San Francisco: Aussies Discovering New Adventures!

Well, it seems that our earlier 2018 West Coast roadtrip (here and here) just wasn’t enough to sate our beach-starved Aussie souls, and we’ve just done another trip back to spend the weekend in San Francisco. Why, I hear you ask?

To qualify to ‘Take the Rock’ in our swim from Alcatraz next weekend, of course! Since we only spent a day in San Fran during our roadtrip earlier in the year, this weekend offered us a great chance to see a little more of the city and learn about it from some locals to boot. We walked—a LOT—and ate some great food—again, a LOT—and had an all-round awesome time, especially getting an insider’s view of San Fran, which was incredible.

San Francisco Day 1 – Friday 31 August

After a dark, early start to the morning driving to OKC, our flight arrived in San Fran quite early in the day—thanks Pacific Time Zone! We were fortunate that our Airbnb host allowed us to drop our bags off before the apartment was ready, so with our backpacks strapped on and our water bottles full, we set out for adventure.

Of course, that meant our first stop was a patisserie. After some quick scouting, James decided B Patisserie had what we were looking for (I say ‘we’ to be generous: it was mostly James), and we got an Uber out there. Very late in the game, we’ve figured out that to find what we would call a ‘bakery’, we need to ask Google to scout us out a patisserie. Ah well, better later than ever! And, of course, it was a good call on James’ part: their tartines are delicious, the cheese on my ham and cheese sandwich a mixture of golden brown, crispy and gooey, and we left with a box full of pastries to snack on throughout the day.

Golden Gate Park

Keen to see a little more of the city, and with James directing our movements, we walked down to the Golden Gate Park’s Conservatory of Flowers to wander through the greenhouses. Organised by environment—highland, lowland, aquatic—each boasts a wonderful array of beautiful species. This includes the truly gargantuan Giant Water Lilies, banana and coffee plants, and the greenhouses are complete with disconcerting forest animal noises. Then, of course, we sat down on the grass outside near the flowers and ate some pastries, which, as we’d thought likely, were absolutely delicious.

It was, we decided, a little toofar to walk down to the Dutch Windmill that was next on the list, so we Ubered down there… once the driver, who it seemed got lost more than once on his way to the pick-up point, finally got to us. The windmill itself, one of two along the SF coastline, is surrounded at its base by a smattering of colourful flowerbeds and apparently, according to the internet, has an interior gallery “full of paintings in need of serious repairs”. Even without knowing that, James tried his best to get inside, but to no avail.

We had decided earlier that, bereft of any knowledge about the conditions for our swim the following day, it would be great to at the very least dip our toes in the ocean. From the windmill, we walked down to the beach and struggled, calves burning, across the grey sand. Making our way through an abnormally large murder of abnormally large crows and chicken-sized seagulls—seriously, what is it with American birds? They all seem verylarge… except bald-headed eagles: it tickles me pink that the Australian Wedgetail is a whole heap bigger than that icon of American freedom—we finally reached the water. I was about ready to gouge my calves out of body with my fingertips, and the harder wet sand was a relief. Cautiously, we dipped our toes.

Crisp, but not unbearable. Relief!

Satisfied that we were unlikely to turn into large, Australian-flavoured ice blocks during the qualifier, we decided to continue strolling along the beach, pointing out the countless dogs spotted along the way. Also scattered along the beach were a number of whip-like plant appendages that seemed to have washed up from the sea: how James resisted picking one up and playing cowboy will forever remain a mystery. Still, there’s always our trip back again next weekend…

[Research tells me that these are actually bull kelp, which are apparentlydelicious when cooked and marinated. Who knew?!]

Sutro Baths

Our stroll took us up around a small headland to an inlet complete with what appeared to be a truly ginormous set of stone ruins, and some quick research revealed these to be the remains of the Sutro Baths. Established in 1890 by a wealthy San Franciscan named Adolph Sutro, the Sutro Baths comprised a huge, glass-roofed structure that contained seven salt-water swimming pools, designed by Sutro to be filled, via concrete tunnels, by the forceful tides along the coast.

Tragically, despite being very popular, the enterprise was never profitable and as maintenance became increasingly expensive, Sutro Baths were eventually shut down in 1966 and suffered a devastating fire the same year. It’s a shame, because even in ruins, the area is awe-inspiring. Looking at the remnants of the structure—including the quite repulsive, stagnant water in what remains of the baths—it was clearly immense and would have been an amazing historical artefact to have from the early 20^thcentury. I mean… it included an ice-skating rink! Amazing. Still, if nothing else, we have to be grateful that the ruins have been preserved, since purchase by the National Parks in 1980 saved them from developers.

Thoroughly enchanted with the whole idea of it, and already scheming about setting a story there, we continued our walk along the coast. And boy, did we walk. We walked a loooong way—but as payment, we saw a lot of dogs. And stopped to eat a berry and almond croissant on the way, so there really wasn’t much to complain about, though James did get sore feet. Luckily for me, all the time spent in my earthrunners paid off, both with sweet tan lines and minimal discomfort: earthrunners are also seriously the best shoes I’ve ever owned: no blistering, rubbing, or cramped-toes feeling!

Rounding Out the Day with Some Culture

We reached the end of the Land’s End trail and decided that since we were relatively close to the Legion of Honor museum and a number of memorials ‘just up the hill’, we’d keep trekking on and check them out.

Then, of course, because we love art galleries, we decided to pony up the cash for admittance to the Legion of Honor Museum and spent the next hour or so wandering around the exhibits. They have a wonderful Rodin exhibit, which fascinated me, and the whole visit really provided some fantastic learning opportunities. Somehow we left without me buying twenty artbooks, still not quite sure how we managed that.

Very tired by this time, and keen for a relaxed night in, we swung by Wholefoods to grab something for dinner. Of course, that means we walked out 20 minutes later having mortgaged our future home and sold at least two as-yet unborn children. Still, we had some supplies, and headed back to the Airbnb for some chicken-and-chip breadrolls, some couch and some TV time.

San Francisco Day 2 – Saturday 01 September

You know it’s going to be a good day when you win the monthly battle to beat your partner to ‘pinch and punch for the first of the month’, so my Saturday morning victory left me feeling optimistic about the day ahead. After splitting a reheated Wholefoods breakfast burrito, we saddled up and headed to Aquatic Park. A tad footsore from the adventures of the previous day, we were also both nervous and eager for our qualifier, and, arriving far too early, trod the concrete and twiddled our thumbs while we waited. Finally, we convened with a group of talkative, enthusiastic swimmers—all military veterans, or family members thereof—and got the lowdown on what, exactly, was going on… Along with the inevitable ribbing about being Aussies living in Oklahoma: we truly are a fascinating attraction wherever we go.

The Swim

Our excellent coach Terri walked us through the intended 2-mile (~3.2km) qualifying course for the morning, which, though I ingested dutifully, I understood approximately none of. She then distributed some very tasty looking ‘GU’s, and we suited up, thrilled to find that my wetsuit fit like a glove (or, really, like a well-fitted wetsuit). This was particularly excellent news, because I’d never worn it before and it was the largest size we could get. James had brought two wetsuits to San Fran but decided to stick to just his full-length for the swim, based on our highly-scientific assessments of the water temperature the previous day. It was a wise choice!

Though my initial contact with the water left me thinking my face was going to freeze off, eventually we warmed up and the whole session was a gorgeous experience. The sun was out and the freedom to swim outside and in open water after months of indoor, chlorinated pool swims was intoxicating

But how did we go, I hear you ask?

Excellently!

Despite both of us experiencing some minor neck chafe from our wetsuits, we smashed the swim out of the park, and left the whole thing not only enchanted by the beauty of San Fran, Aquatic Park, and the ocean in general, but feeling ready for next weekend’s event. We ended up swimming around 4km in under 90 minutes, with plenty of rest stops to reconvene with the group (and have a snack!) I’d say that’s ticking all the boxes!

The Refuel & Some Adventuring

We had previously arranged to meet up with some friends of James’s dad while in San Fran, so once the swim was done we hightailed it back to our Airbnb to shower and change before returning to the city. Pam and John treated us to an honestly incredible lunch at Kin Khao, an inner-city Thai eatery located in the Parc 55 San Francisco building. Luckily for us, John handled ordering entrees (or ‘starters’/‘appetizers’ for any American readers), and showed us the best the restaurant had to offer… and it was pretty amazing.

We had the Mushroom Hor Mok Terrine, the Pretty Hot Wings, the Nam Tok Beans, and the Stir-Fried Baby Choy Sum, and the first two were probably my favourites. (You can check out their lunch and dinner menus here). James then ordered the Crispy Chicken Sandwich and I got the Yaowaraj Noodles… which were delicious and disappeared at a suspiciously rapid rate. Possibly explained by the fact that we hadn’t really eaten that much, but also likely due to just how damn good they were. Suffice to say, for anyone intending to travel to San Francisco, we can strongly recommend Kin Khao!

Afterwards, Pam and John were kind enough to give us a bit of a walking tour of some of the less-touristy parts of San Fran, which we were thrilled to discover. We strolled along Fillmore street with Pam and John’s huge and very friendly bullmastiff, Elsa (who was devastated to discover that the pet accessories store where she normally receives a little treat was closed for the afternoon), before stopping in at a beautiful wine bar called Verve Wine. There, the three adults tasted a variety of different wines while I, with my unsophisticated palate, discovered a truly delicious grapefruit spritzer called Ramona—and promptly bought a four-pack to take rafting this weekend.

An Interesting Dinner Experience

After farewelling Pam and John, James and I extended our afternoon by heading down to Chestnut Street and strolling into Delarosa for dinner on Pam and John’s recommendation. The food was, again, fantastic (we got the meatballs and a pizza to share), and the evening featured a strange interaction with a guy called Chris. Looking for somewhere to sit at the bar, he introduced himself and his date (Brooke) to James, mentioned he’d been to Australia before, and asked us to move down a seat so they could squeeze in. Only one problem: one of the seats he had his eye on was taken, and there weren’t two spare ones next to one another. Like so:

 

[Spare]   [James]   [Me]   [Spare]   [Woman 1]   [Woman 2]

 

We felt pretty bad for him, however, especially since we gleaned that it was their first date, so got the two lovely women sitting near us to squidge up some and made some room for Chris and Brooke. In thanks, Chris sent James a ‘classic’ San Francisco drink—a shot of fernet-branca (which my eldest brother has encouraged me to try before and I found disgusting… and which James found similarly unpalatable). Not sure why I didn’t deserve a drink, since I was the one who asked the two women to move seats, but there you go—clearly a dude thing!

Probably the best part was that Chris had ‘been to Australia, Sydney, once’ and as he sent the fernet-branca James’s way, made some comment about it ‘being like Fosters for San Fran’… And the woman sitting next to me says under her breath, ‘sure, but Aussies don’t even drink Fosters.’ Turns out she’d lived in Australia for about 6 months! All in all, quite a strange turn of events, but dinner was really delicious, so we can’t complain.

And an Over-Indulgence!

Fortunately, there was an ice creamery called Over the Moon just across the road—a clear omen if ever there was one—and we each bought a whopping big cookie-ice cream sandwich. They were bloody brilliant. The cookies were great, the ice cream flavours were delicious (I got cookie butter), and the combination was killer.

Not surprisingly, I was pretty full afterwards. That’s why I can promise, with my hand on my heart, that the reason we ended up in Ginger Elizabeth (a gorgeous, elegant-looking chocolatier on Fillmore Street) was because James wanted to go in there. I’ve already been told that this story is completely unbelievable. Somehow people think that I’m the troublemaker and James is the good influence in our relationship, but I promise you, it was all him.

I mean, their hot chocolates were really good, and apparently so is the dulce de leche sauce James bought, but I felt pretty sick afterwards. Still… I think we’ll be going back next weekend.

San Francisco Day 3 – Sunday 02 September

We decided late Saturday that—enthused and reassured by the morning’s expedition and tired from our other adventures—we would forgo doing another swimming session on Sunday morning. Despite a few brief-lived regrets, I’m glad we did. It was the first time in over two weeks that we hadn’t had any pressing engagements to set an alarm for, and though we woke early, it was a particular kind of luxurious to have nowhere to be.

The Markets

When we did finally rouse ourselves, we split the second Wholefoods breakfast burrito and I got my writing done for the day before we got an Uber into town. James had seen the city hall building briefly on Friday and wanted another look, so that was where we went—and it turned out to be an excellent choice. The nearby Civic Centre Plaza had an incredible art installation—forty graphite figures by London-based artist Zak Ové that explores identity and race—and fun knitted animals on the trees.

Luckily for us, fulfilling that burst of curiosity also coincided with the Sunday morning farmers’ markets, and we treasured the chance to walk around, delicious hot beverages (from Ikon Roastery) in hand, looking at all the different fresh produce for sale. It was such a relaxed, easy way to start the day, and made us greatly miss the wonderful markets we’d been spoiled with in Adelaide before we moved to Oklahoma!

Once we’d looked our fill (and managed to resist buying any pastries to accompany our coffee/chai), we hit the road. James had, of course, managed to spot a bookstore the previous day while meandering along Fillmore Street with Pam and John. He was keen to return, and I was similarly happy to spend some more time looking into shop windows, so we headed back to Fillmore Street.

At Forest Books, we yet again dived into the wonderful world of the written word. I managed to find a copy of Madeleine L’Engle’s Wrinkle In Time, which I’ve been wanting to read for ages, and can now finish before watching the movie! Hopefully there will be some time for reading on the river this weekend. And then, because we were strolling, and it was in our path, we stopped and sat for a while at the Fillmore Bakeshop for a tasty ham and cheese croissant (though not, I’d argue, as good as the one we had from B Patisserie)…

And we stopped in at Salt and Straw to share a scoop of half ‘Hey Boo Coconut Jam & Rice Krispy Treats’ and half ‘Salted, Malted, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough’. (After we finally tried Salt and Straw on our Portland trip, I’ve been in love). In hindsight, maybe we should have gotten 2 scoops.

The Presidio

Pam and John had recommended we check out the Presidio on Sunday afternoon, especially because of the food trucks—after such a short meeting, they already knew the way to our hearts!—and we decided that it sounded too good to miss. From Fillmore, James navigated us through the suburb of Pacific Heights, via Alta Plaza Park and the Lyon Street Steps, to the Presidio. The views on this walk were stunning. Some of the houses are absolutely gorgeous (and humungous) and it was peaceful and beautiful to stroll through the neighbourhood, peeping at the different buildings and enjoying the sunshine. The Lyon Street Steps were particularly beautiful… though I wouldn’t want to spend my morning running up and down them, as one fellow seemed inclined to do.

We followed the steps down and continued on until we reached the gate to the Presidio. The Presidio is, today, a National Park that stretches out from around the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge for some 6 square kilometres (or almost 1500 acres! Wow, you learn something new every day). Historically, however, it was a US Army fort, the land having passed from New Spain to Mexico, and then to the USA in 1848; it became a park in the early 1990s, serving a mixture of commercial and public uses. And wow, is it amazing.

For a start, it’s obviously mammoth. The buildings are clearly historical, with brick walls, white trim and red-tiled roofs, and the lush green lawns are manicured and well-maintained. It looks, at least to us, very military throughout. And then we reached near the Visitor’s Centre, and the Main Parade Ground, and that’s when it got very exciting. This area is where the very popular Presidio Picnic is held every Sunday in March-October, and that meant food trucks.

The Food Trucks!

According to the website linked above, the Presidio Picnic hosts a rotating line of 25 international ‘mobile food creators’ (i.e. food trucks) that are meant to represent the best of San Francisco’s multicultural food scene. And wow, do they! The biggest challenge was how on earth to pick what to eat. I was tormented. To somewhat address this—and because incredible-looking fried chicken kept walking past us—we chose to lunch in stages. Starting with some chicken from Wing Wing first, of course!

We sat on the grass in the sunshine, eating wings and watching numerous dogs stroll past us, which always warms my heart. Then we lay about reading for a while and considering our next culinary adventure. I struggled to choose between a brisket sandwich and some Vietnamese street food, but yielded to the beckoning oxtail bowl, because brisket is at least easier to get in Oklahoma/Texas/Kansas. Sadly, I failed to take down the name of the restaurant serving it, so I’ll have to do some research to find it out!

But, what should catch my eye as I was waiting on my delicious oxtail bowl? A gigantic chocolate chip cookie from Cochon Volant—so, of course, I bought that to snack on later. Oh, and some lavender lemonade. Cause why not? While I was thus occupied, James had found himself drawn to the gyros further down the parade ground. And because I’m a bad person and my lunch was rapidly cooling, I started eating while he was waiting in line. Oops. Still, we both found our chosen meals absolutely fantastic and enjoyed the experience, one I’m very keen to repeat next weekend.

We walked down to Crissy Field after we’d eaten—there, the old aeroplane hangars now host a variety of intriguing pastimes, among them a long stretch of rock-climbing walls and a ‘jump house’. House of Air boasts that it’s a ‘bounce house paradise for adults’, but we didn’t venture in. Perhaps our next weekend in San Francisco will see us searching for that particular paradise.

Since, however, we weren’t looking for that last weekend we continued on down to the Warming Hut. Along the way, we wandered past a man who was balancing rocks along the shoreline, which was fun to see in real life. Somewhat less enjoyable was the number of people who would simply move to stand right in front of you while you watched! So, when I got fed up with people be rude, we strolled into the Warming Hut. Not surprisingly, it was packed, so we decided to keep on moving.

The Wave Organ

James had realised that the San Francisco shore offers a Wave Organ down along the jetty, and though we knew it would be quite a hike, we were keen to check it out. We strolled along the beach for a while, shoes dangling from our hands, before abandoning that effort for the more solid surface of the nearby bike and footpath. The day was starting to cool, the fog rolling in and the breeze getting crisp, but it was wonderful to walk along, holding hands and talking nonsense. I can say that, because by this stage, James had been toting our backpack for the whole day, and I was fancy free. I did offer to take it, but, ever gallant, he shouldered our supplies for the both of us!

We were, however, definitely wearying by the time we reached the end of the jetty where the wave organ resides. There, an unfortunate situation became apparent to us—they were dredging near the jetty, and the shrill screeching of its work overwhelmed any noise the wave organ might have been making. Despite the cacophony, we sat down for a little while and powered through our cookie. Yet again, I found myself regretting my earlier self-control.

And, as a small reward on our walk back down the jetty, we saw a sea lion dawdling in the water quite close to the shore!

Though we’d considered heading back to the Airbnb we were so close to Chestnut street that decided to stay out and get dinner in town for our last night in San Francisco. Of course, inevitably, that meant we wandered into a bookstore on our way down the street—we have a problem. I’d like to say we left without buying anything, but… Anyway! We shared some nice fish and chips at Pacific Catch (because James had a hankering) for dinner, drooping a little on our seats with fatigue.

James was devastated afterward to discover Ginger Elizabeth was closed for the day. So we had no choice but to walk up to Union Street in search of some dessert. We are nothing if not predictable… at least when it comes to dessert! Luckily, we somehow managed to escape me spending our life savings in some fun little boutiques passed along the way, and (mostly) satisfied our sweet tooths with gelato from Gio Gelati.

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend spent with my favourite human being, and we enjoyed seeking out a bunch of fun new things to do in San Francisco… Guess that means we’ll have to do it all again next weekend!

Stay tuned to hear about my adventures rafting the Rogue River in Oregon this weekend.

— Ana.