Transition to Phase 2: Chronicle Part 4

Monday, March 1st

Well, I’m sorry to report that the sickness did not relieve itself overnight. As a matter of fact, I think it’s worse. Tough break, I guess – catch strep the weekend after Ryan gets home, then he gets the flu, and gives it to me. We decided that we would get up earlier this morning, to get a better start on our day. We wanted to get out, get breakfast, then have time to pack up leisurely and without stress. Today is the day we’re moving on to Napa, so we want to make our last day in San Francisco worthwhile, but do so without feeling rushed. We managed to get up at a reasonable time, around 8:45 or so, got ourselves ready and out the door. I was definitely under the weather, but bound and determined to not let the sickness hamper my ability to enjoy our vacation. A positive attitude was my only weapon – well, that, and lots of Theraflu.

We headed down a few blocks to a diner called “Dottie’s” that Ryan had found online. He saw a line out the door and down the block yesterday when we were passing by, so figured it must be good. Our guess was that on a Monday morning, the line might not be so tragic. Turns out there was a short line, mostly due to the fact that the place was teeny tiny and their servers weren’t great at bussing the tables quickly. A few times, there were empty but dirty tables that sat empty and dirty for at least 10 minutes, with the line out the door, before someone came to bus them. Ah well, it gave us plenty of time to labor over what we were going to eat. The food looked so good and it was not your typical diner fare. We started with some amazing cinnamon coffee cake and warm beverages. There were also some pretty elaborate dishes, including the one we got – a proscuitto, basil, and roasted tomato scramble with potatoes and homemade buttermilk dill toast. It was pretty much delicious. We sat at a table near the window and Ryan proceeded to take artistic shots of all of the tables, which boasted enlarged photographs of the diner’s namesake – Dorothy Dandridge. A cool little place I’m glad we stumbled upon – made for a great picture series (see the rest of those pics on facebook when I get around to posting them :-).

We headed back up to the hotel, packed up the room with little effort, and checked out around noon. We decided to load up the car then repark it to take advantage of the last few hours of parking we’d already paid for. We hadn’t walked around Union Square much and had been wanting to walk over to the Swatch store to exchange a watch that Ryan bought me for Christmas. It was a little big and the battery was dead, so we took advantage of the opportunity of having one within walking distance to remedy the situation. I picked out a really nice watch and we were back on our way. We walked back up to the car and decided to hit a few more stops before we exited the city

I really wanted to hit up Golden Gate Park and the Japanese Tea Garden before we left the city, so we drove in that direction. On our way there, we saw a viewing spot of the Golden Gate Bridge that we hadn't seen before. It had a great view of the bridge, so we stopped to get some better pictures than the ones we took the other day with Suzie. We got some great shots and then carried on our way to Golden Gate Park. We parked the car and proceeded into the park, which was a lot like Balboa Park in San Diego, as it turns out. I see now why Katie told us it would be more fun to hang out in Dolores Park yesterday – that one was much more our speed: unique, quaint, and full of character. This one was structured with lots of museums and “things to see.” We made our way to the pagodas, where we found out it was $7 a person to enter the Japanese Tea Garden. I decided that I’d been inside, I’d seen it, it wasn’t worth $7 in our budget to walk through the place. We wandered over to the Botanical Gardens which happened to be FREE!! We love Botanical Gardens, but unfortunately we didn’t have time to see the whole thing as it turned out to be QUITE large. We decided that is a must do on our next trip to the city. We wandered around it for a few minutes, though, and got to see a few really neat trees – the New Zealand Christmas Tree as well as the Monkey Puzzle Tree.

By this time, we were starving. While walking around the Gardens I researched some places to grab a sandwich before leaving the city. I found a place called Ike’s that boasted some unique and decadent sandwiches for inexpensive prices. Of course, knowing how much Ryan loves this sort of grub, I immediately pointed us in this direction. As has been the common thread in this trip, it seems that we consistently end up where there is a line, and you know what that means – a line equals a popular and sure thing. Such was the case with Ike’s. It wasn’t a huge line, mind you, and I’m sure it’s typically much longer, but this was one of the smallest sandwiches places I’ve ever seen. You couldn’t even get in the door – there was a girl sitting on a stool outside the door, with a cash register on a table and a pad of paper for orders. Behind her and through the door was a tiny kitchen with about 5 people inside, quickly making sandwiches and handing them up to the front door. We ordered a ham, turkey, and brie on French bread. It was, as expected, amazing. We split one, planning on a bigger meal once we got to Napa. We sat in the car and ate while we planned our route; then hit the road.

I decided to call my mom during the hour long drive to Yountville, just north of Napa. I hadn’t talked to her in a while and decided it was the perfect time to update her on life since Ryan’s been home. We made it to the Lavender Inn in Yountville around 5:30 or so, met by our gracious hostess Marion, a lovely, stout older English woman with a lot of character and a lot to say. She talked at a much more rapid pace than I imagined anyone in Napa Valley would, but made us laugh and feel right at home at our first bed and breakfast. We felt really lucky to have gotten a spot at this inn, especially with the stay one night get one free deal I found online, which allowed us to be in Napa for 4 nights. The room is awesome, especially since they upgraded us, without my knowledge, to the room with the private, enclosed patio, two person Jacuzzi and sitting area. Um, stoked? Yes. Between the fireplace in our place, the warmth of the atmosphere, and the complimentary everything every time we turned around, I was beginning to like life in Napa Valley. Ryan and I sat and talked with Marion for about an hour, enjoying the complimentary wine and cheese offered each evening from 4:30 to 6, as she never let our wine glasses get past the half way point. It didn’t take long for us to get tipsy or to remember that we had only shared a sandwich for lunch and desperately needed sustenance.

We went to our room, settled all of our things in place and headed out for a walk about the town. We stopped at a little diner like place called Pacific Blues, pretty much the only “diner” like place in town. Ryan and I decided to share a pulled pork sandwich and chili cheese fries – don’t judge us, we’re on vacation. Yeah, you’re jealous ;-) We strolled back to the room, relieved that we had no other obligations for the day and could just lay back and enjoy our room. I was still feeling pretty under the weather, and just wanted to relax and rest. We got back to the room when I realized that I couldn’t wait any longer – I’d been denying the level of my sore throat and was avoiding cough medicine. It was time to accept that I needed some cough drops and Ryan made us go to the store to get some. I picked up some Emergen-C while we were there, then headed straight back to the room for pj’s and medicine. Ryan drew us a hot Jacuzzi bath and we enjoyed our first evening at the bed and breakfast bubbling in the hot tub, then watching t.v. in bed with hot chocolate and Theraflu while wrapped in our spa robes. I fell asleep shortly thereafter, leaving any and all thinking for tomorrow.