Thursday, July 14, 2011

Shrimp with rosemarie sauce

This is a snap to make: it takes us less than 15 minutes to cook, start to finish!


It takes us even less time to eat it!



Friday, July 8, 2011

San Francisco, Day 1 (our first real vacation together = a very long post)

Oscar and I took our first far-away vacation together to San Francisco. Sure, we went to Milwaukee for a weekend alone, and we've gone across the country to see each other's families, but we hadn't gone across the country with only each other. We went to San Francisco because Asian Man Records was having its 15th anniversary celebration, and several bands that Oscar really, really wanted to see were playing reunion shows. I agreed because I had been to San Francisco for a conference last year and thought it was cool, but I didn't have much time to explore.

We arrived at SFO on June 14th (this post is very late!) and took a BART train over to San Francisco. We were staying at the Hayes Valley Inn. It is not a typical hotel because each floor shares the bathrooms and a shower, but it was inexpensive (for SF) and we had a sink in our room. Our room was pretty nice, and looked more like someone's spare bedroom than a typical hotel room.

Our room at Hayes Valley Inn.

Plus, we had free breakfast in the morning (fruit, cereal, waffles, muffins, bagels, coffee, etc), which was much nicer than most complementary hotel breakfasts. The breakfast rooms have shared tables, so we talked to people from nearby cities (most of them were in town for an opera) and got their opinions on what to do.

We managed to do a lot every day, so here is the recap.

DAY 1: Land's End Trail, Golden Gate Bridge, (WOAH HILLS), Sushi, Concert, Accidental Family Reunion

After breakfast, we took a bus westward and another bus north to the Land's End Trail. Although we are pros at public transit in Chicago, we got off the first bus to transfer to the second, and were confused because we couldn't find a sign for the next bus stop. We started walking, and then we saw it:

This telephone pole is actually a bus stop. Well, now we know.

The northbound bus came, and it was packed with about 150 little kids at summer camp. We tried to get on, but the bus driver said no space (in Chicago, they let you ride in front of the yellow line [standing next to the bus driver right by the windshield] if the bus is crowded, but in SF, I guess they are more concerned with that technicality). We shrugged, and since the next bus was in 20 minutes, we started walking north. We crossed the street, and noticed that a block ahead, the bus was letting most of the kids off! Hooray! Since it takes a lot of kids a long time to get off the bus, we were able to run and catch the bus!

Unfortunately, google maps put us in the middle of the trail, so we decided to head west to the ocean, and then double back and walk to the Golden Gate Bridge. The trail had some great views:

Oscar near the beginning of our hike.

We found a pretty rocky beach that had views of the ocean and of the bay with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

Us on the beach.

Looking towards the Pacific Ocean.

The bay and the Golden Gate Bridge

Flowers and the beach in the background, because I like flowers.

We doubled back and headed towards the Golden Gate Bridge. On the way, we stumbled through the Presidio neighborhood, where there were multi-million dollar mansions with bay views (wow), and across the Coastal Defense System from WWII. We climbed around on them, and it was pretty neat to see the remnants. (After I got home, my grandma told me that my grandpa was stationed in San Francisco on a ship for a while, although he wasn't a part of the Coastal Defense System.)

Coastal Defense System

Oscar looking tough inside the Coastal Defense System Buildings

 We finally reached the Golden Gate Bridge, and hiked about halfway out. The bridge is 1.7 miles long, and in the middle, it is really cold and windy! 





Distance walked so far: 5.2 miles, after walking across the bridge.

I wanted sushi for dinner. So we yelped, found a highly-rated, cheap sushi place, and hopped on a bus. 10 minutes later, Oscar says "wait, this bus is going in the wrong direction!" A rookie mistake, whoops!

Unfortunately, I get loopy and grouchy when I don't eat. Fortunately, there was a Taco Bell nearby, which are sparse in Chicago. So we had a couple tacos, regrouped, and found a sushi place in Japantown.

This place was a sushi boat place, which means that you sit around a little island, the sushi chefs are in the middle, the sushi floats around on plates on boats, and you grab the plates you want!

Sushi floating by on boats


We got to try a whole bunch of new stuff, and since it was Happy Hour, we got beer and sake very cheap!
We ate a lot of fish, but it was pretty cheap!

We headed back to our hotel and re-couped for half an hour before our first show.

Distance walked so far: 7.7 miles, including crazy hills

The show was the Chinkees, MU330, and Slapstick. There were a lot of hijinks at the show, and Oscar has a recap on his blog.

We also found Oscar's cousin, who he hadn't seen in years, at the show!

Total distance walked so far: 9.3 miles