San Francisco Trip

[dancerjodi]

Wed:
We checked into the http://www.jdvhospitality.com/hotels/hotel/5 in the Cow Hollow area, which according to Frommer’s: “Located west of Van Ness Avenue, between Russian Hill and the Presidio, this flat, grazable area supported 30 dairy farms in 1861. Today, Cow Hollow is largely residential and largely yuppie. Its two primary commercial thoroughfares are Lombard Street, known for its many relatively inexpensive motels, and Union Street, a flourishing shopping sector filled with restaurants, pubs, cafes, and shops.”. We were starving at this point, so we took the 43 down to the Haight to browse the mostly closed shops and get dinner at http://sfsurvey.com/rd.asp?r=1443&n=r . I do have to say, the Haight-Ashbury area was underwhelming and very commercialized. It was kind of like a cross between the East Village and a Hot Topic, with every subculture represented, and overpriced stores (including a Gap of all places on the famous corner). A bus ride home had us sitting next to a really drunk and smelly guy.

Thurs:
This was our tourist day. We walked down to Fisherman’s Wharf, saw the Ghiardelli Factory (didn’t go in – its effectively just a mall) and touched the Pacific ocean for the first time (so warm!). We checked out the Sea Lions on Pier 39 and grabbed some chocolate at http://www.chocolateheaven.com/ before our ferry out to Alcatraz. Such a neat place! We didn’t do the self guided audio tour, we mainly just wandered. Now of course I’m regretting not getting that recording, because I’m curious what the white mask on the counter in the kitchen was (ala V for Vendetta, only plain white). After our tour we walked down to North Beach for lunch at http://www.thestinkingrose.com/ (SO GOOD!) and then had time for a trolley tour of the city with http://www.cablecarcharters.com/ through North Beach, Chinatown, Union Square and the Financial District. It was a neat way to get off of our feet and see some areas we knew we wouldn’t have time to check out. We met up with fellow NEGers back at Fisherman’s Wharf at around 4:30ish, drove around with them a bit (Russian Hill, the crooked part of Lombard Street and Coit’s tower) and met up at the Chevy’s in Soma with folks from the http://www.goldengategarrison.com/main.php for dinner. Such a great group, and they treated us to dinner! Coincidentally there was a gothy couple across from us at the table that mentioned a club night they were going to in the city, and they offered to drive us there and back to our hotel later. We saw JNA/Netik and http://velvetgarden.livejournal.com/profile at the club http://www.meatsf.com/ , but stayed put with our hosts (I’m not sure if I’ve ever actually even met A, and J was running around doing the DJ thing). Our friends being working stiffs tired after a couple of hours and drove us home.

Fri:
This was our geeky day, but we had time after breakfast to do some more sightseeting, checking out the Painted Ladies, Golden Gate Park (including the Japanese Tea Gardens) and Cliff House/Sutro Baths. We met up with our fellow NEGers at http://www.lucasfilm.com/inside/letterman/ at around 11:30, signed a do not disclose agreement, and had a wonderful tour with http://www.starwars.com/hyperspace/about/news/news20050315.html followed by a complimentary lunch. So much neat stuff there! Slimer from Ghostbusters, a model house from Lemony Snickets, Han in Carbonite and a ROTJ TK suit among other things. From lunch we headed over to the ranch http://www.insideskywalkerranch.com/ for another amazing tour of their guest buildings, tech building and the main house itself. Notable things included getting to go onto the sound stage and our friend Aaron being able to play the piano in there, being close to more screen used stuff, the amazing Victorian exterior buildings with art deco/mission interiors, Norman Rockwell and Maxfield Parrish works, and fun Lucas related stories. It doesn’t suck to be a Lucasfilm (or related company) employee! We’d spend longer at the ranch than planned and then hop in our cars to head out to Petaluma, where we’d continue our geeky journey. We met up at http://www.mcnears.com/ with http://www.starwars.com/episode-iii/bts/profile/f20040929/indexp2.html for dinner, who would share experiences on the area, on props and on random Lucas tidbits. We’d learn that the neighborhood had been host to filming for American Graffiti and Peggy Sue got married. We spent a couple of hours with Don before heading over to Rancho Obi-Wan, http://www.starwars.com/clonewars/about/news/news20040326.html , owned by the wonderful Steve Sansweet. Steve spent a couple of hours with us, showing his collection and geeking with us. I’m happy to say that I’ll be adding to Steve’s collection – I bought the program from the MIT musical for him in the fall (of course, I forgot to bring it, so Brian is going to ship it today). He was very appreciative!

Sat:
We headed home after breakfast. I have to say, driving in the city was pretty easy, and we got to the airport a couple of hours before we needed to. I got a good deal of reading (Kristen’s Sandman books) and knitting (my alien scarf) done over the trip.

Pictures can be found here: http://www.tk7602.com/gallery/index.php?cat=12 . You can read Brian’s account of the trip here: http://tk7602.livejournal.com/783580.html