An Awesome Birthday Weekend in San Francisco
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Three days in San Francisco to celebrate my birthday? Uh, huh! The City by the Bay… The Golden Gate City… and never, ever Frisco or San Fran. We’ve visited San Francisco innumerable times during our working years attending meetings, conferences and conventions and it was always one of our favorite cities. Our first non-business ‘dinner date’ was in San Francisco. We spent our honeymoon in San Francisco. We hadn’t been there in more than a decade, so when David suggested spending my 75th birthday (yup, 75, gulp!), I replied with an immediate YES!
I started compiling a list of all the things we might like to do. San Francisco is a great walking city (despite all the hills) and there’s no dearth of sights to see and things to do. I immediately began singing “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” followed by “If You’re Going to San Francisco”. Unfortunately, a chorus or two of ‘Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco treat’ entered the mix on occasion. Just couldn’t help it… it slipped out.
David used free airline miles to book first-class tickets. It’s a fairly short flight and we anticipated leaving mid-morning to have a bonus day in the city. Unfortunately, the flight was delayed a couple of hours and by the time we arrived at SFO and got to our hotel room downtown, it was already starting to get dark. No matter, nothing was going to dampen our enthusiasm for the trip. The weather was expected to be cool, but sunny and Karl the Fog was not expected on the scene. We were psyched.
I’d done my homework on transport from the airport to downtown. Taxis, ubers and even shared shuttles were expensive to the tune of $50-$100+ one way. Instead, we took the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train from the airport to Powell Street then walked to the Hotel Adagio on Geary Street, a quick 8-minute walk. It was easy, convenient and $10.55/pp… and less after we got our Senior Clipper Cards at the Embarcadero Station.
The BART is a convenient and inexpensive way to get from SFO to downtown San Francisco.
A postcard of the original Hotel El Cortez
Hotels in the city, like any large city, are not cheap. The Hotel Adagio is a Bonvoy Autograph Collection hotel… who knows what that means, but we assumed it meant it was a good place to stay and we’d accumulate more Marriott hotel points. We learned later that the autograph collection was a worldwide group of ‘historical landmark buildings rejuvenated into the 21st century but offering a hotel experience far different from a normal “cookie-cutter” property… hotels that possessed an element of authentic local flavor and cultural distinction.’ The Adagio certainly met this description.
Built in 1929 by hotelier Mortimer A. Samuel, Hotel Adagio is an historic property. It’s first given name was El Cortez, a high-end luxury hotel for the rich. Recently renovated, the rooms were comfortable and clean, but on the smallish side with shower only and no tub (not that this was an issue).
Geary Street view of the current Hotel Adagio
We also learned that in addition to the room and associated taxes, there was a $25/night ‘destination charge’ akin to the ‘resort fee’ charged in Las Vegas. This put us off a bit, but reluctantly paid it only to find it wasn’t as bad as we thought. Once we checked into the hotel, we were told the ‘destination charge’ included a $25/night credit at the restaurant hotel or bar, an evening glass of champagne for the two of us, two cable car tickets, free hi-speed internet and a variety of other amenities that made the charge a bit more tolerable.
An observation about more expensive hotels… the more you pay, the less you get. Though we didn’t have to pay for parking, it was $75/night, more for oversized vehicles like Blanche. There was no fridge or microwave in the room though when we asked for a fridge, it was brought up to us at no charge. Breakfasts were in the $25+/pp range.
We relaxed our first night, used our $25 credit for really good appies in the hotel bar which sufficed for dinner and enjoyed our complimentary glasses of champagne.
Day 1 – Embarcadero to Fisherman’s Wharf
Our plan was to rise early and get the day started. That didn’t happen. We were up early enough, drinking coffee and reading the NY Times, but languished in the ‘getting a move-on’ part of the plan. Finally up and dressed, we walked a mile to the Nob Hill Trader Joe’s and bought some snacks and basics for the next days’ breakfasts, stopping en route at a tiny hole-in-the-wall Chinese cafe for a reasonably priced breakfast.
Dropping off our grocery load at the hotel, we set out for the Embarcadero, a 3-mile-long walk along the Port of San Francisco’s waterfront with historic piers that extend out into the bay. There’s lots of eye candy. Its wide sidewalk is lined with shops, restaurants, public art, palm trees, and views of the San Francisco Bay, Yerba Buena and Treasure Islands, and the Bay Bridge.
Historic San Francisco Ferry Building on the Embarcadero
Yerba Buena Island and the Oakland Bay Bridge viewed from the Embarcadero
The pyramid-shaped Trans-America Building stands out on the San Francisco cityscape.
At Pier 43, we saw the historic ferry arch. From Wiki I learned that ‘Before the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge were built, the pier was used as a landing slip for ferry boats and barges that plied the Bay and carried railroad freight cars from Marin and the North Bay. ... Its headhouse, a decorated hoisting tower for loading and unloading rail cars on and off ferries, was built in 1914 to serve the Belt Railroad.” It had been abandoned for decades before being recognized as an historic landmark and renovated in 2002–2003 after a fire in 1998.
San Francisco’s Ferry Arch dating from 1914 is a local landmark.
One of the big draws along the Embarcadero is Pier 39. It’s touristy, crowded and bustling with kitschy souvenir shops and restaurants. We fought our way to the end of the Pier to see the carousel.
Pier 39 carousel
According to the TravelAge West website, ‘The two-story carousel was custom-made in Sernaglia, Treviso, in Italy. Artisans handcrafted the glittering merry-go-round to feature numerous unique marine animals, and hand-painted the double-decker ride with stylized depictions of famous San Francisco landmarks.” I remember riding the carousel years ago for $2. It’s now $7/pp for a 3-minute ride. Hmmm… ride or not...My parsimonious side won out. I’d ridden this carousel when it was $2/ride. This time we observed rather than rode.
We loved the imaginative sea creatures on the carousel.
From the top level of the pier, we got a great view of the bay’s sea lions. We could hear them barking from a distance and definitely smelled them before we caught sight of them.
Views of the Bay Sea lions from Pier 39
We walked past the SkyStar, a 150’ observation wheel at the entrance to Fisherman's Wharf. The enclosed cars probably provide an outstanding view of the city and seaport, but it wasn’t a lure for us.
SkyStar Observation Wheel
Our goal was to arrive at Fisherman’s Wharf by 1 PM. Known for its seafood restaurants and fishing fleet, we’ve visited this area several times in the past. Our favorite restaurant is Scoma’s which conjures us not only the fine food, but some of our most romantic meals together. David had made reservations and we were we were getting hungry. We walked down the wharf and past the marina’s fishing boats and spied the Scoma’s sign in the distance.
Our favoritet restaurant in San Francisco has been around since 1965.
Scoma’s can get very busy and some of the tables are close together. We arrived just as the lunch crowd was leaving and were seated at a fine corner table by the window with lots of room and privacy. It didn’t take us long to order. One of the house specialties is cioppino, an Italian fishermen’s stew served with fresh garlic bread for dunking into the delicious broth. It was piled high with shellfish and fish. Unfortunately, we were so into the moment, into ourselves and the cioppino, I forgot to take pictures till it was all gone. I had to nick a pic from the Internet. Needless to say, it was delish!
Interested in Scoma’s recipe for cioppino? I’ve made it many, many times and it’s wonderful.
We lingered over a 2-1/2 hour lunch… drinking wine, enjoying the cioppino, chatting, reminiscing about our past visits to San Francisco, considering possible future travel plans. Maybe spend a month or two exploring some world city by the sea? Barcelona? Lisbon? Buenos Aires? Montevideo? Some place in Asia? The possibilities are endless. A shared cannoli and cappuccinos topped off the meal. We waddled back down the dock.
We’d logged about walking 7.5 miles and David decided we should try a Waymo driverless car for the return trip to the hotel. We ordered it like an Uber, paid online ($14… no tip required), and waited at a spot designated on the app map. Five minutes later, a Waymo Jaguar pulled up. We used the app to unlock the doors.
A female voice said “Hi, Marcie. I’ve been waiting for you. Buckle up, please.” It was an interesting, initially unsettling ride. We could see the steering wheel turn as the car negotiated corners. It slowed as it neared other cars, came to full stops when required and waited patiently for an Amazon truck to move out of the way when it blocked the road. Waymo stopped right beside the hotel entrance, thanked us for riding and took off to pick up another fare. Very cool!
We headed back up to our hotel room with plans to head back out later. However, once settled into our comfy room, we only managed to get as far as the lobby for our complimentary glasses of champagne and the bar to order some appies for a late-night snack. Tomorrow is another day.
Join us next time for a morning walk through Chinatown, a visit to the San Francisco Maritime Historical Park and a ride on San Francisco’s iconic cable cars.