To begin today's entry, I give you Michael and I with our Father's Day present, appropriately a tie:
Yes, oh gentle reader, the centerpiece of this Sunday on the road was a) not a road (the car is probably back in Oregon -- whence its plates indicated it originated -- again) & b) at a ball PARK (word play intended). And, before continuing, I should say that both my children sent greetings early in the day, like they loved me. Thanks. :)
But, first, of course, there was food. Up a mountain that is the street running next to our not-3-star-boutique hotel is a yuppy neighborhood that included La Boulange, which Starbucks has purchased and whose pasteries they now sell in mass production and vague replicas of the original. I bought two chocolate croissants there.
We took the bus to the ballpark, which took half an hour through the heart of San Fran. Not quite the trolley, but insightful.
AT&T Park (I don't think you are supposed to call it Candlestick anymore) is a gem. This is NOT news, but there you have it. First, you get views like this one from our seats (yes, that's Bay Bridge out there in the distance) --
And then there's the fact you can get a Ghirardelli chocolate sundae yards from your seat...who could ask for more? And it was an excellent, if poorly played and pitched, game -- an 8-7 Rockies win over the home team, with four home runs (one by the Giants pitcher! WTF is that?!?!??). Grand.
Dinner on the Embarcadero (on the bay front) was Peruvian. Insert llama joke here.
In fact, the taxi ride over was with a Nigerian, who didn't know a lot more about Peruvian cuisine than I did. He actually laughed, TWICE! at the bar-b-qued llama joke, and, after many jokes about him working for his tip, I gave him an extra $5, which he quickly passed to Michael as his change. :)
La Mar Blah Blah Blah, at Pier 1 1/2 was fun. See this view from our table:
I spent most of the "ordering time" looking up words on Google (who knew there were so many for unknown sauces?) -- meanwhile, Michael settled on this lovely appetizer:
Yes! for the two of you readers who've been following along, those are BEETS under his scallops. It is at least the third version of beets he's eaten in my presence since we started. I have eaten them maybe three times, twice under duress, in my life. Ick! But he seems to like them. But you know Mikey -- Mikey likes everything. :)
Next was the entree. Mine was the most picturesque, reminiscent of Karen's last night with the shells:
The Peruvian version of paella, it seems. Quite good, but the least spicy dish on the table. Karen had the fish of the day in sauce (it was cod), Michael had the salmon in a red sauce with rice on the side, and Barb had skewered chicken, the menu said like the street vendors sell in Peru (next to the llamas). Here are today's additional pictures.
We wash it all down with our own bottle of Schramsburg Blanc et Blanc, procured during Michael's annual wine lush Friday (aka "the blankity blank"), which was excellent. One less bottle to get on the plane.
Today's Barb was on the bus to the game. We were talking about Father's Day and grandkids and Michael stepped on my punch line. I said "Sometimes it's better to deliver them [punch lines] yourself." Barb: "Delivering grandkids yourself?" Rim shot.
Today's Dumb and Dumber was: "I haven't seen a Chinese restaurant." "But we took pictures of the gate to Chinatown yesterday." "But I didn't see a Chinese restaurant. I thought I saw a Mexican one, there, though." "Imagine that...I don't think there's a Chinese one there." Rim shot, rim shot, rim shot.
Karen having warned us both not to say a word about Starbucks, we didn't. We just pointed and nudged each other every time we saw one. One time we did it simultaneously, leading to a call of "jinx" and fist bump. Say "easily amused." Karen just shook her head in dismay.
Tomorrow we go home. The H's leave at kickoff time of the USA game. Go Red-White& Blue.
No comments:
Post a Comment