Alcatraz

Another fun tourist attraction we visited while my parents were in town was Alcatraz. Ferries run all day to and from the prison, but we opted to take the night tour, which meant smaller crowds and a view of a beautiful sunset from the prison grounds. A ferry carried us on a 20-minute-ride from a dock in San Francisco to Alcatraz Island in the middle of the bay.

The last prisoners at Alcatraz left the prison in 1963, and since 1973 the island has been a major tourist attraction. Although the buildings on Alcatraz haven't housed any convicts for over 40 years, an air of dread still hangs over the grounds. Seeing the incredibly small spaces where the prisoners at Alcatraz lived was sobering, and hearing about the lengths that men went to in their attempts to break out of the prison was shocking. We were given an audio tour as we entered the prison, and the voices of former guards and prisoners guided us all around the prison grounds. We were even allowed to enter some of the prison cells.

I was surprised by how much I learned about Alcatraz on the the tour. I'm so glad we did the night tour. Being there in the dark added another spooky element to the tour, and watching the sunset over the Golden Gate Bridge was beautiful.

Alcatraz Cruises runs cruises multiple times a day. Prices range from $16-33 per person. See their website here.

GoCars

My parents and little sister came to visit a few weeks ago, and it was was so much fun showing them around our new hometown! I love it when people come visit because we get to do all the tourist-y stuff we might not otherwise. We were racking our brains for an idea of what to give my dad for his birthday when Adam received an email for a discounted tour in a GoCar, one of the small, yellow cars we see zipping all over the city. Equipped with a GPS unit and an automated tour, the mini cars are lightweight and super easy to operate. We had been interested in them since we'd moved to San Francisco, and with my parents in town, it seemed like the perfect time to try them out. We were very lucky that the day we scheduled our tour was the first warm, sunny day we'd seen in weeks. Perfect weather for driving around the city in an open-aired vehicle! There are a three different tours to pick from, each taking a different amount of time and visiting different landmarks. We chose the longest tour they offer. At 2.5 hours, it started in Fisherman's Wharf and went up near Golden Gate Bridge, then out to the beaches on the Pacific Ocean and through Golden Gate Park. After signing a waiver and watching a quick video tutorial, you are given a helmet and keys and sent off on your own.

The cars are a little scary at times. They don't accelerate as fast as a regular-sized car and have a maximum speed of 35 mph, yet you travel on roads with traffic. Sitting stopped at a light behind an SUV, I could barely see over the bumper of the metal monster in front of me and I found myself wondering whether I'd made a smart decision getting into this little contraption. Luckily, everybody who sees you stops to point and wave, so you know people are very aware of your presence. And we were lucky enough to have Adam escorting us on his motorcycle, which made getting around in traffic much easier. The tour itself was great. It took us to places that I don't think we would have otherwise ever known existed. Because it uses GPS and there isn't a tour guide, we were able to stop for photos and breaks whenever we wanted. Throughout the trip, the audio tour gives you the option to take "detours," so you are able to make the trip as long as you would like.

One of my favorite stops on the tour was a detour we took in Golden Gate Park to Stow Lake. Up a narrow road, elevated from the rest of the park, the lake was full of people in paddle boats, floating around a small island. When you're at the lake, it feels incredibly secluded, and I found it easy to forget that I was in the middle of a huge city while we were there. Adam and I will definitely be returning to Stow Lake whenever we need a break from big city livin'.

We had a really great time in our rented GoCars. I absolutely recommend a tour in one, whether you're visiting San Francisco or live here. Although it can be a bit pricey ($49 for the first hour, $39 for the second hour and $29 for each additional hour), it was the highlight of my family's trip. We're all still talking about how much fun it was. And if you have some patience, Groupon offers discounted coupons for GoCar tours on a fairly regular basis.

GoCars are also available for rental in San Diego, Miami, Lisbon and Barcelona.

iPad on Star Trek?

I'll bet you didn't know that the officers of Star Fleet have been using the iPad since the 80s...

Adam and I were watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine last night, just like we do every night (because we're super dorks), and we noticed that all the Star Fleet officers on the show use a device (called a PADD or Personal Access Display Device) that looks a lot like the recently released iPad. Apparently, we weren't the first Star Trek fans to notice the similarities (shocking, I know). There's even an application you can buy that makes your iPad display look like a Star Trek PADD. How cool is that?

The Tonga Room

The Tonga Room, a San Francisco landmark, may be closing! The Fairmont hotel where the restaurant and club is located will be turned into condos next year, and the renovation plans don't include the Tonga Room. Located in the basement of the hotel, the dining area and dance floor is built around what used to be the hotel swimming pool. These days, live bands play out on a barge that floats in the pool while guests eat at tables and boogey on a dance floor overlooking the water.


We first visited the Tonga Room and few months ago, and I instantly fell in love with everything about it, from the kitchy, Hawaiian decor and the twice-hourly, indoor rainstorms to the enormous Tiki drinks and flower leis. The food is just above mediocre, but the atmosphere more than makes up for anything the meals are lacking. Besides, everything tastes better after a few Tiki drinks, right?

I really hope that the public outcry is enough to save this piece of history, but I plan to visit often in the near future, just in case.

You can even get a flaming volcano full of chocolate lava for dessert. Amazing.

Mouth-To-Snout Resuscitation

I took a pet first aid class at the American Red Cross this weekend, so I am now certified to save your dog's or cat's life! The class involved lots of practice on plastic dog and cat dolls with expandable chests that filled with air when you breathed in their mouth and large stuffed animals. I am certified in performing "mouth-to-snout resuscitation," and I promise you that is what it is actually called. When I got home, I wanted to show Adam everything that I had learned, so I enlisted Stasia's help. She was a good assistant, but I don't think she was very happy about it. Some of the techniques I learned included:

the doggie Heimlich,

how to construct a makeshift muzzle,

how to bandage a wound such as an injured ear,

(she was pretty mad at me...)

and how to splint a broken limb using a rolled-up newspaper.

The class was really informative and I feel much more prepared to handle any doggy accidents my charges or Stasia may encounter. Somehow, though, judging by the look on Stasia's face, the fact that I can now save her life if she chokes on a bone doesn't make her nearly as happy as it makes me.

My Business Cards

My business cards arrived! Adam designed them, and I think he did the most amazing job!

Dog walking, here I come!!!

The Front

The Back

Delfina's

The food scene in San Francisco is amazing. I know that you're all thinking, "Duh!" I knew that I was going to love exploring all the restaurants here; it was one of the things I was most excited for when we moved. But I was completely unprepared for just how much I was going to love eating in this city.

One of the things I've been most amazed by is the bread, especially the pizza crusts. I don't know if it's the altitude, the water or some other type of magic entirely, but pizza in San Francisco rocks! Even the pizza joints that people call "mediocre" are fantastic. But my favorite so far has been the pizza I had at Pizzeria Delfina, a San Francisco staple.

There are technically three Delfina locations in the city. A restaurant in the Mission with a pizzeria right next door and a pizzeria in Pacific Heights, which is where we ate. It's a small restaurant, with seating at a small number of tables and booths and also at a counter overlooking the kitchen. Without the space for a waiting area or a bar, prospective diners write their name on a chalkboard by the front door and wait outside. We were lucky enough to sit at the counter, and I loved watching the bustle of the kitchen as chefs prepared pizza after pizza after pizza.

We started with a fresh mozzarella appetizer, which came with a side of perfectly salted and oiled arugula. The mozzarella was fresh-pulled and was creamy and flavorful, exactly like fresh mozzarella should taste. The menu changes each week, and I've noticed that lately they have been serving Burrata, chewy mozzarella filled with fresh cream that oozes when you cut into it that just happens to be one of my favorite things in the whole world. Just in case I needed another excuse to go back to Delfina's!

We ordered 2 pizzas: the Salsiccia with house-made fennel sausage, tomato, bell peppers, onions and mozzarella; and the Margherita. The crust, oh, the crust! Perfectly thin and crispy on the bottom with just enough chewiness on the sides, Delfina's crust is so good it hardly needs all the delicious, fresh ingredients they put on top of it. The sauce is delicious without being too sweet, and perfectly applied in a thin layer. The toppings were all fresh and added in moderation, with just the right amount of that delicious mozzarella. We thought with two pizzas we had ordered enough for plenty of left-overs (there were only two of us, after all), but the pizza was so good that we ended up with just a couple slices to take home for breakfast the next day. They have a small but very reasonably priced wine list with plenty of choices by-the-glass, but no beer on tap. They do, however, have a small but tasty selection of bottled beers which they will serve you with a frosty glass, and I am forced to forgive their lack of a beer tap because the pizza is just that good.

It was difficult, but we managed to save a tiny bit of room for dessert (I fit it somewhere just below my left lung), and I'm so glad we did. Delfina serves gelato they make in-house daily, and it is perfection. I ordered a scoop each of Meyer lemon and grape flavors, and both were crisp and creamy at the same time. Neither was overpowering or too sweet, and they were complimented perfectly by the expertly-brewed Americano I ordered. It was a perfect meal, and I can't wait to get back again. Don't be scared away if the wait is long. It's worth it. I promise.
Pizzaria Delfina (in Pacific Heights) 2406 California St., 415.440.1189. Click here for the menu.