I'll start with saying a big Thank You to my colleague Stephen. He made today possible...

This morning we did the drive from San Francisco down to Monteray Bay and Pebble Beach; for some reason I thought Pebble Beach was only an hour from San Francisco, but it's really a solid 2 1/4 hour drive. I arrived quite early, so before meeting up for our teetime, I just hung around the area, taking a few photos of the bay and ocean:

There's a reason Pebble Beach Golf Links is consistently ranked one of the best courses in the world. Even a non-golfer would enjoy this area, from a purely aesthetic perspective the contrast of the golf course green and ocean blue is stunning. We started our round in the early afternoon, and without posting my score in a public area, suffice it to say that I hit about 9 balls into the Pacific. Yes, almost every other hole resulted in a lost ball over the cliffs :-(

The round was almost the longest I've ever played (well over 5 hours), but felt like the shortest. Stephen and I ended up having some snacks at the restaurant after our round before driving back to San Francisco in the dark. Too tired to go into more detail for now, but here are some pics from our round:

6th hole

7th green

Hitting into the 8th green.

Tee shot on 18 (before ball splashes into the ocean)

Behind the 18th tee box

04/24/07 by visitEarth
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Last night was supposed to be the vegetarian meal to end all vegetarian meals. The Millenium Restaurant (www.millenniumrestaurant.com), has long been ranked one of San Francisco's top vegetarian dining experiences; in fact, first started in 1994, the restaurant has been completely vegan for the last 10 or 11 years.

The menu was so diverse and interesting, it was becoming really hard to pick just one appetizer and entree; it was the "once in a lifetime" dinner, so what to choose? Well, trying to get the best of all worlds, we chose the chef's tasting menu, where we could get smaller portions of more items - big grins all around! While we were at it, we ordered a single wine pairing as well, very small amounts of different wine with each course.

The appetizers, soups and first entree were absolutely fabulous - very creative and unique, I could see how Millenium had earned it's reputation. Then things became, er, interesting. After the first *very* small glass of wine, I started to feel quite lightheaded; I'm hardly a big drinker, but that was surprising. And I gradually became more and more woozy until I looked at Elizabeth and one point, and re-iterated "man, am I feeling buzzed" - then promptly passed out on the dining room table...

Next I knew, Elizabeth was shouting my name at my side, and after a few moments of confusion I remembered what was going on. A stranger appeared at my side, suggested I have some fruit sorbet that was being served when I fainted. I had a bit, felt better, then started feeling warm and sweaty. I felt like I was about to pass out again, and the stranger (who said he was a doctor from Boston) had me lie down. Felt immediately better, but by that time 911 emergency had already been called. By the time they showed up I felt fully recovered, but they still did a couple blood pressure and blood sugar tests, and all was well. Regardless, after pressure from everyone there, against my desires, we went to the closest hospital just to make sure I was fine. But not before I scooped another few spoons of desert from our table.

As predicted, the physician at the hospital said it was an episode of Vasovagal Syncope (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasovagal_syncope), almost certainly caused from dehydration in combination with the wine. Sure enough, despite all our morning activities in the Muir Woods, big meal at Cafe Gratitude and long walk around the Botanical Gardens, I had drank almost no water. So silly of me - for all the care I take to dehydrate when running, I dismiss walking as any form of activity; and combined with the alternating warm/cool weather, I deceptively never felt thirsty all day.

So to put an end to the story - the Millenium Restaurant serves fantastic food, and I would surely go back, if they would have me! For now I'm just really bummed that by not hydrating during the day we were unable to have our second entree and desert; but it will certainly make for a dinner that we'll never forget...

04/23/07 by visitEarth
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This afternoon we spent at Golden Gate Park, in the Botanical Gardens (www.sfbotanicalgarden.org). While not as spectacular as the Butchart Gardens in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada (www.travelphotos.in/north_america/victoria_buchart_gardens), the San Francisco Botanical Gardens are still great in their own right, plus it's free! I quite like the various sections they have, broken down by both geography and flower type. For example, they have a South Africa, New Zealand, South America and Southeast Asian Cloud Forest sections, as well as areas for rhododendrons, primitive plants, fragrant plants and succulents. There are a couple ponds, private paths, bridges and a few open areas too.

We took quite a few photos of odd-looking flowers; unfortunately, it wasn't until late in the day that I decided to shoot the descriptive plaques next to the flowers to remember what they are afterwards. Oh well. Here are some of the ones we like.

Veldt Fire

Right towards the end, we saw a couple birds as well:

Blue Bird

Male California Quail

We ended up walking quite a bit, and the sun drifted in and out making it deceptively warm at times. Even so, I didn't take a sip of water - this will become more relevant in my next posting!

04/23/07 by visitEarth
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The morning started quite sunny, already much better than what we had been expecting. We tried to get an early start to the day, as we had lunch planned at 1:00. It was about a 45 minute drive from the hotel to Muir Woods, over the Golden Gate Bridge and through some winding neighborhoods until we hit the Muir Woods National Monument, which is part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area (www.nps.gov/muwo)

What a change in weather as soon as we were within the Woods - the giant redwoods are the tallest type of tree in the world, technically called the Coast redwood, sequoia sempervirens. The tallest one here is 258 feet, about 78 metres!

Even though it was sunny, the sheer size of the trees and the canopy, along with the moisture they collect, makes the ground level rather dark and very wet. It actually made for pretty tough photography, since it's so humid and the trees are literally dripping water down onto your lens when you point up. But we did a few, here's one that shows the scale of the trees.

We spent about 3 hours in the woods, following along a paved walking path near and around a creek, as well as a few dirt trails that meandered away from the redwoods themselves. One of the coolest things we saw was a tree that was "smoking". There was a bit of sunlight poking through the canopy at an angle, and when it hit the moist bark of the tree, it began smoldering. This was my highlight of the Woods, here's the photo:

By the time we headed back to the car, it was around 11:30, and the swarms of people had just started arriving - no question, the earlier you show up (on or before 9am), the better. We drove back the way we came, across the Golden Gate Bridge, had a quick cleanup then went off to meet our friend Stephen at Cafe Gratitude.

Now - Cafe Gratitude is one of the most amazing restaurants I've been to. It's not only completely vegetarian, it's completely vegan. And, it's not only completely vegan, it's almost all live food, meaning that the food is not cooked but prepared and served raw. Here's a direct link to the menu, so you don't have to wade your way through a lot of fluff: www.withthecurrent.com/menu.html.

I had the Caesar salad (made with brazil nut "parmesan"), followed by the special Enchilada complete with "sour cream". Elizabeth loved the coffee, which is made cold-pressed rather than brewed. But of course, the deserts were the highlight, we shared the mint chocolate milkshake and tiramisu: "Raw cacao and almond tiramisu cake with sweet cashew cream and raw chocolate espresso filling." Filling and healthy, no better way to eat :-)

Had to take a photo of the outside; this concept is really catching on, Cafe Gratitude just opened their 4th location!

We're going to take a short break after our lunch, and this afternoon drive through a few more neighbourhoods then head over to the Botanical Gardens...

04/23/07 by visitEarth
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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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