After only a so-so night of sleeping, we finally got around to getting out and about. Elizabeth had a nice coffee and pumpkin muffin from across the street, while I went for a run.

What a great experience, running through the early morning streets of San Francisco, first running up the steep streets of Nob Hill, past streetcars and neat neighbourhoods. I accidentally ran into Lombard Street, and decided to run up the short but memorable switchback road, criss-crossing to allow the cars to actually navigate (oneway) down the hill. Check out a few photos!

After reaching the top and admiring the view of Alcatraz and into the bay, I meandered back to the Hotel Nikko and got ready for a day walking about.

We started by going to Union Square and browsing some of the shops, then spent some time in Chinatown, one of the world's largest Chinatowns. It really is quite big and we only covered a few sections, but here's a pic:

The edge of Chinatown turns quite quickly into the Italian section, which is where we bumped into a cool little artisanal chocolate shop called XOX Truffles (www.xoxtruffles.com). Elizabeth bought quite a variety, and I was really happy to find out they made 3 special soy-based vegan truffles: chocolate, orange and hazelnut. Tasted one and it was delicious; couldn't resist taking a picture of the cute little storefront.

With the jolt of chocolaty sugar, we made our way past the North Beach part of San Francisco, with more views of Alcatraz and first views of the Golden Gate Bridge. We walked along the water at Fisherman's Wharf, to an area called Fort Mason (which we couldn't find much historical information about) and to our lunch reservation at Greens.

Definitely a highlight of our day, Greens is a vegetarian restaurant with many vegan options. Fantastic! We had a warm spinach salad appetizer with almonds, and then we shared main dishes of veggie skewers on pearled couscous, and a tofu sandwich in a peanut sauce. While both dishes sound simple and straightforward, the meals were excellent, creative and very filling. But not so filling that we couldn't enjoy the deserts! Here's the Green's web site: www.greensrestaurant.com

When we were done, it had just started lightly raining outside - but feeling so stuffed, we decided to brave the sprinkles and walk through some of the boutique stores around Pacific Heights, notably on Union and Fillmore Streets. There wasn't really anything overly exciting, but it's always nice to experience the local shops. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at Japantown, which is in the middle of their Cherry Blossom Festival. The main parade is tomorrow, but we were still able to feel the vibe of everyone getting ready for the big event!

Back at the hotel, we went to do a few errands (shopping at the outdoors shop REI and food store Trader Joe's), then decided on dinner: Golden Era Vegetarian, which is a vegetarian Chinese restaurant voted Best Vegan (2006) and Best Vegetarian (2004) in San Francisco. It's also less than 5 minutes walking form our hotel. We did take away for the hotel, and it was yummy. Despite the reviews, the food was still much better than we were expecting for the price and speed - our food was ready in 5 minutes! Their web site is www.goldeneravegetarian.com.

Now we're pooped, so we're going to watch a bit of television and off to bed. Tomorrow we're hoping to go to Muir Woods and see the famous giant redwoods of California.

04/22/07 by visitEarth
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