Goodbye to San Francisco

I can't count the number of times we were asked how we liked San Francisco. Someone here referred to it as Vancouver on steroids. Perhaps. I can honestly say I loved it, but am glad I don't live here. It is a beautiful city in a beautiful area, but it was great to get back home to our sleepy little town. San Francisco is a place I'd be happy to visit anytime - especially if we had time to visit the neighboring parks and small communities. I guess I'm still a country girl at heart.
So here are a few more highlights:
Saturday night party on the USS Hornet Aircraft Carrier.

 Einar getting an award for IBS Manitoba's sales

Sunday Morning Volunteer Opportunity

Packing food for Feed the Hungry Children organization

 Sunday afternoon walk to the Ferry Building

Dinner on our own at New Delhi Restaurant.  Highly recommended!

MONDAY - I had a lot of time to myself, and was able to have coffee with a dear friend, Eleanor, who I've only seen a handful of times, but she is one of people I have clicked with and look forward to seeing every time we come to convention.  After coffee, I decided it was a good day to do some sightseeing on my own.

The lineup for the cable car was crazy, and it didn't help that one of the cars had to be towed because the brakes weren't working.  The wait was about an hour - and this is on a regular Monday morning!!  I can't imagine what it would be like in summertime or on a nice weekend! But I had hours to kill...

 Turning the roundabout to the right position for the next car.

 Ghirardelli Square.  I wanted to have the famous San Francisco Clam Chowder in a Sourdough Bread Bowl while I was here.  So I went to the diner here.  They were all out of clam chowder, so I asked if they had any sandwiches made with the sourdough bread.  "No!" The waiter said, "You can't make sandwiches with the sourdough - it's a bowl!"  Um, okay!

Yup, I finally got my clam chowder in the sourdough bowl.  Worth the long walk to find it!!

There may have been faster ways back to the hotel, but since we're traveling tomorrow at 4 am, I thought I'd pick up some gluten free muffins from Mariposa Baking at the ferry building.  We had their cinnamon buns and quiche on Sunday and they were marvelous.  By the time I got back to the hotel, I'm sure I walked 5 miles or more. 

It nice to find good gluten free foods while travelling!

For gluten free eating in San Francisco, I'd recommend the following: 

Bakeries -  

http://www.mariposabaking.com/ 

https://canyonglutenfree.com/ - bought their 7-grain loaf at Target for our travels.  I must admit I double checked the bag several times to see if I'd made a mistake and bought regular whole-grain bread.  It was that good!!

Restaurants -
http://piermarket.com/ Awesome seafood, and lots of choices for Einar.
New Delhi on Ellis - Most Indian food is GF naturally, so we weren't surprised that eating GF was easy here.
Most of our meals were at the hotel, and they always had gluten free choices available. Maybe if I had stuck to GF, I would have avoided the additional pounds that found me during this holiday!

More of San Francisco

Days 1-4 (Sunday to Wednesday) were our actual holiday.  Now that we're at convention, there's much less to write about.  It's been good.  We've run into people we only see every two years.  Meals are great.  Meeting new and old friends is great.  And the shopping near the hotel is great.

A few of our highlights and items of interest...

While the 2 staff that came with us each got their own room with a King-sized bed, we got something else.  I don't even know what size this is... 3/4? Double?  But it is the most comfortable bed we've had on our trip even though we might have preferred a larger size. (At least we had a second one for our stuff!)

After the sessions yesterday, we walked to Fisherman's Wharf.  It was a rather hilly walk and I tried to take pictures but getting a photo that shows the slope of our walk is difficult.  It took almost an hour, and then we walked some more while waiting for the rest of the gang to show up.  Supper at the Pier Market was superb!

 At Pier 39

 San Francisco is known for their superb sourdough bread.

 Sea Lions at the pier

Ready to try the Cioppino

We came back to the hotel via an old cable car bus.  The $2 fee was waived because the cash box was broken.  Perhaps that was deliberate... it certainly made all the tourists happy!

SF Day 4

After we decide on our main plan for the day, Einar gets onto the computer and plans the routes.  I love that.  For me, a holiday means I don’t have to make many decisions!

Today our destination was Muir Woods National Park. 

Giant redwoods.

Quiet streams.

Green, green and more green.

Tiny surprises.

All the grandkids favourite colors.

A café with gluten free scones (Yay!!!) and Numi Tea.

Driving on narrow scenic roads; in the fog, below the fog, and in sunshine.

Viewpoints overlooking the bridge.

Expresso at a little cafe.

 The Golden Gate bridge is, of course, in the fog.

I actually don't know what this is, but it sure was pretty!

Then to our hotel where we will have the convention. 

A long line-up including many faces I know, but none who know me.  They would all know Einar, but he’s waiting in the car so we don’t have to pay the exorbitant parking fees.  This is his world – and for the next 6 days, I’ll be a part of it.