The first weekend

There are so many different areas with different personalities in San Francisco.

I feel like we traveled the world without leaving a 30-minute radius these past couple of days.

On Saturday morning, after a pit-stop at Peet’s Coffee & Tea (which seems to outnumber the Starbucks Coffee around this city), we set out on foot for an adventure.  Our walk took us from our neighborhood (which is called SoMa), to the Financial District, down to the Embarcadero (a street that runs along the Bay), to the Farmer’s Market at the Ferry Building (where we sampled fresh fruit from the local vendors), down to Fisherman’s Wharf and the popular tourist spots, to Ghirardelli Square (where navy ships were coming in to the port during a festival celebrating Fleet Week).

From there we went through some parks and then walked in several residential neighborhoods all the way back home.  I suppose you could compare the San Francisco neighborhoods to the boroughs of New York City.  While the SF neighborhoods are much closer, smaller and condensed, just like NYC they each have a distinctive vibe.

Some favorite sights occurred on the winding paths and steep inclines of Lombard Street, considered one of America’s “crookedest streets” (shown below).  I can’t imagine living on a street with an incline so steep you have trouble opening your car doors, but apparently the townhomes that we saw are multi-million dollar properties in high demand.

During four hours of walking, we worked up a sweat and were able to get a better perspective on where things are located both touristy and for locals.

After a cat nap, we headed out across the Bay Bridge to East Bay to visit with Dave’s boss and his lovely wife at their home in Orinda, a beautiful suburb where the houses are tucked back in the woods up the mountainside.  We all went out to dinner in downtown Oakland to a little pizza place called Boot and Shoe Service, said to have the best pie in the East Bay.  The wait for a table was an hour and forty-five minutes, so we passed the time with appetizers and a cocktail at a nearby spot, which was quite the “granola” place where the waitress proclaimed, “we do NOT serve any soda here.” (Okay … so what exactly do you plan to mix with my vodka?)

Then, on Sunday it was time for retail adventures.  We went from Orinda, to Walnut Creek, Berkeley, Oakland, Emeryville and back to San Francisco to search for furniture and had some major success.  Soon enough our empty apartment will seem like home, suited with brand new furniture handpicked for our city life.  It was nice to go into some new stores we weren’t familiar with and pepper in the old favorites as well.

We didn’t get more than 35 minutes or so away from our home all weekend, but we saw mountains, a long line for meatballs at IKEA, white caps throughout the Bay, deer, huge and aggressive squirrels, sailors, sailboats, winding roads and the clearest blue skies I’ve seen in years.

First weekend = Food, fun, on foot adventures.  Enjoy the photos below.