We are writing this post as a family since our day has been so full and it is only lunchtime. We are doing a round robin writing exercise.
We woke up in another Kimpton in San Francisco and our plan is to explore the city. Right now we are waiting for lunch at the Black Point Cafe.
Our first stop of the day was at the Fortune Cookie Factory; it was cool. We were lured in by the smell of fresh baked cookies and a woman repeatedly telling us to come in. Inside we were offered unfolded fortune cookies and got to see two woman folding them and putting fortunes inside. Several of our fortunes indicated that this weekend will be fabulous.
Our next stop was a little bakery and coffee shop; it was cute. Caffe Triste, a legendary hangout of authors such as Kerouac, provided us with fresh pastries, lattes, and live accordion music.
We then made our way to City Lights Books. We saw a lot of books. From there we visited two shops selling hand made shoes, clothing, and hats. There was dog is one of the store’s windows (we don’t know how much the doggie in the window was) and another dog walked in and followed it.
We walked up and down the hills of San Francisco and found a small chocolate shop selling homemade truffles, it was voted top seven chocolates in the US. We got truffles: mom and Zoe got raspberry, Ellie got dark chocolate, and dad got pomegranate.
We decided to walk up Lombard Street, the steepness rivaled the “practice hike” we took at Twin Sisters Peak. Our next stop was Ghirardelli Square, you could smell chocolate the minute you walked in. We postponed our chocolate indulgences and chose Black Point Cafe for sandwiches first. The kitchen lost our ticket so treated Zoe and Ellie to a crumb cake appetizer.
The afternoon has passed and we are now enjoying the daily wine hour at tonight’s Kimpton. Back to our round robin.
After lunch we went to the Ghirardelli Chocolate store and got chocolate caramel square. Then we walked over to the National Park Service Maritime Museum where we collected stamps for our passport and an excellent city map. We were allowed to go on a boat and we went below deck and we got to go see all the rooms. The boat was a late 19th century shipping boat that had a pig onboard (not now, back in the day) and a baby was born aboard.
Next we got to see sea lions, they were hilarious. Most of their time appears to be spent lazing on rafts, interrupted only by brief dips in the water and quarrels over whom should be the pillow for whom. Those sea lions were so cool, watching them try to get up was like so cool; it was fun. We then walked our way up the piers, which reminded me a lot of Navy Pier, touristy, crowded, cheesy, and more magnet shops than imaginable. We had to find water, turns out the only water available was sold in a box, because boxed water is better (according to the box that looked like a milk carton.)
Our last destination was the ferry building which was full of gourmet and boutique shops, Union Station should use this as a model for their next renovation. It was fun and cool and weird and annoying.
We checked in at the Sir Francis Drake, another Kimpton, and were welcomed with a giant, delicious cupcake, Maker’s Mark, and Fred water (not in a box, but still super fancy.) We are now sitting in the fancy lobby enjoying drinks (wine and Arnold Palmers.) We made friends with three 1960s Berkeley graduates and are getting ready to find some dinner in Chinatown. The end, have a great day; it was cool.
(We took turn saying sentences for this post, can you guess who said what?)
I can guess some that either Zoe or Ellie said, but can’t always tell between them:
“We saw a lot of books.”
“Those sea lions were so cool, watching them try to get up was like so cool; it was fun.”
“It was fun and cool and weird and annoying.”
And I think Zak is the one who mentioned getting an excellent city map!
Yes! All those were Ellie (she’s picked up an embarrassing Valley Girl accent.)
And Zak was ALL about that map!!