Venturing Abroad: Chronicle Part 3

Sunday February 28th

Today did not exactly start out as well as I would have liked. Apparently, since having Strep Throat, my immune system has been weakened and is more susceptible to disease. I think I may have gotten a flu like illness Ryan was suffering from before we left. I’ve been feeling it a little in the background for the last couple of days, but this morning it hit me like a ton of bricks. I woke up with a terrible sore throat again, feeling achy and very tired. Not a good set of signs. Needless to say, I wasn’t about to let my sickness ruin my vacation. We did sleep in a little bit this morning, getting comfortable quickly in our new digs. This hotel has a complimentary and beautiful continental breakfast up in the same restaurant we had our amazing meal at last night. On Saturdays and Sundays they extend it until 11am, so Ryan and I put on some decent clothes and made our way upstairs.

After some food and hot tea, we came back to the room, showered and relaxed a little bit more. We didn’t really have a set plan for the day and I was feeling a little weary still. We decided to lay low for a little while, which turned out to be really nice. We just sort of watched t.v., I worked on the blog a little bit, and we figured out a plan for the rest of the day. After a short power nap, we decided to get going around 2pm. Our plan for the day? Taking some of Katie’s long awaited advice and hitting up the Noe (pronounced No – ee) Valley in a more residential part of the city. Katie is one of my best friends from San Diego and she lived in San Fran for a little while. She had a lot of great advice and suggestions for non touristy places to check out. We made a list of the places we wanted to hit, figured out the BART (Bay Area Rail Transit) schedules and locations, and hit the road.

I have to say, I was worried about not doing Pilates for the next two weeks, but a few days in this city will cure that worry. Walking these hills has made my legs feel like a daily hard core pilates session with my trainer Kelly. I don’t worry about keeping up with my training at this point…We decided to hoof it up some of the hills to catch a trolley down to the metro. This killed two birds with one stone – transportation and a cure to Ryan’s cable car anticipation. It was a beautiful, sunny, and almost brisk day, so I was excited to get outdoors and see a different part of the city. This city’s metro was FAR more confusing than DC’s, but we managed to get where we needed to go.

We ended up on Mission and 24th in Noe Valley, which was smack in the middle of an Asian and Latino market haven. This was lucky for us, because we were in desperate need of socks and some sort of backpack on the cheap. I’d forgotten to put socks on today and we failed to bring a small sack to carry our necessities around the city. No folks, no fanny packs were purchased, but we did joke about the consideration of one. Ryan was in charge of this purchase, since he’d be carrying it, but I can’t even explain to you how much of a project this turned out to be. After 40 minutes we hadn’t made it more than half a block, but after much deliberation we had finally found the perfect backpack, socks, gloves and a ridiculous hat for the appropriate price.

We proceeded on our way up 10 blocks to our first stop: Bernie’s, a coffee shop near where Katie used to work. She knows the lady who owns it, Bernie, and encouraged us to get some delicious beverages and to say hi from her. It was a fun walk through a very different part of the city. Lots of character and neat houses built into the slanted sidewalks. We made our destination, but unfortunately, Bernie was nowhere to be seen. I guess she had the day off. We did get some delicious coffee, some much needed leg rest, and a casual encounter with an adorable scruffy mutt. I put Ryan in charge of the camera at the beginning of this trip, and he tends to photograph EVERYthing he finds worthy – this usually turns outs well and in some sort of artistic fashion.

After our warm beverages, we headed over to Xela, Katie’s old work, where those owners weren’t around either, and then to Noe Valley Bakery, where they didn’t have any of the treats I was hoping for. Although this does sound like a lost cause for our goals, it really was a fun way to walk around this part of San Francisco and get to know the area. Each of the places we went were quaint shops that we probably would have ignored otherwise, and each of them really gave a certain quirky perspective to such a different part of the city. This area was full of these kinds of shops – holes in the wall; tiny rooms with fascinating people and interesting offerings. We decided that it had now been long enough since our last meal and went in search of food. I was dying for pizza (shocker) and remembered Katie had recommended a pizza place that was several blocks away. In order to get to it, we’d have to pass by a park we’d been wanting to see, so we immediately turned and headed in that direction.

On the way, we stopped for a few artistic photo opportunities as well as some park enjoyment. This was Dolores Park, recommended to us by Katie, which is right up our alley. Ryan and I love finding parks to hang out at in each place that we live, so the enticement of a fun park here was too much to resist. Dolores Park did not disappoint. We did a little swinging, a little walking and a little people watching. This guy was hilarious, entrancing all of the little kids with a few pieces of string and some water with soap. It was like the perfect park moment. After about a half hour, we decided to move on to our destination, as the grumbles in our stomachs were growing quite loud and impossible to ignore.

We headed a few blocks more to Pizzaria Delfino. Of course, it would have helped to know that this was a different place than Delfino, next door, where we first stopped, got a table, and gawked at the ridiculous menu and prices before figuring it out. We had to wait about a half hour for this tiny little pizza place to be ready for us, but it was MORE than worth the wait! The atmosphere had such a great vibe, we got to sit at a counter that overlooked the kitchen and chefs, and the food was amazing. While we waited, Ryan took the liberty of artistic photography again – I have to say, he’s getting really good at this little hobby of his. Makes me relieved I put him on picture duty. We’d be lucky if we got more than 5 pictures if I was in charge. We now have more than we know what to do with. At any rate, we ordered a Sasiccio pizza, with fennel sausage, tomato sauce, carmelized red onion, red pepper and buffalo mozzarella. Some of the most simple but incredible pizza I’ve ever eaten. Thanks Katie!

After dinner, we decided to head back to the metro and downtown for dessert and some more cable car riding. While in Walgreens buying Theraflu, Ryan had a stroke of genius and remembered that we still hadn’t had an ice cream sundae at Ghirardelli! We immediately jumped back on the metro and took the Powell Street cable car from one end of the line to the other, all the way to Ghirardelli Square. We walked to the lower store, which, unfortunately, closed at 6. There were two women inside, working on the books and cleaning the place up when we arrived, looking like defeated puppies panting outside the window, desperate for ice cream and hand made chocolate sauce. They didn’t even glance at us. We decided to go upstairs to use the restroom and decide a course of action for treat retrieval. When we came out, we both simultaneously remembered the second

shop on the second level and wandered into the glowing light of it’s brilliance in a trancelike but elated state. A brownie sundae with milk chocolate sauce was within our grasp. And oh my goodness, was it worth the calorie intake? Abso-freaking-lutely. Amazing.

We jumped back on the cable car to head back to the hotel, as Theraflu was calling my name. Ryan got another ride in as well as an opportunity to shoot some pictures of trolleys at night. When we got back to the room, it was an easy decision to call it an early night, crawl into pajamas and drink some warm beverages. Although we got a late start, we had quite a full day. I drank a not so delicious Theraflu, Ryan rubbed my aching legs, and we watched some t.v. I was relieved for the rest and love, hoping that the medicine would cure the throat, cough, and aching overnight.