Our San Francisco Treat

Our day in San Francisco started off the same as the weather, some clouds, but it cleared up quickly. We had an excellent breakfast  despite the 1 hr wait for Taylor St Coffee Shop, where we had the Millionaire's bacon (a full 1/5 inch thicker than normal bacon and is slowed cooked all night with maple and cinnamon). Niina and I had this perfect light Breakfast salad with  poached egg, bacon, strawberries, blueberries, and a homemade balsamic dressing. So delicious! 

After a quick jaunt to my favorite jean store, we headed off to our main objective of the day: to Chinatown. The San Francisco Chinatown is the largest and oldest continually lived in chinatown in the USA. We were entertained by the novelty and prices of all the imports appealed to our frugal budgets. 

We passed a tea house that offered tea tastings, Triina the tea connoisseur, was all about learning the sacred art of Chinese tea making. We learned all the differences between the different ages of green tea and how it differentiates into the different types of tea. What exactly is the difference between jasmine and regular green tea.  What is Oolong tea, what is herbal tea? which teas a re good for different parts of the day. The whole time, the guide was pouring us different teas to try from. My favorite was a high elevation mountain tea that grows in the Himalayan mountains in Tibet. That stuff ran about $200/4oz. We did not get that one. We had to settle for a mountain goddess green tea and a ginseng oolong. It was a really cool and educational experience. 

So what else do you do when in Chinatown than a snack of dim sum. The waitress was clearly annoyed with us when we only got 5 items to try and no entrees. Our breakfast had been so big that we were only peckish and just wanted a snack. We were planning on going on a boat tour and didn't want anyone to get sick. At the end we were pretty surprised it came with free green tea ice cream, Score! The city pass we had gotten for the aquarium was also good for a harbor boat tour. Since we only had a day out there, we decided since it took us under the Golden Gate bridge and past Alcatraz (which is  a whole day instead to visit), 

The harbor boat tour was nice. It was a simple 1 hour tour that talked about the history of the city as we pasted landmarks on the shore and gave tidbits about building the bridge and cool facts about the prison. As a person who usually hates tours, I like these short 1 hour, git-er-done style rides that give me enough entertainment and informative facts before my fuse of being around a ton of people packed into a small place and being annoyed by being told what to do kicks in. They have a similar tour in Seattle that I also recommend. Post tour, we did a little window shopping and went to go see the sea lions that hang out permanently at Pier 39. Once again, so cute! After we had gotten our fill of oogling the seals, our stomachs were making us aware of dinner being required soon and our daily requirements only half fulfilled, we had to find a combo solution to our wine obligation and being hungry. A quick Yelp search had us at an intimate neighborhood wine bar and fondue place that had live jazz playing called Melt Cafe. We got the traditional swiss gruyere fondu, salads, and some tasty wine. 

After that we decided to go about the town. Nothing too fancy since we didn't want to go home and change and weren't particularly dressed up to go clubbing or to anywhere fancy. As we walked back to Union Square area from Russian Hill, we hit up a honkey-tonk dive bar for a drink and decided this was the night we did some karaoke. 

Karaoke is a tradition among Triina, Niina, and myself. When we had gone to visit her family in Finland, the whole family got together to meet us for an afternoon party at their family farm where we ate, played games in the id-summer twilight, and then sang Karaoke together till the sun finally went down. It had been so much fun! We knew this karaoke fun had to be repeated at some point on the trip. Since it was sunday, we had no problem finding a real karaoke club that had an open couch and an un-busy bar. We sang and enjoyed beverages all the way to closing time. We made friends with the other couches, everyone cheering each other one with their song picks, it was a very friendly evening of karaoke. A bit drowsy and worn out from our non-stop day, we eventually found our way to our comfy beds in Union Square.