Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Seeing the sites of San Fran

I had a very busy day. It's helping a lot that my body hasn't fully adapted to Pacific time, so waking up at 6 a.m. feels like sleeping in to me. I'm telling myself it is the jetlag that got me to Ghirardelli Square at 9:15 this morning, not the excitement over being in a store completely devoted to the consumption of chocolate. Makes perfect sense.

After taking in the free chocolate samples and smells of the square, I made my way down Fisherman's Warf. Between stores and restaurants, you can sneek peaks at the bay, Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. After a little retail therapy, I visited the aquarium. A school of sardines and anchovies were swirling above me in one of the tunnels:



The aquarium made me hungry for seafood, so I called Tim and he joined me on the warf for lunch. I enticed him with crab sandwiches, which did not disappoint:



After lunch, we headed back to the hotel so Tim could work on his presentation for Wednesday and so I could figure our what kind of trouble I could get into next. I opted for China Town.

I caught a trolley (Think: Rice-a-Roni the San Francisco treat! Ding-ding!) to Grant Street, which is right in the heart of China Town. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was a blast. I began by looking for a fortune cookie factory and on the way, I met a woman who was also touring by herself. We ended up exploring China Town the rest of the afternoon together.

We started by sampling tea. The tea shop had at least 40 teas to sample.



You start by telling the shopkeeper what kind of tea you like. They then tailor your tasting around what they think you will like. Sitting at a bar, the tea person gives you a tiny cup--smaller than a child's tea set. She made us several samples of tea to try. It was a lot like doing shots of boiling water. As fun and educational as that was, by tongue is still a little raw. The last sample we tried was called something like Iron Goddess Something or Other. It was a great tea, which I wanted to buy for home. Note the past tense of that sentence. The tea cost $120 per pound. Uh, I'll go with the cheaper jasmine tea, thanks. We also sampled tea that had monkey in the name and we were assured there were no monkeys harmed in the tea making process. But by far the most interesting tea we sampled smelled and tasted like buttered popcorn, which was very enjoyable.

Leaving the shop hopped up on caffeine, tongues blazing, we began looking for the elusive fortune cookie factory. The discription in my guidebook was a little misleading. I thought factory: assembly line, a dozen or so workers, a cash register. Not at all. This was a tiny store front (we passed it several times. I finally asked a tiny old man where it was, and patting me on the hand, he pointed about 15 feet behind me). Inside a little old man gave you a hot-off-the-cookie-maker sample as you walked in to his "store." Further in, an old lady was sitting at the cookie maker pouring batter, folding and stuffing cookies with fortunes. It was 50 cents for a photo of the cookie making in action. Totally worth it. Plus, when you paid for the photo, the little old guy gave me another two hot cookies--score!



Leaving the fortune cookie factory, we bumped into a woman who was a tour guide. She told us we couldn't leave China Town without seeing the oldest temple there. So we followed her over a few blocks to Waverly (Amy Tan wrote about this street in The Joy Luck Club). In a very non-descript doorway, up four flights of stairs, you walk into a Chinese temple. No photos were allowed, so you'll have to take my word for it that it was beautiful and ornate and red. In such a tiny space (it was maybe 15 feet wide and 30 feet deep), around 100 lanterns hung from the ceiling all with red papers attached to the bottom. Prayers of thanks and requests for spiritual help hung from the ceiling in front of the altar. By making a donation to keep the temple operating, I was given a packet of tea and a good luck charm of red fabric and string.

After the temple, we continued our stroll and found a Chinese kite shop. If you can think of a shape, they had a kite. These were just two of the really interesting kites we saw:



We wrapped up the night with dinner with a high school friend of mine and his wife. It was my first experience with Indian food and it was fun. It was great to see a familiar face, especially one I haven't seen in more than 10 years. Thanks!

Not sure what the plan is tomorrow. You'll just have to tune in and be surprised.

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:09 AM

    Sounds like a great day! I tried to see everything in San Fran in the two days I was there, so I didn't have time to just wonder and explore. Very cool that you were able to. If you have the time, I do suggest going to Alcatraz; it was awesome! I can't wait to read your next post. Have fun! --Shelley

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  2. Whitney8:16 AM

    How cool that you found someone to hang with :) Love the photos, keep 'em coming!

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  3. Anonymous9:03 AM

    Yay Indian food! Glad you enjoyed it. Sounds like a very fun day although I would probably wimp out on the tea sampling, I hate burning my tongue.

    Kyle

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  4. Who knew there were so many different flavors of tea. And fresh fortune cookies! That sounds fun.

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