It was our second day in San Francisco and we wanted to spend some more time sightseeing. We visited the
Fisherman's Wharf area first.
Because of a tour we planned late in the afternoon/early evening, we decided to have a late lunch at
Boudin Bakery, home of sourdough bread.
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| Inside the Boudin Bakery. |
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Clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl, French onion soup with a sourdough crouton,
with a basket of sliced sourdough bread. |
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| A view of wharf-area from the Pier. |
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| Obligatory wharf cat. |
We thought it would be fun to see the holiday lights in and around San Francisco.
Mr. Toad's Tours offered the type of trip we were looking for.
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| One of the green vehicles in the Mr. Toad's fleet. |
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| While the vehicles were open-air, we were prepared! Plus they had the heat on full-blast and provided blankets. |
Unfortunately, these pictures don't do any justice to many of the lights we saw. (The tour was 90 minutes and
covered a lot of territory. I was hoping we would go through neighborhoods that traditionally went "all-out" with their decorations and lights. We saw lots of pretty lights, just not the over-the-top quantity I hoped.)
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| Every window has a big wreath with white twinkle lights. |
After the lights tour, we made our way down the Embarcadero to the
Fog City Diner for dinner.
Having seen a segment on TV about it, and we were going to be in the area, we thought we'd give it a try. The food was pretty tasty (mac and cheese, fish and chips but especially the calamari with chili lime sauce.)
On Friday morning, we all packed up and headed north, with Napa being our destination for the evening.
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| Very steep Divisidero St! |
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| On the Golden Gate Bridge. |
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| Houseboats. |
Andrea suggested we take a tour of the
Cowgirl Creamery. So we signed up for a Cheese 101 class. Fortunately, they do the class at their Point Reyes location which was on the way to Napa.
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| Checking the temperature, pH level and "readiness" of the curd. |
Our cheese educator, walked us through the history of the
Point Reyes area, how the company started, where they get their milk as well as the
process of making cheese. We took the "speedy version", stirring the milk in one direction, quickly adding the rennet, reversing the stirring (one turn). It was amazing how quickly the pasteurized milk coagulated.
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| This is the milk with the rennet added. |
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Cheryl cuts the curd into larger pieces and puts it into a strainer to separate the curds from the whey.
She cut another batch into smaller curds and put them in another strainer. |
We tasted so many
yummy cheeses! Some fresh and some aged! (My favorites were the Mt Tam and Wagon Wheel.)
By the way, the "curds and whey" Miss Muffet was said to have been eating before the spider scared her away was probably what we know as cottage cheese. :o)
After our informative and tasty cheese class, we ate lunch at the creamery and then continued on our trek towards Napa. When we got to the hotel, we learned
Hess was going to offer a free wine tasting in the lobby. (That was a bonus we weren't expecting!)
The tasting hostess suggested a few restaurants and we were able to get a last minute reservation at
Morimoto. (Yes,
THE Morimoto from
Iron Chef fame.)
We weren't sure what to expect and had a million questions for our waiter. Each was patiently answered. (I was pretty sure we'd get a little portion for a big price, but was pleasantly surprised when the portions were quite large!) The service was outstanding!
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| Frank ordered the crispy fish. Kind of scary looking but he reported it was very tasty. |
The weather has been rainy the whole day and we expect more of the same tomorrow. But we aren't going to let that deter us from exploring Napa and all it has to offer.
