Taking the Ferry to San Francisco

Yey! I finally took the ferry from Larkspur to the city today.

San Francisco skyline as seen from the Larkspur/San Francisco skyline
Approaching the San Francisco Ferry Building

Marcia, a friend I met through Dawn at O’Reilly, mentioned that she’d be on vacation all week and was looking for things to do. Meanwhile I’d decided after some recent ad hoc trips to the city that I needed to be more systematic in my excursions. I decided I should go when I have a few hours free on a weekend and spend some time focusing on just a single neighborhood, of which I’d learned there are several. So I suggested we take the ferry down and check out the Marina to start.

We were on the ferry in Larkspur at 11am, got to the city around noon. Since it was convenient and we were hungry, we stopped by the Slanted Door for lunch, located in the ferry terminal. I’d eaten at this restaurant back in October when I was in the bay area meeting with a former co-worker.

The place was hopping, hour and fifteen minute wait for a table, so we sauntered over to the bar (also full) where two seats opened up in minutes. We started with some non-vegetarian spring rolls, which I expected would be fried (as opposed to summer rolls) but these came uncooked and beautifully prepared, complete with a cooked shrimp in each, visible through the rice paper. Inside was a little bit of pork, some lettuce, and rice noodles. We dipped them in a sweet peanut sauce.

The vast majority of wine on their list was from France—none from Sonoma County, so I couldn’t flex my newly earned awareness of our local appellations. Under a category they labeled “Rich Whites” we choose the Champalou Vouvray, la Cuvée des Fondraux 2004. It was sweet and quite good, but I honestly can’t say what else it tasted like. I enjoyed it and would definitely recommend with spicy food, like the carmelized shrimp I chose, the same entree I had last October—purely a coincidence. Marcia had flank steak with noodles which was also quite good, and for dessert I strongly suggested the pot de creme—purely on purpose.

The rest of the afternoon consisted of a lot of walking (I still haven’t figured out the Muni) down Broadway and then Columbus which had a lot of interesting restaurants, including the infamous Stinking Rose. We hung a left onto Union Street, which SFGate had singled out as particularly happening strip in the Marina. After several blocks of just housing (we were still pretty far east) we came upon some signs of life, including one of the American Apparel stores, which I’ve been wanting to check out. Verdict: it’s weird in a good way, a rainbow of bright colors and photos reminiscent of Fiona Apple’s “Criminal” video. I picked up three tshirts.

We looped back around to Chestnut which seemed a little more lively, tried some more clothes on, finally heading over to the Palace of Fine Arts for some photo ops. It had been marvelously sunny and windy all day long, but now the fog was coming in. More importanly we needed to get back to the ferry terminal before 7pm to catch the last ferry out of the city. We hailed a cab and were soon on our way.

6 Comments

I only ever rode MUNI twice in the entire time I lived in the Bay Area.

I also went into my first American Apparel store, in Soho, last week.

Tokyo

I have to write this to you because your friend Smart Kitty doesn’t have a comments feature on her blog. But, please tell her that she’s great, and her writing is funkin’ his-terical. As as truely weird and stalker-esk as this sounds, I actually have the damn thing bookmarked. I’d love to read anything more structured that she’s done if she can point me in the right direction.

I know, I’m totally bummed she doesn’t have comments. Funny that you equate bookmarking someone’s blog with stalking them. It is a blog after all. On the intarweb.

Tokyo

Good point. I guess I just don’t want to be one of those “live my life through someone else’s blog” people. They’re out there, you know. In fact, they probably do it to your blog. How’s it feel to know that you provide the shining light in some desperate soul’s otherwise pathetic existence?

Tokyo, If you really were a stalker, you would already know where you could read more of my stuff, because you would know I work for a newspaper. Crap. I’ve said too much already.

Justin, that map you posted (I figured out where you were going when you looked that up, btw. Stalker!) shone some light on my pathetic existence.

Jesus Tokyo, you’re going to give all my desperate souls a friggin’ complex.

It’s alright everyone, keep walking towards the shining light.

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