Thursday, April 30, 2020

Flashback: Take Me Out To the Ballgame - SF Giants

This post, like my last on April 26, 2020, is taking place during the coronavirus pandemic.  Today is actually the last day of my states mandatory stay at home order. Tomorrow starts encouraged stay at home as much as possible, teleworking strongly encouraged when possible, and wear a mask in public.   That's what's going on in our slice of the world, crazy crazy time we are all in.  Continuing on my same theme from last post, I'm hitting the archives for trips I either never posted about, or never finished.  This one is from the "never finished" category from the summer of 2018. Zac spoke at a conference in Silicon Valley, and we made a long weekend out of the trip to the Bay Area.   I started writing this a while back, so we will just jump in now like it is 2018....



July 28, 2018 - It's the last day of our San Francisco Bay Area Adventure! To hear about our adventures south in Silicon Valley, check out this post - Silicon Valley Eats and Treats, and for Day 1 of our time in the city - A San Francisco Treat!.  

Zac was an early bird on our last day.  Guess he was excited that we will be going to an SF Giants game later in the day to close out our trip.  He's been a fan since he was a kid, so exciting times are a-coming.  Also, the SF Giants are known for way more than hot dogs and cracker jacks at the stadium. Supposed to have some very good and gourmet eats.  Pretty early, Zac went out exploring from our hotel, Parc 55 near Union Square, and walked down to the Ferry Building on the Bay.  On Saturdays they have a farmers market with lots of food vendors. He got these great pics of the Bay Bridge and Ferry Building. 



Breakfast - He got the Golden State, and it looked so good! 




Meanwhile, back at the hotel, I eventually venture down and enjoy a nice late hotel breakfast.  It was NICE.  Lots of things on the buffet.  Lots.  Fancy tasty things. 



After breakfast we are reunited, and are ready to take on the day!  We head over to the Fillmore Farmer's Market.  I love big city farmer's markets.  Lots of diverse fruits and veggies and homemade things and meats and, well sometimes you just never know!  Prior to this trip I discovered that I like figs, thanks to my parents having planted a fig tree at their house.   Guess what they had at the farmer's market? Fresh Figs! Fancy California figs.  Fancy because, well, isn't everything a little fancier on vacation? 





Fig enjoyment
Next we head over to the Haight-Ashbury district. We mostly walk down Haight St but meander on some side streets as well.  Funky place.  We are up for some coffee, so stop into Cafe Cole on Cole St, the mural below was across the street.


636 Cole St, AKA the Charles Manson house

Grateful Dead House, from 1965-1968.  710 Ashbury St. 

Funkiness that was this entire neighborhood

Haight St.


Next up, Golden Gate Park!  


Alcatraz off in the distance

Fort Point below Golden Gate Bridge.  Fort Point is a cool place to visit as well, did it with my fam years back. Not this trip. 


In Golden Gate Park.  I think a Hobbit lives here. 

View of the city, over the edge of the Presidio and Crissy Field. 

Final view of the bridge.

 After a break at the hotel, finally time for some baseball!!

AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants




The marine layer approaches in the distance! 



It's been a good decade to be an SF Giants fan


View from our seats



Now down to business.  The plan was to sample a variety of things throughout the game. First up, Crazy Crab'z! One sandwich is actually two sandwiches.   It's sourdough bread (we are in San Francisco so what else would it be), with tomato and tons of Dungeness Crab, all pressed and toasted with tons of butter.  The line was quite long, and it's located way out behind outfield, but WORTH IT.  Very good. 



Crazy Crab'z sandwich.  So good. 

We watched the game some more, which was starting to not be so much fun because the Giants were getting stomped by the Milwaukee Brewers. Spoiler Alert, the Brewers won 7-1. 

I spot Lou Seal! 

Pablo Sandoval, the "Panda", up to bat! 
Alright, on to the next course.  I had already become a big fan of Poke', and guess what they have at the Giant stadium? Yes poke'.  Authentic Hawaiian poke none-the-less.  


This traditional ahi tuna poke' was from Da Poke' Man.  If you are in SF but not at a Giants game, he has a food truck as well, and go find it.  Great poke'!  



We did have great views from our seats! 

The final of our 3-course ballpark meal was more traditional. Nachos. Nothing gourmet or too fancy here, just good ole nachos piled high.  Well I did pick the steak nachos, but other than that, nothing fancy. 





We had a great time at the game, had some great food, and enjoyed San Francisco a lot.  This was our 2nd time in SF and I'm sure we will be back.  So much natural beauty but also have the big city fun stuff and tasty eats as well.   Until next time!  







Sunday, April 26, 2020

Savannah Georgia Flash Back!

Today is April 26th, 2020, another day in the global pandemic that is plaguing our world right now.  One good thing to come of this is (hopefully) it helps put things into perspective -  what's important, what's not.  Also to be thankful.  We are truly blessed.

We've had the good fortune to be able to travel a fair amount over the last 5 years, and we've spent some of our quarantine time lately scrolling through old photos and reminiscing.  There are so many wonderful places we have been and food we have eaten.  Oh, the food! We are ones that really enjoy eating good local food when we travel. And lots of it.  Might was well make the most of the trip!  One place that we went that I never chronicled on this blog is Savannah Georgia.  Zac had to be in the area for work in the fall of 2015, so we made a long weekend out of visiting Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA.  At the end I've included links to my posts about our wonderful meal at Husk and our adventures in Charleston.  But back to Savannah.  What a great city!  So walk-able and perfect in the fall.  I imagine it can be downright hot and muggy in the summer, but with all the live oak trees and shade I'm sure it's wonderful then too.   We only had one day and one night in Savannah and we made the most of it.  Our total miles walked that day in Savannah was a record for me, almost 11 miles!  But so so worth it.  


If you haven't been to historic Savannah, the city is laid out in grids with 22 small parks spread out across the city, abutting the banks of the Savannah River. Streets and sidewalks are brick and cobblestone, lined with live oaks with finger like branches reaching in all directions.  The city was established in 1733 and was a colonial British capital before becoming the first state capital of Georgia.  Lots of old historic buildings and structures are still standing.  The perfect place to explore by foot to take it all in.  It's very flat. 

In what seems like a perfect way to start our exploring, we stumbled upon a wedding upon entering the historic district! It had bagpipes and all.  So charming.  If you happen to know someone who got married on November 21, 2015 in Orleans Square, I've got a photo for them! Check out those live oaks and all the spanish moss.  


More live oaks and spanish moss

Zac in Chippewa Square


Me in Chippewa Square
All that walking worked up a healthy appetite for lunch.  Zac had a tip that we HAD to stop by Zunzi's at some point, so we headed there.  It is a South African inspired walk up type restaurant. 


Waiting in line at Zunzi's
We did not go hungry.  From left to right:  Oliver's Lunch, combination of chicken and homemade South African sausage served over right.  On the right is the Godfather, which is French Bread, Chicken, South African Sausage, Provolone, Romaine Lettuce, Tomato, Sheba Sauce, Zunzi's Sauce, Zunzi's Dressing, Parmesan.  Zunzi's is on the edge of Oglethorpe Square, so we found ourselves a park bench and enjoyed our very tasty eats.   That homemade South African sausage was GOOD.  


Sufficiently stuffed, we headed out for more exploring.   On our stroll we stumbled upon this church, the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, open for visitors to come inside.  What a site.



Off Madison Square. I just liked the way this street looked! 

Wedding number two!  In Madison Square

Brick streets


Those trees! Very cool. 

Zac on Jones St.  Such a cool place. 

Nearly 11 miles, 11 MILES later, we need a little pick me up and land at Lulu's Chocolate Bar.  All we wanted was a simple ice cream sundae........



Before it got too dark we had to go exploring through a cemetery, and chose Bonaventure Cemetery east of historic downtown.  Upon entering the grounds, we meet a new friend.





The cemetery is on the banks of the Wilmington River.  Even in daylight the place was genuinely creepy.




Zac was our key to a tasty dinner in having heard about a Jamaican Restaurant on Waters Avenue.  I don't recall exactly what we ordered, but we got a nice assortment of small dishes to share. It was delicious and would highly recommend it!





After dinner we headed back into downtown Savannah to get a glimpse of the city at night. We also were told we can't leave without getting ice cream at Leopold's, which has now been around for over 100 years, so of course we did what we were told! 


This place is very popular

Waiting in line for ice cream.  Yes i'm excited, who wouldn't be? 

Yes we've already had one ice cream sundae that afternoon. There is no limit on sundaes per day! 
And that my friends was the end of our Savannah adventure of 2015. We got up the next day and hit the road back to Alabama.  I have had the good fortune to go back once since then, for work, almost exactly a year ago in 2019.  I flew in and out in under 24 hours so didn't see much or do much, but still such a charming place to visit.

Check out the rest of our Charleston-Savannah weekend here:
Dinner at Husk, A Restaurant by Sean Brock (James Beard winner)
Weekend Getaway - Charleston, SC - this involved some really fun oyster shucking! I'm a natural, apparently.