Days 35 & 36 - San Francisco, CA

As Sid Dithers famously once asked, "San Francisky? So how did you came, did you drove or did you flew?"

Let me start by saying that 3 nights is nowhere near long enough to take in this city. I tried, but, there is a lot more to do, see, drink, and eat. I'm coming back. And soon.

There is a gritty feel to this city that appeals to me greatly. There is the unmistakable energy of a big city and I get the same buzz roaming these streets as I do on the streets of New York. Plus, I've never seen this many laundromats in my life. Seriously, everywhere I've walked, there is an unnatural abundance of laundromats. Fortunately for me, I needed to do laundry, but just one load and at just one laundromat.

Monday morning was cool and rainy and this unexpected inclemency forced me inside to the warm and welcoming environs of the San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art. Celebrating their 75th anniversary, they had plenty to keep me distracted. I was most taken with the work of an artist named Ewan Gibbs who possesses the type of compulsive artistry needed to convert photographs into highly detailed pencil sketches using the slashes and dots usually reserved for knitting patterns. It would drive me mad.

I spent the afternoon walking around and ending up at the Cable Car Museum. Free admittance!!! And so much education. A word about the one and only San Francisco Cable Car: So Toronto is spending bazillions of $$$ to replace their aging streetcar fleet, but San Francisco runs these relics non-stop and has scooped up what appears to be most of the vintage cars from Milan and various other cities. Plus, I can freely hang off the side of a cable car and pass within inches of someone else doing the same on an oncoming car regardless of blood-alcohol level. What a city!!!! I sure am glad I'm no longer paying property taxes.....

Monday night was spent taking in a fantastic dinner at Town Hall. Oysters from BC and WA, Dungeness crab-stuffed pequillo peppers, and arctic char with asparagus and lemon polenta. Tasty. Plus, I had some of this stuff called "wine". Also tasty.

A booked spot on the first ferry to Alcatraz meant and early wake up and no time for a hangover:
Fortunately, the weather cleared in the morning and the day was a fantastic one for roaming an island that was once home to the worst of the worst. The tour proved entertaining and informative and explained the history with a fair and balanced (not Fox-News, but actually fair and balanced) approach. They didn't gloss over the psychological toll inflicted upon prisoners, nor the 19th month long Indian occupation in 1969.

After I made my escape from Alcatraz, I toured the Mission neighbourhood and felt as though I was in Mexico. I found a busy tacqueria for a late lunch of tasty and authentic tacos and roamed some more until I had to make my way back to the North Beach neighbourhood to attend class at the Cheese School of San Francisco. I lucked in and they had an opening for Cheeses Of France - 9 cheeses, 2 wines, and 2 hrs of instruction led by a local cheese importer. Not a bad way to kill an evening at all. Of course, the class-like setting allowed me to shine and I was clearly the teacher's favourite and most talented student. Also good was the 4-1 female to male ratio and the fact that the other men in attendance were idiots. Not good was the outspoken woman attending that thought it was only about her. Ugh.