Soaking up San Francisco
03.11.2007 - SAN FRANCISCO — My friend Ruth's eyebrows leaped for the sky when I told her my husband and I were going to San Francisco for a month. "What are you going to do there for a month?" she wondered. Let's see: We ate and drank. We saw three museums and a zoo.
SAN FRANCISCO — My friend Ruth's eyebrows leaped for the sky when I told her my husband and I were going to San Francisco for a month. "What are you going to do there for a month?" she wondered. Let's see: We ate and drank. We saw three museums and a zoo. We walked through parks and up hilly city streets. We went to three plays and six movies. We heard music: classical, cabaret, jazz, brass band, blues, rock, traditional Chinese, country and, Lord help me, techno. And when we got tired of the city, we headed out to the hills or wine country. We paid bills. We did laundry. That's what a monthlong trip's about: living the destination. "It's a peek into another lifestyle," says Pauline Kenny, founder of slowtrav.com, which promotes spending a good amount of time exploring one place rather than hopping frantically from city to city. "It brings you out of your routine." Kenny says a lot of people, especially baby boomers like me and my husband, John, are taking longer trips, sometimes a month or two, sometimes an entire year. A long vacation takes planning. We chose a close friend to housesit in Austin and stopped the mail (although the mail didn't entirely stop; our housesitter and neighbors had to snare some that showed up). We pored over San Francisco housing options. We considered a house swap but had trouble finding one in the city's center, and John was nervous about the idea. We looked into leasing an apartment and learned that we'd have to pay extra for a less-than-six-month term, for bedding, for pots and pans, for cable TV and for electricity. Finally, we settled on a residential hotel. We found several, all with rates starting around $1,800 for a studio. That buys a living room/bedroom combo (often with a Murphy bed), a bathroom and an equipped kitchen. There's no room tax if you stay for more than 30 days. We wound up choosing the Steinhart Hotel because it's in a good part of town — lower Nob Hill, at Sutter and Hyde streets — and is owned by Personality Hotels, with which we'd had good experiences. We invested $2,500 for larger quarters and got an upgrade to a one-bedroom with separate bedroom, living room, dining room, bathroom and kitchen. No air conditioning. Could we survive? Yes. Cool air poured in through screened windows. The weather's always mild here; the warmest it got was mid-80s. We set up an office in the apartment. In addition to my work for the American-Statesman, we had our regular family business to conduct, such as bill-paying. Mostly, we played. And even though we'd been to San Francisco dozens of times, we learned a lot more about it. I kept a journal. Here are bits: Sept. 1:Our apartment rocks! We're on a fourth-floor corner, and sleeping with the windows open is divine. We've bought monthlong Muni bus passes at $45 each. Bus rides cost $1.50, and aside from feet (and ours already throb), buses are the best way to get around the city. Sept. 2:John has put a blender full of flowers on the dining room table. We don't own a vase. This should work nicely unless we develop the urge to blend something. We do plan on cooking, but ack, the price of groceries around here! Butter's $5 a pound; a box of cereal is $7. We found better prices at Trader Joe's, a short bus ride away. (We took a cab back, since we were loaded down with the famous "two-buck Chuck" Charles Shaw chardonnay). Sept. 3:We took the 71 bus to Golden Gate Park, where we perched on benches in front of the band shell and listened as the uniformed Golden Gate Park Band played stalwart renditions of patriotic music. We felt like we'd time-traveled back to the '50s. Sept. 4:Today was the monthly free day at five San Francisco museums, and we decided to see how many we could hit. Two, as it turns out. We did the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, always a favorite, and then grabbed lunch nearby at Tu Lan (cheap Vietnamese) and took the 38 bus (loud and crowded) out to the Palace of the Legion of Honor on the western edge of town. Not only is the Palace a good museum, especially for sculpture (Rodin's "Thinker" is in the courtyard), but on a clear day it offers possibly the best view of San Francisco, because it's up on a hill. This, sadly, was a foggy day. And we made a bad decision by putting the long walk up the hill to the museum — a lovely walk, really — at the end of the day. We're pooped. "Tell your readers not to do this," John whined. Do this. But do it in the morning on a clear day, and consider taking a bus up the hill. We rested during a fine meal at Cafe Claude and a smashing performance of "Sweeney Todd" at American Conservatory Theater. But my calves still scream. Sept. 5:I had cod cheeks for lunch. They were the daily special at B44 tapas restaurant, where I dined al fresco with a couple of locals. They complained about the heat. Hah! It's 85. Sept. 6:Through our open windows waft bits of other lives: sounds of a baritone vocalizing (lots of touring actors stay in our building) and a basketball bouncing; the smells of someone doing laundry and someone else cooking with garlic. It's fun to eavesdrop and nosedrop. Sept. 7:While looking for something we never did find, we walked through the Tenderloin, an area where crime and poverty are key residents. There, we saw a guy being loaded into an ambulance and cops running full-tilt down the street like they do on TV. The evening's activity turned out to be a visit (I'll spare you the details) to the emergency room of St. Francis Hospital, where I got to lie for three hours with an IV in my arm and listen to fellow patients wail. Thrilling, but overpriced at $3,334. Sept. 12:Today was Wednesday, so we got our apartment cleaned. Housekeeping arrives but once a week here, and we love being free of the pressure of vacating the room daily so it can be cleaned. So we took in "Da Vinci: An Exhibition of Genius" at the Metreon. It's an exhibit not of Leonardo's paintings, but of his inventions. I loved his portable piano, an instrument that never quite caught on with marching bands. Sept. 13:Another half-price show tonight, this one next door at the York Hotel's Plush Room: talented 17-year-old Judy Butterfield singing love songs to a fairly aged crowd. I might have been the youngest soul in the room. Sept. 14:The great thing about the San Francisco Zoo is that at high noon, when zoo animals across most of the country are snoozing in the midday heat, these beasts cavort like crazy. We saw gorillas, which seemed to work in shifts, running and climbing. Giraffes flirted. Grizzlies walked up to the glass to inspect us. Lions marched by regally. Then we walked a block to Ocean Beach and checked out the surfer species before taking the new light-rail L train (less crowded than the bus, and we could use our Muni pass on it) back home. Sept. 16:A locals secret: We took the 76 bus across Golden Gate Bridge to the Marin Headlands (the hills overlooking the bay). The bus dropped us at Rodeo Beach, where we enjoyed a picnic lunch we'd packed from Molinari's Italian deli while we watched the surfers combat the occasional big wave. Sept. 17:I love Swan Oyster Depot. There's nothing like sitting on the world's most uncomfortable counter stool (my dangling feet went to sleep) while eating the world's best cracked Dungeness crab. I bought some extra crab and made a risotto for dinner that drew raves from the hubster. Sept. 20:We're back from two days of wine-tasting our way through the countryside. My favorite wineries were Sonoma's Gundlach Bundschu, whose founding families have been winemaking for 150 years, and Napa County's Rubicon Estate, Francis Ford Coppola's place, where a valet takes your car and you walk up a red carpet to taste wine and look over some cool memorabilia. A drive in the countryside was a nice break from tall buildings and honking horns. Sept. 22:The San Francisco Jazz Festival launched with John McLaughlin and Kevin Eubanks (Jay Leno's bandleader), and we were there. It was a super ending to a day that included a spin through the farmers market and a walk through Chinatown, which was packed for Autumn Moon Festival. Sept. 24:I'm losing track of what day it is. I'm also getting used to living a scaled-down apartment life. I'd be lying if I didn't say I was bored with my wardrobe, but I can live without a car, a zillion kitchen implements and a king-size bed. Dinner tonight: amazing fish and pasta at North Beach Restaurant. Sept. 26:We got cheap seats for the San Francisco Symphony (Mozart and Mahler) behind the orchestra. I felt like Michael Tilson Thomas was conducting me. Sept. 30:So much to cram into a last weekend: a garlicky meal at Little Joe's, a delightful small production of David Mamet's "The Old Neighborhood" at Off-Market Theater, the rainy opening day of the San Francisco Blues Festival, a visit to the sea lions lounging on barges at Pier 39, a glance at the LoveFest techno parade dancing its way down Market Street and an over-the-top six-course Chinese dinner at Tommy Toy's. I might have put on a few pounds, but I now have calves of steel. I'm getting a little blue that it's almost over. John says he won't miss the high prices and constant panhandling. Nor will I. Oct. 1:Back in Austin. It's good to be home, because it's home. But the next time we visit San Francisco for only a week, it'll go by too fast. handers@statesman.com; 912-2590 If you go ... Steinhart Hotel, 952 Sutter St. (415) 928-3855, www.steinharthotel.com. Studios start at $1,800 a month. Monthly Muni (www .sfmuni.com) bus passes are available for $45 at the Muni office and Market streets or at the half-price Tix Bay Area booth in Union Square (www .theatrebayarea.org), where you can also get cheap tickets to performances. (Daily and weekly Muni passes are also available.) The 76 bus to the Marin Headlands runs only on Sunday, hourly from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 151 Third St. (415) 357-4000, www.sfmoma.org. $12.50 adults, $8 seniors, $7 students. First Tuesday of each month free. The Palace of the Legion of Honor, 75 Tea Garden Drive. (415) 750-3600, www.thinker.org. $10 adults, $7 seniors, $6 ages 13 to 17. (On the same day, your ticket will get you into the DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park.) Free on first Tuesday of each month. San Francisco Zoo, 1 Zoo Road. (415) 753-7080, www.sfzoo.org. $11 adults; $8 seniors and ages 12 to 17. 'Da Vinci: An Exhibition of Genius' runs through Dec. 31 at the Metreon, 101 Fourth St. (415) 369-6000. $19.50 adults, $17.50 seniors and $15.50 children. American Conservatory Theater, 405 Geary St. (415) 749-2228, www.act-sfbay.org. Off-Market Theater, 965 Mission St. (415) 820-1656, www.offmarkettheater.com. Gundlach Bundschu winery, 1000 Vineyard Lane, Sonoma. (707) 938-5277, www.gunbun .com. Rubicon Estate winery, 1991 St. Helena Highway, Rutherford. (707) 968-1100, www .rubiconestate.com. Food: B44, 44 Belden Place, (415) 986-6287; Little Joe's, 5006 Mission St., (415) 239-8903; Molinari's deli, 373 Columbus Ave., (415) 421-2337; North Beach Restaurant, 1512 Stockton St., (415) 392-1700; Swan Oyster Depot, 1517 Polk St., (415) 673-1101; Tu Lan, 8 Sixth St., (415) 626-0927; Tommy Toy's, 655 Montgomery St., (415) 397-4888. Information: (800) 637-5196, www.onlyinsanfrancisco.com or call a travel agent.
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