Super-Awesome Spectacular (EXTREME)!!
We stayed at the Carlton Hotel in downtown San Francisco (the Nob Hill neighborhood). It was
a good hotel in a great location, and had many fancy artsy details that were aesthetically pleasing, but the walls were paper-thin so that when our next-door neighbors got home at 2:30 am it felt like they were standing right over our bed talking to us. We enjoyed it anyway, and partook in the free wine-tasting and the yummy Mediterranean restaurant there. It was very conveniently located near Union Square and central to all the good San Francisco tourist adventures.On our first day there (Thursday) we hiked all the way up Telegraph Hill to Coit Tower (shaped like a fire hose), then snapped some pictures of the awesome view of the Bay and Alcatraz. The hills there are indeed very steep (we t
ried to take a picture of each of us climbing up the hill but the hill-effect didn't really turn out).We were so excited about the bay that we walked all the way out there and went out on the pier to see the sea lions lounging around in the sun. Some of them were fighting with each other and going "ARE ARE ARE!" at each other. It was very entertaining. We walked back along the water and passed the Levi Plaza, where there was an interesting display about Levi Strauss' company (founded in San Francisco in the late 1800s to provide heavy-duty clothing for the laborers of the time - mostly gold miners). It was there that I got motivated to buy myself a pair - but I'm going to leave that for another post.
Walking back from the bay we saw many of the San Francisco neighborhoods; the very Italian North Beach neighborhood (and the famous gathering spot for the Beat writers and
home of City Lights Bookstore - those of you from Iowa City may now get the play on words that created the Iowa City bookstore, Prairie Lights). I had gotten a San Francisco tour guide book from the library before we left so I could point out many of the famous historical spots around the neighborhoods and later that night I read all about the Beat movement, Doda the first topless waitress who started the topless waitress movement, and the Octagon House (also part of a movement). It was really neat-o.Friday morning was freezing - we found out later that San Francisco was colder this weekend than it's been in years. We woke up with the intention of getting some dim-sum, but couldn't find any in Chinatown or elsewhere. After a nice tour of Chinatown we finally found a cute little cafe back in Nob Hill and had some omelettes and pancakes. Then we took the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) over to Berkeley where my Studly Hubby's Graduation Wee
kend officially began with an open house at the office of his Animation Mentor school. This is also where things really started getting fun. We met loads of interesting and fabulous people, the Studly Hubby met the founders of his school and many of his classmates, and we got some free cookies. Afterwards, we got a ride back to North Beach in a complete stranger's BMW and went out for dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant with some of the Studly Hubby's classmates where we wined and dined and conversed late into the night. The next day was the big graduation ceremony, held at the Fort Mason Marina in San Francisco (near Fisherman's Warf) in Cowell Theater overlooking the bay. It was extremely well done and very touching (this was the first-ever graduation ceremony for this school and there were lots of tears and cheers and many thank-you's going around). My Stu
dly Hubby won an award, they got some inspiration from the director of Madagastar, and it finished with a large load of balloons falling from the ceiling. Then we had a reception where students could meet each other and their mentors, and a formal dinner with more socializing and a bit of dancing. I can't even begin to describe how invigorating and unique and totally touching this whole affair was, and how happy I was to be there.On Sunday morning some friends we met at the Animation Mentor party took us to a Buddhist temple in Berkeley (Mongkolratanaram) for a Thai Sunday fundraiser brunch that the temple does every week. This was some of the most fabulous Thai food we have had and was a very fun place to go - they serve large volumes of food for not very much, and you pay with funny tokens that you purchase in advance, and then sit at picnic tables in their courtyard. We stuffed ourselves for an entire hour and then fantasized about the delicious food for the rest of the day.
All in all, it was the best time we've had since our trip to Chicago last January. It's pretty fun going someplace fun and having some fun, that's for dang sure.
1 comment:
sounds like a perfect trip. Glad to hear you had the bestest time!
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