612113 Tue Apr 14 19:20:00 -0700 2009 5 1 San Francisco Bay Area 0 4596524 Hi, Ok, I'm finally back into the groove of things in the midwest. I promised the Chowhounders I would report back on our CA trip - my husband, 14 year old daughter & I just got back from SF Easter Sunday and we are from the Cleveland, Oh area. Tuesday - arrived at SFO and after getting our rental car, we headed for Half Moon Bay and had a wonderful lunch at Barbara's Fish Trap. My husband and I had the dungeness crab sandwiches. It was the first time we'd had dungeness crab and we loved it - we asked first if it was local and it was. Daughter had the bay shrimp sandwich which I don't think was local but she didn't complain & loved it. Tuesday late afternoon we checked into our Cow Hollow hotel and my husband's childhood friend, Doug, picked us up and gave us the first of a couple of tours of the city. Sorry to get off topic here but he took us across the Golden Gate Bridge into Marin Headlands, drove us past the Palace of Fine Arts, took us thru GGP, stopped at the windmill & took pictures of the tulips blooming. Stopped at the Beach Chalet at Ocean Beach for a brew. Stopped at Alamo Sq for pix of the painted ladies. Drove down Lombard and Vermont Streets. Drove thru the Tenderloin and several other neighborhoods, including OJ's former neighborhood. Then, we had a wonderful sushi dinner at Ace Wasabi in Cow Hollow. I can't tell you what all was ordered. Doug took charge of ordering & we were rather tired. Wed- we started out at 7am hoping to have breakfast at either Judy's or Bechelli's but neither were open yet. So, we ended up getting bagels from Noah's NY Bagels & did so two more mornings during our trip b/c it was so close to our hotel. We boarded the ferry for Alcatraz at 9am & spent the morning there. Came back & hopped the trolley to the Ferry Bldg & had lunch at the Slanted Door. We enjoyed it very much. Daughter loved the gelato at the ice cream place in the Ferry Bldg - I forget what it was called. Wed night we went to Amici's for a quick pizza. We'd had a big lunch & didn't want much more than a little bite. Thursday- it was a rainy day so we decided to head for the California Academy of Sciences and got there at opening time, 9:30am - it was a huge mistake! The place was soooo crowded. They had tour buses of school groups, tour buses of senior citizens plus all the tourists on spring break. When we left at 12:30, there was no elbow room at this place and there were huge lines for the bathrooms. Sorry to get off topic, but I don't know why the event coordinator couldn't have planned this a little better considering it was Easter week & spring break week. I've seen my share of aquariums & natural history museums & planetariums & rainforests all over the country when my kids were little - this was no different from the rest, really. Suffering from people pollution, my husband suggested we drive some place isolated for lunch. I hadn't done any restaurant research near GGP so the only think we could think of was HMB again! Took a nice relaxing drive there & ate lunch at Ketch Joanne. My husband & daughter sampled BBQ oysters for the first time. Between the two, I think we liked Barbara's Fish Trap better than Ketch Joanne. Thursday night, my husband's friend picked us up again at our Cow Hollow hotel and took us on another tour of the city - Pier 39 to see the sea lions, Coit Tower, Lincoln Park, Robin Williams & Diane Feinstein's houses, the Russian Embassy and then we ended up at a neighborhood joint of his choosing for dinner, Pacific Cafe Seafood at Geary Ave & 34th St. I had snapper & the rest had seafood au gratin of some sort. Very nice and very quaint. Friday - we went to Muir Woods & had lunch at FISH in Sausalito. I had a dungeness crab sandwich, my husband had the fish tacos. Daughter had the catfish & she thought it was the most horrible fish she'd ever had. We explored more of Marin Headlands in the afternoon. Friday night, Doug picked us up again & we went to Sodini's in North Beach. Doug had brought a $70 bottle of wine from Vincent Arroyo Winery in Calistoga & my husband was breaking apart a hard piece of bread when he knocked over Doug's glass of wine & wine went all over Doug's white shirt! The whole restaurant erupted in laughter and my husband, Mr. Perfect, was soooo embarrassed. It became the "story" of the trip the next day. We had cannoli's at Stella's Bakery before leaving North Beach. Saturday - drove to Doug's place in San Rafael & from there we went to wine country. He's a wine dude. Stopped at Francesco (sp?) winery. Stopped at V. Sattui in St. Helena and then Vincent Arroyo Winery in Calistoga. Doug wasted no time showing the winemaker, Vincent Arroyo, his stained white shirt from dinner the night before at Sodini's. Doug helps cork wine there & the winemaker joined us for our picnic lunch which Doug packed. It was a beautiful day & we enjoyed it very much. Last stop was in the Russian River Valley at a winery. Sunday - we had breakfast at Judy's - it was very good - but I don't think we had ever spent more than $50 on breakfast for three people!!! Then we headed for SFO, turned in the rental car & got our flight back to Cleveland and got home safely. SF was fun - not the relaxing type of trip where you lay at the beach at an all inclusive resort in the Caribbean & do nothing all day - it was go, go, go. We enjoyed SF and all the food we had. It was so nice having our own private "tour guide", Doug - that's the best way to see a city. The only disappointment was the CA Academy of Sciences - too much people pollution. Thanks for all your help! Much appreciated! Tue Apr 14 19:20:00 -0700 2009 147614 CurryLover 1 4596586 Thanks so much for reporting back! I'm glad you had a good time (sounds like with a couple of exceptions you ate pretty well) and enjoyed Half Moon Bay. The gelato place in the Ferry Building is Ciao Bella. Tue Apr 14 19:47:19 -0700 2009 4596524 10159 Ruth Lafler 1 4601164 Thanks for reporting back. If you come back we'll know your tastes better. How did you like Sodini's. We don't get many reports from there. One of the real shortcomings of SF is restaurants don't open early enough and you pretty much have to resort to chains like Noah's before 7 or 8 am depending on the day of the week. If you have a Whole Foods where you live, they probably sell Cioa Bella gelato. It is sold nationally. Thu Apr 16 09:15:47 -0700 2009 4596524 10264 rworange 2 4602578 We enjoyed SF and we plan to return at some point - a promise to our college freshman son who was not able to accompany us- he had a different spring break than we did this year with our daughter. While walking in the Cow Hollow neighborhood, I noticed many of the restaurants many of the chowhounders recommended, for example, A16, Izzy's, Laiola, Ashoka, DragonWell, etc. It wasreally too bad we could not eat as much as you can walk. The afternoon we did the cable cars, we stopped at Buena Vista & had Irish coffees - I forgot to add that to my report & my husband reminded me. I really wanted to go to Dottie's for Easter Sunday breakfast rather than Judy's but my husband did not want to risk not finding on street parking especially we needed to stick to schedule and leave for the airport at a certain time. Even when we were having breakfast at Judy's, the parking situation was a problem for those trying to find parking. We were lucky we could walk to Judy's from the Chelsea Motor Inn. I failed to mention, we did have breakfast one morning at the Baywatch Cafe at the Cow Hollow Motor Inn. That was a huge breakfast & very good. At least three SF policemen stopped there for breakfast while we were there. We do have Whole Foods in the Cleveland area, I was just at Trader Joe's today and WholeFoods is just down the road from Cioa Bella - will have to check that next time. Sodini's was what I would call a family style restaurant. - I'm saying that coming from living in Boston & eating in the North End frequently b/c my husband did a rotation at a community heath center in the North End. Sodini's was where our friend took us b/c he knew the owners, not really something I might have chosen had I did the research foodie -wise. I thank all of you chowhounders for helping me out and all your wonderful recommendations! Thu Apr 16 15:56:37 -0700 2009 4601164 147614 CurryLover 1 4605006 I really enjoyed reading your report and taking a vicarious vacation. I like FISH a lot. Does your daughter just not like catfish, or was there something wrong with it? Sorry about the Academy of Sciences. I went with my family during Winter break and even with reservations we had to wait an hour to get in. I overheard two security guards saying they'd oversold. They need to work out the problem. Fri Apr 17 12:37:30 -0700 2009 4596524 11231 Glencora 2 4616306 My first reply to you did not get posted - not sure why - but, about the catfish - it was the first time my daughter had catfish & she thought it was funny tasting...and, I agree they need to do something about overcrowding at CAS. I just opened the May 2009 issue of Coastal Living magazine. HMB is featured in an article on "Coastal Dream Towns." And, Barbara's Fish Trap is listed as a "seafood dive" in a section written about the best Seafood Dives in the US! Tue Apr 21 16:07:47 -0700 2009 4605006 147614 CurryLover