hotel. Union square at night is fun. There are musicians and artists everywhere, playing for tips. There is a lot of unknown talent on those streets! We watched a bit of the street entertainment, then turned in.

That pretty much wraps up day 3 in SFO.

Leave a comment July 30, 2013 Michelle V

With the graduation of my youngest from High School, Hubby suggested we take advantage of the opportunity of having both daughters around and available one last time, by taking a long weekend vacation trip together as a family. Deciding on a destination was easy. When he suggested San Francisco it was met with approval by all, so SFO it was.

This was a great ’empty nester’ practice test run for me, traveling light; ie: carry-on. I set forth to acclimate myself to the mindset for the freedoms of being an empty nester. Since my husband travels quite a lot for work, I need to be able to pick up and go if I want to join him, and I do! We decided in advance we’d be doing lots of walking, maybe some shopping, eating only amazing food, nothing of which required any fancy dress .
With those parameters in mind, the girls and I headed to the airport with our carry-on bags, our TSA mandated ziploc quart bags, and an abundance of excitement. (Hubby was flying in to meet us from his business trip)

We were on time at the gate, patiently waiting our turn to board, when I hear my name on the P.A. system. I don’t know about you, but when I hear my name over a public address system, my first thoughts leap to trouble. A little concerned, I walked up to the gate agent to find out why I was paged. Low and behold I was thrilled to be asked if I would like to fly 1st class with my daughters!

WHA?

ME?

Well, HECK YEAH! And sell me a lottery ticket while you’re at it, because I never win ANYTHING!
Tell you what, first class for a 4 hour flight is just the perfect way to start a mini-vacation. Oh yes, yes it was.

We arrived in SanFran just around dinnertime. We met Hubby at the hotel (Westin St. Francis) which was beautiful and a perfect central location, right on Union Square. We dropped the bags off in our room, freshened up from the flight, then headed down to the concierge to ask about places to grab a bite to eat. As I said, we were looking for good food, not fancy food. A hole in the wall would do nicely, and a hole in the wall she recommended. A short walk and we were at The Old Siam Thai Restaurant.

Now, as most here are familiar with, my youngest is gluten intolerant, not celiac. That gives us a little more freedom in our food choices and places we choose to eat, but asian is always challenging with it’s soy, buckwheat, oyster sauce and flour based noodles. Thai, however, is a lot of rice, rice noodles and fish sauce based dishes, not soy. That gives us a little more room to play with. The waitress there was extremely helpful and despite the language barrier (their english was not the most proficient), she dutifully checked for wheat and soy in all our dishes. She explained how best to order and helped us select a tasty meal that was by far the most reasonably priced of the whole trip. If you like Thai, which we do, this is a great find. I can’t say if a celiac can eat there or not, but if you intolerant, my daughter did just fine here.

After dinner we did a little walking around and I found myself breathing deep breaths, just inhaling that wonderful coastal air. After so many years landlocked, it’s hard to describe the soul satisfying comfort of that clean, slightly salty smell that comes off the ocean.

Have you ever had that moment when you realize that there was something missing, something in the deepest recesses of your soul you craved, but wasn’t aware of that emptiness until it hit you in the face? I grew up on the sands of Oregon’s beaches. Cool, crisp, sweet and salty air is as much of my childhood associations as mountains are. I hadn’t realized how much I missed it, until there it was, saturating my sinuses. I’m sure many a tourist travels to SF and they have never even made that association. I’m sure they are overwhelmed or mesmerized by the lights and bustle of the streets. I, however, was too preoccupied with the sea air, taking deep draughts of that soul satisfying breeze.
As we wrapped up the evening back in the room, I opened the window and let that wonderfully damp, brisk, bay breeze lull me off to sleep, dreaming of bare toes dug into the sand, accompanied by the roar of the ocean in the background. Don’t misunderstand, I know I was in the city, with big city obligatory rumble and roar of the city sounds. But this is different than any other big city to me, this is home…west coast home.