A day in everyone’s favorite city. Starting with the buffet breakfast, which was okay food-wise, but the view…MAN! The restaurant was on the 36th floor and we had a 180 degree view that included the bay, the city, the hills…it was breathtaking. The girls headed out for our first stop: the cartoon art museum. Really fun and traced the origins and evolution of political cartoons as well as the funny papers. A whole series dedicated to Archie comics, superhero comics, Mel Blanc and all of his characters, and the history of a strip called Troubletown. So interested to see familiar issues handled through satire – both political and social. They even had an original drawing from one of my old favs, Johnny Quest!
After this fun and educational stop, we headed over to Yank Sing in the Rincon center. For the few of you who don’t know, that is my favorite place to eat dim sum in San Fran. We were joined by Betsy’s friend Pam and her 13 month old daughter. We could hardly get both cheeks on the chairs when the bowls started flying – those woman were putting stuff down before any one of us could say “no thank you”. Within fifteen minutes our giant lazy susan was jammed with shrimp dumplings, chinese broccoli, turnip cakes, chinese ribs, slaw, stuffed fried shrimp and piping hot tea to wash it all down with. A firsthand view:
Betsy took off with Pam for the afternoon and Mom, Stacey and I wandered through town, down to Embarcadero and through a group of makeshift booths set up for as a little market. We stumbled upon one selling masks, and bought a couple for the upcoming holiday. Kept walking until we found BART, and took a train all the way over to Golden Gate park to check out the Picasso special exhibit in the de Young Fine Arts museum. But what’s this? As we round a corner, we see a little truck named the “Twirl and Dip” and Stacey and I make a beeline for it. One twirl of vanilla in a bowl, please, and yes to the dark chocolate dip and yes to the sea salt sprinkles on top, and oh, could you add some toasted almost as well?
We enter the park, which hosts several museums, lakes, botanical gardens, soccer fields, etc. Here we are in the midst of it all:
When we finally get to the the museum, we discover that the exhibit ended 3 days earlier. Boo hoo! We take a pit stop, then sit out front on some large rocks to decide what to do. Honestly, my body hurts and I just want to lay down and relax. We decide to go and sit in the Japanese tea garden…until, that is, we discover there is a charge to walk around there. It certainly looks like the Japanese gardens that I remember, but I don’t feel like paying to go in. So, we head back to BART and back to the hotel. As we exit and walk back towards the hotel, I see Bloomingdale’s ahead! I must stop to check for some blue tights, so I wave goodbye to mom and Stac, and make my own pit stop. (yes, i found some blue tights)
Dinner out again – this time to Gary Danko, ranked by many sources as the number one restaurant in San Francisco. Beautiful space, wonderful dramatic flowers and even Fabiana and Ricardo from our cooking class! We sit and order and the anticipation begins. A couple pictures…mu lobster risotto:
Stacey’s squab stuffed with quinoa and foie gras (with corn pudding on the side, Lee!):
and our beautiful chocolate souffle:
Look! I made all gone:
Betsy choosing a healthier, and more European, cheese dessert:
Four satisfied customers:
We head home, happy and once again, stuffed like sausages. Only an hour in the morning for me to pack, walk Union Square and head off to my lunch meeting with David and a prospective client before I head to the airport to head home. Sad to leave the family, but my body will be so glad to get back to a more normal schedule. Thank goodness mom turns 75 only once (although, actually, she’s been celebrating it since March!).