OK, rather than hijack the Virtual Weigh-In / Waistband Wednesday thread, here's a separate thread for my recap.

We headed down to Phoenix Thursday after work, since we had an early flight on Friday. Rather than hang out in the room and watch tv all night, we went to a local watering hole and had some beverages.

Woke up a lil bleary on Friday, but made it on the plane just fine. Landed in the early afternoon. Picked up some Muni passes at the welcome center. Too early to check into the hotel, but they let us leave our bags there.

Wandered (UPHILL) over to Chinatown for dim sum. We were starving! Got roped into going to the Hang Ah Tea Room. The interior was garish, but I kinda liked it. The food was kind of icky. The sticky rice was interesting. Kinda tasted like tea. Then we browsed around the shops.

Went back to the hotel to chill for a lil bit, then took a cab to Myth (http://www.mythsf.com) for dinner. GF had the pear salad, the New York Strip, then flourless chocolate cake (plus some extras they put on for her birthday). I had the cauliflower soup, beef cheeks, and creme brulée. The wine was *excellent* -- wish I could remember who made it.

Cabbed back to the hotel, and flopped down for the night -- absolutely stuffed.

Saturday, we awoke bright and early, and had plans to go to a nearby diner for breakfast. Unfortunately, it had a long line. We gave up and went to the creperie across from our hotel. It was pretty tasty, and fast.

Then we took the cable car up to Fisherman's Wharf and caught the ferry to Alcatraz. It was super cool. Very dank and mossy. We did the audio tour, and it was quite educational. Bought some junk in the gift shop and ferried back.

Strolled around Fisherman's Wharf, got some clam chowder and then some coffee. Bought some chocolately treats. Wandered some more. Caught the cable car back down to the hotel, and rested for a bit before heading to the Ferry Building (http://www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com/).

There, we checked out all the gourmet goodies, and even bought a few. Had a snack of some cheese from the Cowgirl Creamery, Acme bread, and some spicy Italian sausage. Then we headed back to the hotel. Later that night, we ordered a really yucky pizza.

Sunday when we awoke, the clouds were rolling in, and the temperature started dropping. We took the F line down to the Castro, and grabbed a coffee at a local coffee joint. Then had brunch at Home (http://www.home-sf.com/market/index.shtml). We each had Cobb salad and some yummy cocktails.

By then it was starting to drizzle. We went to the Cal Academy of Sciences to check out the aquarium. It was small, but well done.

Then we started over to SFMOMA. We were in there for about 10 minutes, and GF was bored. So she took off and I stayed to go through the whole thing. It was definitely worth it.

We met up at the hotel, snacked and napped. When we awoke, it was pouring. Stood huddled under a teeny little umbrella waiting for the cable car to North Beach for 30 minutes in the cold drizzle. Only to have a *meh* dinner at Stinking Rose -- yeah, we had to see what it was all about. OVERRATED.

Cabbed back to the hotel, carrying a tiramisu to go, and called it a night.

We did pretty well getting around town without a car. Took the cable cars, Muni and BART everywhere. I like the F line ... nifty!

As always with us, we spent more than we budgeted for. Which resulted in a lot of post-vacation (and some during-vacation) stress and discord.

Flew home Tuesday morning, exhausted. Came home to boy being expelled from school, and at work, our website (my baby) was gone.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: grrlscout,

It sounds like a GREAT trip. I'm glad you had fun. So sorry you had to come home to all that stress. Kids! DS has been stressing me out with school, and he's only in 1st grade, everyone keeps telling me "You have so many more years to go."

Dawn

quote:

Originally posted by jillybean:
You could probably call the restaurant where you had the great wine and see if they can narrow it down for you.

I think I found it!

David Bruce Petite Sirah, California, Central Coast

I'm just not sure of the year. Possibly 2002.

quote:

Originally posted by susanrows:
It's a shame you had bad meals here, especially since there's so much excellent dim sum and so many great places for Italian food in North Beach...

Now, what happened with the boy and the web site? Is everything OK?

Actually, the good meals outweighed the bad. And we did have a good time. Just came back to streeeessssssss that kind of clouded the experience.

Boychild's usual bad attitude is what got him expelled. Guess he was running his mouth, and when told to shut it, he walked out of class. That was pretty much the last straw at the school. They're sick of his disrespect, and actually, so are we.

Soooo... we're checking out springtime bratcamps. Something to keep him occupied and hopefully kick him in the rear til the end of the school year. Then we're probably moving anyway, so it'll be a new school district (and his 3rd time in the 7th grade).

As for the website, I guess the people who set up the site up neglected to change the email address on the registration. So when our domain name was due to expire, no one knew about it. Now our domain name is expired. Yikes.

Aww... it's so sweet that you and your hubs met at SFMOMA. That's so cool.

We almost skipped it, due to $ constraints. But I remembered that when I was in Europe, I forwent a lot of the world's greatest museums, for the sake of time or money, and I regretted it.

It must've been destiny, because when I bought our tickets, the cashier was so busy talking to me, she only chanrged my card for, and handed me just one ticket. When I pointed that out, she told me today was my lucky day, and handed me another one, for free.

Sounds like an awesome trip!!! You could probably call the restaurant where you had the great wine and see if they can narrow it down for you.
Jill

Thanks for the recap! Sounds like you managed to fun despite the weather and the occasional not so great meal.

quote:

Only to have a *meh* dinner at Stinking Rose -- yeah, we had to see what it was all about. OVERRATED.

I'm so bummed. I used to eat there all the time in the early 90's and it was divine. The last time I was in SFO, it just wasn't as good and I wound up with a case of heartburn that beat any I've ever had. Sorry to hear it was a bust for you too. I was sort of hoping it had been a bad night when I was there.

Sorry to hear about all the icky stuff on your return. Hopefully things will look up soon!

Sounds like a good trip overall...I love SFO. A group just went from work and I had sort of made a point not to get invited (really boring annual meeting) but seeing the pics made me long to go out there.

Peg

Wow, grrlscout, there's a lot to respond to in that report!

It's a shame you had bad meals here, especially since there's so much excellent dim sum and so many great places for Italian food in North Beach. But I'm glad you checked out the Ferry Building -- definitely an experience worth the calories, IMHO. And since DH and I met at SFMOMA, it has a very special place in my heart.

Now, what happened with the boy and the web site? Is everything OK?