SFO

We arrived on Sunday. We were camped at an RV park (parking lot is more like it) in the city- at Candlestick Park, San Francisco's football stadium. The location of this place was great- literally a few miles from the heart of the city. But, they've taken a huge parking lot and added yellow lines and hookups- and we were right on top of each other. The space between sites was so close that our slide-outs almost touched. And, it's the most expensive park we've ever stayed at-- $52/night!! Oh well, as they say, you pay for location.....

We called Bob and Camille to get together for dinner. They came over to meet us and we started our exploration of the “underbelly” of SFO. Bob’s favorite places probably wouldn’t be found in Fodor’s or Frommer’s guide books, but it was fascinating!
On Sunday, we headed over the bridge to Oakland and got a chance to meet Bruiser and see Bob and Camille’s new house. It was in a charming area, mostly black, but the housing stock was adorable and ripe for gentrification. We got the full city tour of Oakland, had lunch at The Lighthouse Restaurant, drinks at Jack London Square. The little bar, called Heinhold’s First and Last Chance Saloon was supposedly a favorite haunt of London’s. The building had survived earthquakes and the floor is decidedly slanted. Next to the bar is a replica of Jack London’s Yukon cabin (allegedly built from the timbers of a cabin London lived in during the Yukon gold rush).

On Monday, we headed over the hills to Rich and Lani’s house in Half Moon Bay. It is a truly lovely house with spectacular views of the ocean from nearly every window. They were in the final throws of selling the house. We had salmon that they had caught deep sea fishing on Sunday. We finished off a bottle of Grand Marinier – and had an interesting ride back home.

We had a “father’s lunch” on Wednesday with Bob’s boss. Jeff, and one of his co-workers and his father. We ate at the “Hard Knocks Café”—one of Bob’s favorite haunts- a soul food restaurant run by a Vietnamese guy and his girlfriend. The food was first rate and in huge portions- oxtails, catfish, collard greens, cornbread, red beans and rice. We liked it so much that we dragged Rich and Lani there for dinner (where we had a great dinner and interesting conversation with a local bus driver). After our “father’s lunch”, we drove down to the marina to see Jeff’s boat then met Camille for drinks at “The Ramp”.
On Bob’s recommendation, we grabbed lunch on Wednesday at one of the many tacquerias in SFO-- a truck converted into a meals on wheels and they were everywhere-- tacos were $1.00 apiece and if you buy 5, you get a free drink (soda). So far it was the only bargain we found in the city.

Not wanting to miss seeing a Mormon Visitor’s Center, we headed to Oakland on Thursday afternoon and visited the Temple complex. We got a private showing of one of the LDS movies. We headed over Bob and Camille’s after the movie and had lunch at a local Mexican place- chile rellenos and beer.

On our last full day in SFO, the four of us went to see Fahrenheit 9/11. It was a very moving documentary and hit Camille particularly hard since her brother is serving in Iraq. Dinner was at another local institution, The Clam House.