San Francisco Trip, January 2014

It seems I make it down to the bay area at least once a year and every visit is fulfilled with fabulous restaurants, architectural site seeing, massages and cool neighborhoods.

I have always wanted to check out La Folie www.lafolie.com in San Francisco. Each course was spectacular and Chef Roland made the dining experience near perfect with his passion for French cuisine.

The next day we were off to the popular Yank Sing Restaurant in the Rincon Center. This is your high-end Dim Sum Chinese restaurant www.yanksing.com. This is a must hit when in San Fran….this place rocks, they have the best Xiao Long Bao.

After over indulging on some of the best dim sum in the Bay Area a hike up to the Coit tower was in order, this tower on the historic Telegraph Hill was built back in 1933 on a Federal Works project. If you walk from the bottom like I did it takes over 400 steps to get to the tower; after all of my sweating efforts it was closed for painting…totally bummed me out. After walking all day we stopped for a massage in China Town, this made up for the long stair climb to Coit Tower. I had a well deserved full hour full body massage.

San Francisco Trip, January 2012

Linna and I got lucky this weekend in San Francisco with the weather and had a chance to soak up some sun for a couple of days. This was a short trip down South for a little shopping and of course some wining and dining. We flew late afternoon on Thursday and both of us were upgraded to First Class on Alaska Airlines; no dinner was served, but we did munch down the cheese plate with a couple of glasses of wine. Since we flew into Oakland due to lower cost flights, I booked our hotel in Concord, which was ½ hour East of Oakland. On our way to the hotel, we decided to have dinner at this Italian restaurant that I found on OpenTable during our flight from Seattle using the airline internet GOGO. Ottavio www.ottavio.com, is a local favorite in Walnut Greek and the place is so cozy…the Chef would come out to check on you.

Friday was pretty much a shopping day in San Francisco followed by dinner at a hip Japanese restaurant in Oakland. Ozumo www.ozumo.com is a lively young cool place serving authentic Japanese dishes along with premium sashimi. I would recommend using the valet, parking in the area was a challenge. Saturday was sleep in day followed by a visit to the Golden Gate bridge. Of all the visits to the Bay area, I have never actually walked on the bridge; actually you get more of a sense of the size, age and discoloration of the bridge. We flew out late Saturday afternoon to make it home to see a little snow in Seattle.

San Francisco Trip, July 2011

It has been a while since I have been to San Francisco and after spending a three day weekend….it was a good reminder why I love this city. Linna and I flew Alaska Airlines down to Oakland airport which is just a 20 minute hop over to San Francisco. We stayed at the Hilton hotel in the Union district; this area is close to highend shopping and walking distance to plenty of sightseeing. We had dinner the first night at Jardiniere’s restaurant, this is a neighborhood hotspot and the dinner reviews were spot on, the place excelled.

Next day we met up with a friend at the Butterfly located in Embarcadero, this was more of a business casual dining….but, I would definitley hit this spot again if I come back to this area again. That night I had a craving for Italian food, so I picked Palio d’ Asti which was a little more than a mile from our hotel. I wanted to walk so we could do a little shopping along the way. After living in Seattle for 15 years, the shopping is a little stale and every shop seems to offer the same things. Palio d’ Asti dishes were delicious, but the service was a little weird….our server would never look at you when he spoke. After dinner we hit a Chinese massage place to relax our feet after a long day of walking. The foot massage was okay, but….I would be looking for something better next time in San Francisco.

The last day was more shopping and we finished the day off at Scala’s Bistro in the heart of some major shopping. I ended up with a couple of cool shoes and three new jeans and Linna ended up with three full bags of expensive apparel. Our flight was delayed from Oakland to Seattle, so I wrote this blog up during three cold Stella’s.