California
I guess it's about time to offer my thoughts on our trip to California. We spent a week there, with most of our time spent staying with and visiting family. It was my first time in the state and also my first time going on a somewhat lengthy trip to visit relatives, so my perspective is probably somewhat skewed. The trip broke down into three distinct sections so I'll offer notes on each separately.
San Jose
This is perhaps the area where my perspective is least valuable. We spent 4 days living with my grandmother-in-law in a gated golf community in the suburbs of San Jose. As such, we spent most of our time "visiting" and didn't really do much to explore the area. We did a day trip to Santa Cruz, hit up a redwood state park on the way back, did some minor sightseeing around San Jose and that's really about it. Santa Cruz was cool, with the whole Pacific Ocean thing, and the redwoods were freaking amazing but San Jose was fairly ho-hum. Now it's possible that's a result of the purpose of our trip but from what I understand, it's not a place tourists flock to. It's not nearly as humid as it is on the east coast but 86° is still too hot for my taste.
Laguna Seca
Part of the timing of the trip was such that I could attend the MotoGP race at Laguna Seca. As I mentioned in a previous post, racing in person is never as good as racing on TV. You only get to see 2-3 turns at most and generally the action ends up being where you aren't. It was nice to finally get to see the motorcycles in person though, as you really can't imagine how fast, loud and just plain awesome they are until you see them. Time to cross it off the ole Life List.
Laguna itself was pretty crazy. The track was in the middle of nowhere and far, far more hilly than I'd imagined. It's nice to get an overall mental picture of the place because that helps puts things in context when you watch races on TV. The corkscrew, while somewhat of a gimmick, really is pretty nutso in person. It's steep, really steep, and I'd like to drive it one of these days. A lot of people say Laguna really isn't all that great for car racing but judging from my experience with other tracks, you just can't get a feeling for how scary things are until you drive it. I'm glad I went but I hope next time I'll actually get to be on the track.
San Francisco
We drove the Pacific Coast Highway from San Jose to San Fran. While not part of San Francisco, I offer it here as something you should do when visiting the city. We left San Jose after dinner and drove to the coast via some fairly mountainous roads. Once at the coast, we chugged along the PCH until the sun closed in on the horizon. We ended up at a pretty decent overlook about 20-30 minutes south of the city and watched the sun set into the Pacific Ocean. It was neat and my lady friend seemed to like it.
We only had two full days in San Francisco so our experience was limited. Our itinerary included a Segway Tour, a night tour of Alcatraz, riding a few cable cars, a visit to Pier 39, eating several fine meals, shortening the 49-mile Scenic Drive to ~25 miles and celebrating the wife's birthday. It was a busy two days and while we saw/did a lot, there's probably a lot we were missing out on. We didn't take part in any nightlife and we didn't do a ton of exploration so my thoughts are based on what I call the San Francisco Express Experience.
The Segway tour was... interesting. I have to be honest and say that were it not for trying Segways for the first time, the tour would have been pretty boring. You get to see a bunch of things surrounding the marina area and do drive-bys for things like the Palace of Fine Arts, but that's about it. Given the amount of time invested in the tour, I would have liked to do more actual touring. The Segways were a lot of fun and really easy to learn but I suspect that's the primary reason the tour gets good reviews. If you dismiss the novelty of actually riding one, the tour was downright pedestrian (pun intended). The highlight of the tour was probably me crashing mine into Melissa's because I was being a jackass, not any of the sightseeing.
Alcatraz is one of those things you do once, I think. It's been something that's always been on my "if I have the opportunity" list and it kind of lived up to that. I can't say it was the OMG experience that walking on a glacier was but the history and scale of the place is worth experiencing. It's a lot like visiting famous racetracks in that you don't really get a feel for the place until you're there. The cells are tiny, it's dark as hell in solitary confinement, the hospital is down creepy and the water surrounding it is pretty ridiculous. Doing it at night/sundown offers an additional layer of spooky (wouldn't call it scary) as well as some unique photography opportunities, if you're into that sorta thing. I'd recommend the night tour, if you have the choice.
I've heard a lot about the food in San Francisco and I'm glad to report it doesn't disappoint. We only managed three meals while there, because breakfast was part of the hotel package, but all three were pretty darn good. Frascati was solid haute cuisine, if expensive, but it really served the purpose of the "special night out" that I picked it for. The food wasn't quite a home run (but close), the location was convenient (at a cable car stop) and the atmosphere was sophisticated but unassuming. Dim Sum Bar Restaurant was everything I expected a shithole in Chinatown to be. The neighborhood (Tenderloin) was dilapidated with its trash-ridden streets, you felt like you were going to stick to the floor, the owners were yelling at each other extremely loudly in Chinese and the food was great. Seriously, we had some made to order dim sum, pork chow fun/foon and wor wonton soup and it was all really good.
The third meal, a lunch, was eaten at Cioppino's on the Wharf. While seafood at the Wharf is somewhat of a cliche, I really have nothing bad to say about the food. I had the dish that shared the restaurant's namesake and I'd order it again. The seafood was fresh, the broth/gravy were flavorful and I feel like I got my money's worth. The service was somewhat lacking but when your bowl overfloweth with seafood like it did, you can overlook a lot.
So what did I think about my short time in San Francisco? Well, let me get it out of the way and say that unlike quite a few people I know, I have no real desire to move there. Everyone's right, the weather was absolutely ridiculous and is definitely an asset of the city. It was great to get away from our opressive summers but I don't know if I could live there year-round. I like seasons, including winter, and I think I'd miss them. We didn't have the time to explore everything the city had to offer but I really can't say it's that much different than a lot of other US cities. I mean it's clearly no New York (that's a good thing) but I can't say it's somewhere I'd chose to live. Overall, it has a good bit of charm and is a nice place to eat well and take in the sights. I haven't started looking for jobs there but I think everyone should check it out for a few days and see what does make it unique.
Be sure to visit our California 2008 page to see all our pictures and a short clip video... if you're still reading, that is.
San Jose
This is perhaps the area where my perspective is least valuable. We spent 4 days living with my grandmother-in-law in a gated golf community in the suburbs of San Jose. As such, we spent most of our time "visiting" and didn't really do much to explore the area. We did a day trip to Santa Cruz, hit up a redwood state park on the way back, did some minor sightseeing around San Jose and that's really about it. Santa Cruz was cool, with the whole Pacific Ocean thing, and the redwoods were freaking amazing but San Jose was fairly ho-hum. Now it's possible that's a result of the purpose of our trip but from what I understand, it's not a place tourists flock to. It's not nearly as humid as it is on the east coast but 86° is still too hot for my taste.Laguna Seca
Part of the timing of the trip was such that I could attend the MotoGP race at Laguna Seca. As I mentioned in a previous post, racing in person is never as good as racing on TV. You only get to see 2-3 turns at most and generally the action ends up being where you aren't. It was nice to finally get to see the motorcycles in person though, as you really can't imagine how fast, loud and just plain awesome they are until you see them. Time to cross it off the ole Life List.
Laguna itself was pretty crazy. The track was in the middle of nowhere and far, far more hilly than I'd imagined. It's nice to get an overall mental picture of the place because that helps puts things in context when you watch races on TV. The corkscrew, while somewhat of a gimmick, really is pretty nutso in person. It's steep, really steep, and I'd like to drive it one of these days. A lot of people say Laguna really isn't all that great for car racing but judging from my experience with other tracks, you just can't get a feeling for how scary things are until you drive it. I'm glad I went but I hope next time I'll actually get to be on the track.San Francisco
We drove the Pacific Coast Highway from San Jose to San Fran. While not part of San Francisco, I offer it here as something you should do when visiting the city. We left San Jose after dinner and drove to the coast via some fairly mountainous roads. Once at the coast, we chugged along the PCH until the sun closed in on the horizon. We ended up at a pretty decent overlook about 20-30 minutes south of the city and watched the sun set into the Pacific Ocean. It was neat and my lady friend seemed to like it.We only had two full days in San Francisco so our experience was limited. Our itinerary included a Segway Tour, a night tour of Alcatraz, riding a few cable cars, a visit to Pier 39, eating several fine meals, shortening the 49-mile Scenic Drive to ~25 miles and celebrating the wife's birthday. It was a busy two days and while we saw/did a lot, there's probably a lot we were missing out on. We didn't take part in any nightlife and we didn't do a ton of exploration so my thoughts are based on what I call the San Francisco Express Experience.
The Segway tour was... interesting. I have to be honest and say that were it not for trying Segways for the first time, the tour would have been pretty boring. You get to see a bunch of things surrounding the marina area and do drive-bys for things like the Palace of Fine Arts, but that's about it. Given the amount of time invested in the tour, I would have liked to do more actual touring. The Segways were a lot of fun and really easy to learn but I suspect that's the primary reason the tour gets good reviews. If you dismiss the novelty of actually riding one, the tour was downright pedestrian (pun intended). The highlight of the tour was probably me crashing mine into Melissa's because I was being a jackass, not any of the sightseeing.Alcatraz is one of those things you do once, I think. It's been something that's always been on my "if I have the opportunity" list and it kind of lived up to that. I can't say it was the OMG experience that walking on a glacier was but the history and scale of the place is worth experiencing. It's a lot like visiting famous racetracks in that you don't really get a feel for the place until you're there. The cells are tiny, it's dark as hell in solitary confinement, the hospital is down creepy and the water surrounding it is pretty ridiculous. Doing it at night/sundown offers an additional layer of spooky (wouldn't call it scary) as well as some unique photography opportunities, if you're into that sorta thing. I'd recommend the night tour, if you have the choice.I've heard a lot about the food in San Francisco and I'm glad to report it doesn't disappoint. We only managed three meals while there, because breakfast was part of the hotel package, but all three were pretty darn good. Frascati was solid haute cuisine, if expensive, but it really served the purpose of the "special night out" that I picked it for. The food wasn't quite a home run (but close), the location was convenient (at a cable car stop) and the atmosphere was sophisticated but unassuming. Dim Sum Bar Restaurant was everything I expected a shithole in Chinatown to be. The neighborhood (Tenderloin) was dilapidated with its trash-ridden streets, you felt like you were going to stick to the floor, the owners were yelling at each other extremely loudly in Chinese and the food was great. Seriously, we had some made to order dim sum, pork chow fun/foon and wor wonton soup and it was all really good.
The third meal, a lunch, was eaten at Cioppino's on the Wharf. While seafood at the Wharf is somewhat of a cliche, I really have nothing bad to say about the food. I had the dish that shared the restaurant's namesake and I'd order it again. The seafood was fresh, the broth/gravy were flavorful and I feel like I got my money's worth. The service was somewhat lacking but when your bowl overfloweth with seafood like it did, you can overlook a lot.So what did I think about my short time in San Francisco? Well, let me get it out of the way and say that unlike quite a few people I know, I have no real desire to move there. Everyone's right, the weather was absolutely ridiculous and is definitely an asset of the city. It was great to get away from our opressive summers but I don't know if I could live there year-round. I like seasons, including winter, and I think I'd miss them. We didn't have the time to explore everything the city had to offer but I really can't say it's that much different than a lot of other US cities. I mean it's clearly no New York (that's a good thing) but I can't say it's somewhere I'd chose to live. Overall, it has a good bit of charm and is a nice place to eat well and take in the sights. I haven't started looking for jobs there but I think everyone should check it out for a few days and see what does make it unique.
Be sure to visit our California 2008 page to see all our pictures and a short clip video... if you're still reading, that is.
Labels: california, pics, review, travel
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