For our last full day in San Francisco, we slept in a bit and lazily made our way up and out, starting off with breakfast at Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe in Emeryville, which was pretty close by, and right across the street from Pixar. There was a little bit of a wait, but we finally got a seat at the bar, and ended up getting a damn good breakfast. The staff was nice and friendly, and the whole cafe had a really comfortable, fun vibe. Afterwards we headed back to West Oakland and dropped off the car so that we could walk to the BART station, which is only a few blocks from where we're staying. After a slight train mishap and a wrong direction, we hopped on a train moving in the correct direction, and were scooting our way into San Francisco proper.
EK found a walking tour online (which can be found here) which we were determined to follow, since it covered a good chunk of the city, we didn't need a guide, and we could follow all the little seals that had been placed in the sidewalk. It also had the added benefit of avoiding a lot of the really enormous hills, choosing instead to zigzag us back and forth. We hopped off at the Powell St. BART station, and made our way up to the Old Mint a few blocks away to start the tour, then back tracked and made our way through Market St, and up through Union Square before the trail meandered us back and forth through Chinatown, past Portsmouth Square, through what appeared to be a more financial/business district, and up towards Broadway and a place called the City Lights Bookstore. It is honestly a miracle that we got out of there at all, and even more so that I only spent as much as I did.
Afterwards we stopped for a quick lunch at Nizario's Pizza. EK and I each had a slice, and man. That was more than enough. Very large, very filling. We continued on, and then found ourselves besieged by gelato places and amazing smells. We made it about two blocks, past St. Francis of Assisi, before we had to stop at Stella's Pastries, where we grabbed something that was puffed pastry and light, fluffy filling and raspberry and delightful...that neither of us can recall the proper name for, which is really a shame.
We continued on to Washington Square, and up, flirting with Telegraph Hill and Coit Tower before cresting Grant Ave. and catching some lovely views of the bay and the descending houses. We passed Jack Early Park and took several several flights of stairs down to the bay area, and it was about here that I think we managed to lose the trail. The trail was supposed to end us in Fisherman's Wharf, and we veered off towards Pier 33 and eventually ended up in front of the Teatro ZinZanni and a MUNI stop.
Eventually we found a car that was not completely full, but hopped on heading in the wrong direction, so we rode down a stop or two and switched to a tram heading in the right direction, which got us back to the BART, this time at the Embarcardero stop, which took us back nice and easy to West Oakland.
Our hosts treated us to more delicious pizza, and we earned our keep a bit by helping Beth move some of her stuff from old home to new apartment while our laundry ran. We popped back into San Francisco while the dryer was going to get ice cream at Mitchell's, which was...phenomenal. I got the Mexican Chocolate ice cream, and EK had something they labeled as "grasshopper" but was really closer to grasshopper on steriods with oreo and chocolate chunks and some swirling fudge that was completely ridiculous. On our way back, we drove through the Castro, and around what I think was the Mission Dolores Park, which had a truly incredible view of the city at night.
After a reasonably full day, we retrieved our laundry and headed back to West Oakland for the night.
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