San Francisco

Ok. I know I said I would only blog about racing, car stuff, and day trips on the central coast...

Well this was a two-day trip! But we found some really cool new stuff in San Francisco, and what the heck...here goes.

Heading up the coast on Friday, we made the effort to get an early start so that we could knock off a couple things on the to-do list that day. But, first stop- drop off the dogs at 1000 Hills Pet Resort . Yeah you heard me. Check them out. It's the coolest doggy vacation spot yet! The dogs stay in individual "cottages" at night and run wild with all the other mutts all day! I swear, they are so worn out when we get home that they sleep for two days!

So, we rolled into the Marriott on 4th and Market around 1:30 PM, checked in, dropped our junk and took a walk down to the Moscone Center to see the 1904 Charles Loof carousel.

You have to appreciate that all of the true wooden American carousels were carved by just a handful of companies, and all done within a very short (20 year +/-) time frame. After that they began to use some castings along with some wood parts.

This particular carousel was hand carved by the Charles Loof company in 1904, and was bound for S.F. when the big earthquake hit in 1906. So it was re-routed to Seattle where it stayed until 1914. In 1914 it was moved to Playland At The Beach in San Francisco where it operated until 1972. It was then put into storage in Roswell, NM until 1984. In '84 the carousel re-appeared at Shoreline Village in California, and finally was moved to the current site at Yerba Buena Gardens in 1998. Quite an adventure! As you can see, the carousel is an amazing work of art as well as a slice of American History!

Having spent an hour or so reading the history of the carousel and watching countless kids (and a few adults) ride the 100+ year old ponies, we headed off to the Palace Hotel. Keeping with a theme I guess, the Palace was built in the 1800s and re-opened in 1909, having sustained damage in the earthquake of 1906. It's an opulent old world style hotel with an historic bar (which is what was drawing me)! There's a painting of the Pied Piper hanging behind the bar that has been there for, well, a hecka long time. Locals refer to the bar as the Pied Piper Bar, but it actually has another name- Maxfields. Anyway, here's some pics of the Palace...

It's a place worth visiting, and we'll have to look into staying there sometime to get the full experience!

On Saturday we went to the Flower Conservatory in Golden Gate Park.  They were having a special exhibit of man eating plants.  OK, well maybe not man eating...but they really do eat insects and small rodents!  That was cool, but what really fascinated me was their display of tropical forest plants, especially orchids.  Orchids I had never seen before.  Rather than drivel on, here are a bunch of photos.  But if you're ever in San Francisco, I say add all three of these stops to the tour.  Oh yeah, there was also the incredible dim sum at the New Asia Restaurant  in Chinatown, and the incomparable dinner at Maya , (south of market)!  Can't wait to do it again!!

 View from the Marriott

Chinatown

Best Dim Sum in SF