san francisco: first impressions

we're in SF. while miyuki is in the shower, I thought I'd reflect on our first night in town...

the drive down here was long and boring. nearly 12 hours, and that's just from portland. in parts of northern cali it must have been over a hundred degrees. was quite pleasant to get to SF and find it to be in the 60s.

the main route into SF, I-505, has ONE sign leading up to it, and it's right at the exit. we didn't see the sign until it was too late because of a semi in the right lane, and had to drive ten more miles round trip to get to the exit again. maybe it's just me, but you'd think that a major interstate highway, and the quickest southbound method to get to SF, would have a bit more notice. I really didn't feel like driving an extra hour to go through sacramento, thanks.

the golden gate bridge is a toll bridge. I seem to recall that. what I don't recall is that it costs three damn dollars to cross. doesn't that seem a tad insane for a toll? especially since there's gotta be people who cross that EVERY day?

traffic in california sucks. drivers here suck more. there are shitty drivers in washington, sure. but not many of them weave in and out of traffic (that's going 70mph) at 110mph. motorcycles are even worse. we saw several driving in between lines, right on the divider line. unfortunately, none of them seemed to get killed. fuckers would deserve it for being idiots.

after we got checked in, we wandered around for awhile. miyuki heard there was a night market in chinatown, so we went that way. we couldn't find it, so we opted for dinner at "chinatown restaurant"... seriously, that was the name. I'm not sure waht to think. the service was terrible. I mean really, truly awful. the steamed BBQ pork buns were tasty. the spring rolls were so-so. the green beans and tofu were hit and miss, green beans were REALLY tasty, tofu was kinda gross. and the little hidden charges were DAMN annoying. they asked what kind of rice we wanted with our entree, but when they brought out the steamed rice, it was long grain (and overcooked). that cost $2. the tea, which I had to ask for twice, cost $4. the water, which I also had to ask for twice, showed up twenty minutes after the food (and 45 after I originally asked). and we had some stupid fucking little kid behind us that had to kept telling the same stupid story about how one of her friends pronounced "chicken" as "shicken"... she told the story at least eight times. then her sister had to start mockingly ask for the "shicken" dish to be passed to her. I wanted to slap them. oh yeah, and the reason we went into this restaurant was because someone handed us a flyer for 20% off and free potstickers. we got the free potstickers, but not the discount. our modest dinner (one entree and two appetizers) cost over $30. I wouldn't be recommending "chinatown restaurant" to anyone, even IF leonardo dicrappio ate there (it was on the flyer we were handed).

today we're going to explore japantown, try to head over to the japanese tea gardens, and otherwise wander aimlessly. tomorrow we have lunch at "top of the mark" and will try for fisherman's wharf. tuesday we head home...