gurdymonkey | Adventures of a tour guide, day 1

My sister's flight arrived last night. They were late leaving Seattle, so by the time she got off the plane it was about 9 PM and she hadn't eaten. We hit the Carrows on Hegenberger as it was close to the airport and open.

This morning, we headed into San Francisco. First stop: the newly opened California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. The old Academy had been closed since I moved out here, and I confess part of my curiousity also stemmed from the fact that my company did the plumbing and HVAC systems. Bright, airy, innovatively green in design, the place is freakin' gorgeous. The aquarium is first class, with the highlight being the Phillipine coral reef tank, teeming with the brilliantly colored cast of "Finding Nemo." Also stunningly gorgeous, the rainforest habitat, contained in a large dome inhabited by various plants, birds, reptiles and an active butterfly population. The tiny strawberry poison dart frogs hanging out on a tree branch looked like jewels. The penguin colony was pretty cool as well. We decided not to wait around for the next planetarium show (passes are limited and the next show wasn't until 3:30).

The last time Elaine was in San Francisco, we ate at some place down on Pier 39 that had Dungeness crab melt sandwiches. She had been jonesing for a repeat so I'd promised we'd try to find the place for lunch. We made it across town in reasonable order, parked in the garage for the Safeway a few blocks off of the Embarcadero and walked over. All I remembered about the place was that it was on the upper level of the Pier 39 complex on the left as you face the bay. I'm not sure if Swiss Louis' is where we went the last time, but they did, in fact, show a crab panini on their lunch menu, so in we went.

Very, VERY old school Italian, with Dean Martin and Tony Bennett on the sound system and the smell of garlic and seafood wafting out the door. E and I split an order of mussels steamed in clam broth, garlic and butter and we each got the panini. The panini was decent - plenty of crab meat, smothered in mozzarella and cheddar, but the mussels were positively orgasmic. (Interestingly, I just looked this place up on the net and there are a lot of negative reviews. We happened to hit it around 2 in the afternoon on a Friday, so it wasn't hugely busy, the service was reasonably decent, the view of the bay and the sea lion colony was amusing, and, as I said, the food filled the empty to a nicety.)

I doubt one can find enlightenment at Pier 39, but I did find a cool t-shirt with noh masks on it - at Enlightenment.

We walked down past the Hyde Street Pier, went up to Ghirardelli Square - I had already warned Elaine that if she really wants some Ghirardelli chocolates, there's an outlet store in San Leandro which is hugely cheaper. Wandered around, but it looks like it's mostly restaurants up there.

Came back home for a couple of hours to rest, then ended up having dinner at the Crepevine over in Rockridge.