One last day by The Bay

Wednesday was our last full day, as we fly out mid-afternoon tomorrow. Today we decided to stay in the city, but I wanted to get to The Other Side and make sure I could at least claim that I'd dipped my toes in the Pacific (as technically, when I was in Vancouver, I only got to the strait).

I've often heard it said if you want to see the real city, ride a bus. Yep. Sadly, very true. We took the Muni out to the Great Highway and saw a few sad (but harmless) examples of real life here. Like the ever-present homeless panhandling, it does dampen the glamour some and make you think. In contrast, we were shortly out to Cliff House, another glitzy and somewhat tacky tourist destination, albeit one where the food is quite good. One of my intentions was to see the Giant Camera, a large, room-sized camera obscura that, when operating, reflects a rotating panorama of the coast. Sadly, we had to take a miss on that. The gift shop proprietors described that as a separate concession, and one whose operator "keeps his own schedule" which seems to be a mystery to anyone else. Ah, well. Brunch was quite good and Cliff House serves the table not with bread, but with fresh, warm popovers. Our waitress was quite generous when I asked for more. Adam quite enjoyed the french toast, and I had what must be a California creation - crab and avocado omelette. Yummy.

After brunch we wandered the beach, I DID get my toes, and my Crocs, into the Pacific and managed to avoid getting stuck with the floating jellyfish remains littering the surf. A good few miles of urban hiking took us to, and through, Golden Gate Park to the DeYoung museum. This was one of my citypass destinations, one which I might have passed up except for the current exhibit of the Quilts of Gee's Bend. As a quilter, this is a really neat exhibit. The quilts are very true to the nature of quilting - made out of desperate necessity - but also a testament to a human craving for art. Many of these quilters may never have seen a painting, much less a gallery in their lives, and grew up in newspaper-lined shacks on river mudflats in rural Alabama. Their quilts, rustic and 'unschooled' though they appear, have some fantastic appeal.

We only took a brief look at the rest of the gallery, as it was getting a bit annoying that Adam was constantly told to carry his camera pack in hand rather than on his shoulder or back, and it was a bit of a drag. We left from there, skipped the tea garden which appeared crowded beyond my comfort and charged an admission - it wasn't clear if that included tea or not. From there, a hike to the south edge of the park got us on another Muni ride to the Exploratorium. This is a hands-on arts-meets-science centre, again very kid-focused and rather kid-full today, though much of the exhibits were still fascinating for geeks like us. We sadly had less than an hour, but because it was my last CityPass destination, Adam joined me and we made the best of what we could. While many of the exhibits were things we found familiar, in principle, they were very nicely executed and installed.

After a ride home to freshen up, we took the recommendation of both a tour book and the hotel concierge and walked to Sam's Grill for dinner. As a last dinner in the city - this was a darned good choice. We found it because I took Adam at his word when he said steak would be nice and went looking for steak. Turns out there are very few "steak house" restaurants in San Francisco, but many "seafood grill" places include a piece of beef or two on their menu. This one did it justice. Adam's New York Strip was at least 1.5" thick and perfectly done, and my shellfish sautee was the best I can recall having. The waiters only added to the meal. All dressed in slightly shabby tuxes, they seemed to be the sort of world-weary men who were not gangsters. They were the sort of men who were head butlers in a gangster's household, who maybe "took care of" a thing or two for the boss if needed. And judging by the food, the chef was obviously used to cooking for "the family" too. As Adam put it, it's the kind of place where the food had to be good or someone was gettin' hurt. Luckily no one had to get hurt.

So, here we are back at the Triton, packing up and trying to cool off the rest of yesterday's sunburn. I expect the next entry will be back in Waterloo, as we'll be on the run most of tomorrow.