Thoughts and memories of San Francisco

- Three medals hanging around my neck make a clank-clank sound when I walked. With everyone in the team walking together, we made a lot of clank-clank noise.
- It was cold in SF. I had to buy sweat pants and a jacket in Old Navy since I packed light weight clothing. I was freezing between races.
- The street blocks in SF are big. Walking from Fifth St to Tenth St took 15 minutes.
- Dancing in the Starlight Room to “I Will Survive” and “Last Dance”. And being really tipsy.
- Five gin-and-tonics will make me drunk.
- Dimsum in SF was good but Vancouver dimsum is still better.
- The Container Store is a very cool store. I could spend a lot of money there.
- Alcatraz made me sad. It’s tragic that men had to live there for years and years. But I guess if you commit a crime, that’s what you deserve.
- Best crabs ever - Thanh Long on 46th and Judah. We had the roast crab and tamarind crab. Soooo delicious. Ed and I barely said a word while we were eating.
- Blazing Saddles bike rentals. You can spot the tourists by the black pouch with the rental company’s logo hanging from the bicycle’s handle bar.
- Beautiful paintings in a gallery in Sausalito. I think the painter’s name was Montesino. She was from Mexico.
- Wine we liked the best: Gundlach-Bundschu. Wish we’d bought the Gewürztraminer as well.
- Should have bought a bottle of Chardonnay from Chateau Montelena. It was actually pretty good.
- We bought six bottles of wine and one bottle of Cointreau.
- Tasting fee was $10 in Napa Valley, $5 in Sonoma. Although V. Sattui and Rombauer didn’t charge a fee. We bought wine from both wineries.
- Most expensive was Sterling at $15 a person. That was for the cable car ride and wine tasting.
- Wish we had more time to visit more wineries.
- Found out that Cabernet Sauvignon is *the* wine from Napa Valley region. And the grape grown in an area depends on the soil type and the temperature in that area.
- We ate very well throughout the trip. But after six days of eating out, we were sick of it. So we bought groceries and cooked a simple but delicious dinner in our suite. Felt good.
- Temperature in SF was 72 deg F and in Sonoma it was 92 deg F. A bit of a shock when we stepped out of the car in Sonoma.
- Ed’s cousin-in-law referred to Fresno as the “armpit of California”.
- It was 97 deg F when we were in Fresno. Finally got to use the shorts and tank tops I brought with me.
- Did not see much of Fresno except Ed’s cousin’s house and the supermarket. Ed’s cousin’s house was beautiful and we quite enjoyed hanging out there.