I left my liver in San Francisco...Sept./Oct. 2011

As a thank you to my friends Amanda and Paul for hosting me at their place in San Francisco earlier this month, I've written the following "tripadvisor" review of their triplex apartment, aka the South Seas Lanai.  I hope you enjoy!

“Best B&B I’ve ever stayed at!!!” ***** Reviewed 10/28/11 NEW

I’ve had the pleasure of staying at the South Seas Lanai, an “Urban Island Oasis,” on two separate occasions.  The proprietors, Amanda Monson and Paul Etter, are incredibly gracious hosts, extending every courtesy to a thirsty out-of-town visitor.  My most recent stay was the weekend of October 1, 2011.  I arrived to SFO on Thursday, September 29, and was greeted by Amanda at the airport with a courtesy ride to the B&B.  Upon arrival, I settled in to my room just in time for the evening cocktail hour.  Paul saw to it that a variety of cheeses, crackers, hummus dip and chips, and other snacks that wonderfully complemented the fully-stocked Oktoberfest bar.  After a restful night’s sleep, I was given a walking and drinking tour of the neighborhood by Paul on Friday morning.  We started with breakfast at Park Chow (note: they do not serve Bloody Mary’s—only beer and mimosas!), followed by Bloody Mary’s at Pacific Catch, where we were joined by another local hipster, Bob Ashworth.  The bartender was incredibly courteous and accommodating, giving me a beer chaser for my Bloody Mary, all while trying to oversee a medical emergency occurring with another diner.  He also humored us by playing a prank on local hipster Bob, serving him a Shirley Temple that was nothing but vodka and a splash of cranberry juice.  Oh, and he also gave us a free order of French and sweet potato fries! 

After eating and drinking for (relatively) free, we wandered back to the South Seas Lanai for beers on the rooftop deck.  The weather was perfect for day drinking, and day drink we did.  Around 3:00 PM, Amanda joined the three of us and we walked over to The Taco Shop at Underdog’s for a late lunch/early dinner.  Having been there on my previous visit, I was thrilled to dine there again, as I can’t get enough of good Mexican tacos and guacamole!  We all had a couple of drinks and finalized our plans for the evening: Oktoberfest by the Bay.

The events of our evening at Oktoberfest are very fuzzy, but I can distinctly remember two incidents:

1. Making a pit stop on the way home at Happy Donut for chicken wings as we were waiting for a cab.  I don’t even like chicken wings, but these hit the spot.
2. Once we arrived back to South Seas Lanai, everyone in our party decided to head over to the Mucky Duck for more revelry.  However, it was packed upon arrival, so we settled for pizza from Milano’s Pizza instead.  I ordered a single slice and received it quite quickly.  Amanda and Paul, however, decided to order a whole pie, and it took much longer to cook.  So much so that one patron, a rather large man, who ordered after them received his single slice before their pie was finished, resulting in Paul saying the most memorable quote I’ve heard in a long time: “Fatty got his pizza!”  I think we can all agree though that we definitely needed pizza after a night of oompahing and polkaing at Oktoberfest, so the wait was worth it.

 

The next day was a day of recovery, which started with the world’s biggest croissanwich, purchased by Paul from the local market Andronico’s, and consisting of at least 20 slices of crispy, delicious bacon, 3-4 slices of cheese, and about 4 scrambled eggs piled on a croissant that was at least 8” wide.  I managed to eat half of the sandwich, then picked away at the bacon and croissant on the other half, before my body shut down and required a nap.  Luckily, the South Seas Lanai is the type of establishment that encourages napping whenever you feel like it, which I fully support as well.  I woke up from my first nap of the day, got cleaned up, and then resumed sitting on the rooftop deck and drinking beers.
If memory serves me correctly, a special delivery arrived on Saturday to make my stay that much more comfortable: a luggage rack.  Now, I know what you’re thinking: “I would have WALKED OUT of there if there was no luggage rack upon arrival!  My luggage will NOT sit on the ground!”  I’ve been there, trust me, I’ve been there.  This too shall pass.  But I decided to let it slide for the first two evenings, seeing as how they offered me triple rewards points for the inconvenience.  But THANK GOD the luggage rack showed up when it did!  I couldn’t take it anymore!  Luckily, South Seas Lanai was kind enough to order a wooden luggage rack, not one of those bush league metal ones.  I placed my carry-on bag on the rack and instantly felt my pulse drop back down to a healthy rate.  Crisis averted.

In keeping with the community spirit, I later trekked to Andronico’s and picked up supplies to make Bloody Marys, as well as other garnishes which are absolutely necessary when drinking Bloody Marys.  We were once again joined by local hipster Bob, as well as local father Jay, who thoroughly enjoyed the retelling of our incident at Milano’s Pizza.  Unfortunately, we all learned too much about Jay and his ability to throw foot-skin shards across the room into a tall, metal vase.  Needless to say, if you’re ever at Jay’s house, don’t look in the vase in the living room about 15 feet from the La-Z-Boy recliner.  Rookie mistake.  Later in the afternoon, BBQ-master Paul smoked up some Memphis-style ribs, baked beans, coleslaw, and round after round of tiki-inspired drinks from the tiki bar.  Day turned to night, I took another nap, and woke up after the sun had set and was met with a Memphis-style Bloody Mary—a homemade Bloody Mary garnished with a single BBQ rib.  It was mighty fine.

Sunday, as it should be, was a day of rest.  We enjoyed breakfast at the Rain Tree Café, but unfortunately for Paul, his burger came on a baguette—apparently, the Inner Sunset neighborhood is a big supporter of serving burgers on baguettes instead of buns, as the folks at Park Chow do this as well.  So, a minor blip in the radar, but nevertheless, the day was not going to be ruined by this slight problem!  As with the previous two days, beers were enjoyed on the rooftop deck before heading to the main attraction for the evening: Domingo de Coco at Smuggler’s Cove.  The bar features special rum drinks in hollowed-out fruits on the first Sunday of each month, and since was the first Sunday in October, we went there to have a few coconut drinks.  Having heard and seen so much about this location on Facebook, I was definitely interested to check it out in person.  It did not disappoint!  I felt like I was inside a Disneyland ride—no details were missed in the décor, and you felt like you were truly in a cove somewhere in the islands, hidden amongst various treasures smuggled off of ships by pirates over the ages.  Upon Paul’s suggestion, I started with an in-house brewed dark beer (the name escapes me), followed by a special drink prepared for Domingo de Coco: “Monk’s Respite,” which was full of gin and deliciousness.  We each had 2 drinks before heading home.  A long weekend of cavorting around town, drinking everything in sight, was catching up to all of us.  But first, we stopped at La Fonda for some Mexican food.  Upon Amanda’s recommendation, I ordered something with chicken mole—chicken mole nachos.  I love nachos (well, anything good and Mexican, really), and the mole sauce was fantastic, so I was very pleased with my selection.  Some movie watching and beer drinking in the living room before bedtime rounded out another fantastic day in San Francisco.

The next morning was my time to depart, but not before once again being transported to the airport by the courtesy shuttle.  I was very sad to see this stay end, and as with my last visit, it left me yearning for more time in San Francisco and a life as relaxed and fulfilling as that which I experienced during my brief stay at the South Seas Lanai.  This “northern girl” would love move there in a heartbeat!

I hope to spend more time at the South Seas Lanai in the future!  A wonderful stay with wonderful proprietors, but even better friends!

original post: October 2, 2007 ("London/Dublin 2007! Day 1, Part 2")

Ah, yes, day 1, part 2: where to begin?

So mom, Al, and I left Gatwick and went to the Gatwick Express train service, which links Gatwick directly to Victoria Station in London. Quite handy, if you ask me! The train ride was about 30 minutes each way, and my mom bought my return trip ticket, so it didn't cost me a thing! Hallelujah.

We took our seats in the regular class compartment (no first-class for us, shoot) and struck up a conversation with a couple of Americans travelling from Nebraska. They had no idea what they were doing and didn't have a map or anything...just a dazed look on their faces. Al and I intervened and got them pointed in the right direction with our map, which was a very handy pop-up map that I had picked up in 2000 when I was studying in Edinburgh at the University of Edinburgh, and told them to go to a bookstore after they went to their hotel to pick up a current map. I'm telling ya, if you're travelling, that pop-up map is where it's at! It fits in your pocket but has all sorts of helpful info on it. Highly recommended!

Once we arrived at Victoria Station, all hell broke loose. Turns out, this was the morning of the bombing at Glasgow Airport, and the day before there was a failed car bombing in London, so security was at an all-time high. But that's okay with me! I want to be safe! Unfortunately the city of London is friggin' huge, so extra security = slow moving people, and lots of them. So there were tons of officers wondering around the tube station, and there were long waits to enter the tube station from the train station, as security officers were giving everyone the once-over. Most people were understanding about all of this. One gal behind us was getting antsy and confronted an officer, who was super rude back to her, so she called him rude, and he called her ugly! Classic.

There were some tube stations closed for repairs that weekend as well, so Victoria Station was especially busy, as it was a hub. Luckily I took note of this--more to come later on that. Al was all in a tizzy and excited to be in London but trying to act cool; instead, he just was being a dope. He was walking too fast for everyone and getting separated from the group. At one point I yelled at him across the tube platform, "AL! Settle down!" That seemed to work. Al thinks he knows everything but he doesn't really pay attention to the crucial details. Case in point: he wanted to navigate our way to the hotel by getting off at Waterloo and transferring to a different tube line. I looked at him and said, "Well, we can't do that." Him: "Why?" Me: "Because it's closed this weekend, as the signs and announcements have been saying." Him: "Oh." I rest my case. Case closed.

So we navigated our way to the hotel, which was located near the Queensway tube stop in the Earl's Court area of London. The hotel, Central Park Hotel, was just a couple of blocks away on Queensborough Terrace, across the street from a Thai restaurant, and in the middle of a row of Victorian houses. Very London-ish. Since it was about 11:00 AM and our room wouldn't be ready until about 3:00 PM, we dropped our luggage off and decided to hit the road, starting our adventure right there and then. We decided to first go to the London Eye, since mom had bought tickets for us to ride online before leaving home, meaning we could cut to the front of the line and leave everyone in our dust. This was a lovely idea! Only problem: it was pouring outside and the Eye was shut down! Boo! Well, it turns out this wasn't so bad, because Al was being a poop again (he wanted to start his Wimbledon adventure right then and there) and said he didn't want to go anyways, so mom got a refund on her tickets and pre-purchased tickets for me and her to go on it Monday morning. By this point, my jeans were soaked from about mid-shin to the foot, so I rolled them up high-water style and kept trudging along. Damn this rain!

We quick walked along the Thames and over to Westminster Abbey and Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. I would get a sky-view of these sights from the London Eye in a couple of days, and since all three of us had seen these sights before on previous (but separate trips), we stopped and nodded at it quickly a la Clark W. Griswold at the Grand Canyon in the movie Vacation, and we were off to our next stop!

We then took the tube to the Knightsbridge area to go to Harrods, aka Mecca. We were sort of limited to what we could do on this day, due to the rain, so we decided to cater our day towards inside activities. Shopping is definitely something we could handle! So we went to Harrods and tried to take it all in. Well, as best we could. Everyone else had the same idea as us--the place was packed! That's not really saying much, because London is always busy and more so on a Saturday afternoon, but the rain really brought out the crazies. Plus there were tons of people in town for Wimbledon, making it that much busier. But there's no place I'd rather have been at that time! We didn't look at the whole store, but rather we made a beeline for the Food Hall, which is the greatest part of the store. There's a ginormous deli section, a massive bakery, plus a section that sells signature Harrods food items for purchase in take-home tins and decorative packaging--the perfect souvenir! My mom bought some tea and jams for grandma, while I got a little piggy-bank shaped like the red mailbox with chocolate cookies in it. I have a piggy-bank from there that I got when I was studying abroad, so rather than keep the piggy-bank, I gave it to my cousin Meredith. She was very happy to get it because it looked like the mailbox in a book that she has. Again, big hit!

We went through the deli and picked up a salmon sandwich that looked tasty, and since we were all hungry, it looked even more tasty than it usually would have looked. After a few more minutes of ogling the dessert case, we left and hit the road again. We started on down the street away from Harrods and the insanity therein, when we came across a real treat: there was a tour bus parked across the street that had the name of the tour company on the side. Normally, not a big deal, but the tour company was called Happy Al's! Which was an oxymoron, seeing as how Al was not happy that day. But we made him stand in front of it on this side of the street and take a picture with it:

So, by this point, hunger was taking over, so we popped into a Pret a Manger, which is a fairly fancy sandwich shop...well, at least the prices lead you to believe so. Granted, the dollar has been doing so poorly against the pound for years, but it was especially bad when we were there! Oh well. The tourists gotta eat! So we each had a little something to eat and drink and we also had the salmon sandwich from Harrods--not the best thing I've ever tasted, but fairly decent. Although it was very fishy smelling, more so than other salmon I've had in the past. But, like I said, fairly decent.

After we left here, we went and walked around for a while, heading towards Buckingham Palace, through St. James Park, over to Trafalgar Square, on to Leiceister Square, Piccadilly Circus, and finally ending up at the tube station at Green Park. This sort of became the hot tube spot for us, as we usually ended up over in this area at one point or another during the day, as there were many shops in this area (Boots the Chemist!). Along the way, while walking back from Piccadilly Circus on Piccadilly, we stopped at a flea market of sorts that was set up in the courtyard of a church (although I'm not sure if it's a church any longer or not), and I got a panoramic picture from a guy who was quickly closing up shop, as the rain was coming down at a pretty good clip, and rain does not treat photographs well! So that was my souvenir of the afternoon, seeing as how the piggy-bank from Harrods went to Meredith. Huzzah!

Seeing as how it was now about 5:00 and we were soaked, tired, and hungry, we got on the tube and headed back to our hotel. Our room was finally ready, so we grabbed our luggage and went upstairs. Well, this room was very basic: 2 twin beds, one rolling twin bed, a small desk, a tv mounted on the wall, and a tiny bathroom that had one of those countertops that extended into the bathtub itself. But we knew we weren't going to be in the room very much, so it worked out just fine for us. Our plans for the evening were to just go get some dinner and then come back to bed, so I didn't change out of my wet jeans--I just rolled them up a little more, brushed my teeth, and laid down on my bed for a few minutes. As Lenny would say, I was resting my eyes! But after about 20 minutes of this, mom and Al woke me up and we left for dinner at Wagamama.

Ah, yes, Wagamama! I remember it fondly. Years ago, my good friend Aimee, aka black devil, and I were two young and dumb flatmates at the University of Edinburgh and we went to London on our way to the mainland during our 5 week long spring semester break. Her roommates from USC were studying in London and let us crash at their flat, and one night they had us come with them to Wagamama. What a treat! Wagamama is a Japanese-style noodle house that has a modern feel to it--all white walls, minimal decoration, etc. I am a big fan of the chicken ramen noodle dish there, and Al went there when he was in London with his AP Euro class in high school, so we told mom that's where we had to eat for sure when we were in London.

Anyhoo, to get there, we walked through Hyde Park, as that was adjacent to our hotel, and mom wanted to see Kensington Palace (located in Kensington Gardens within Hyde Park), since Lady Di had once lived there and she hearts Lady Di. So does my friend Sony, and I tried to find her a commemorative magnet but had no such luck. But, I digress! We walked through the park, which was empty due to the rain and cold except for the few brave joggers and tourists. We made it to the palace but it was closed, so we quick walked around the perimeter of the palace and additional fenced-in garden, then continued onwards to Wagamama.

This particular Wagamama was located in the Kensington district of London, on High Street, and on the 3rd floor. Normally I wouldn't mention this, but walking up marble steps that were slippery from the rain all while wearing slipper Crocs made this task an adventure! Note to readers: don't wear Crocs. This trip has turned me against this form of footwear as an option for wearing outside of the house! They should be worn only for yardwork and the occasional doctor's appointment, when you are too sick to be bothered with tying laces!

Alas, I digress once again. We made it up the stairs and found ourselves a place to sit. Seeing as how we were soaking wet, we were all happy to be sitting in a warm restaurant, no matter how many hardships we faced coming up the stairs. We all had a beverage, although I think mom had wine while Al and I stuck with non-alcoholic beverages (I know, hard to believe!). I ordered the aforementioned ramen dish, as did mother, while Al had a salad and another dish (it might have been some sort of udon noodle dish). The place was pretty busy so our waiter was a little ragged, but he brought everything out to us piping hot, and that's what it was all about. We made fast work of the food, seeing as how it was really about 1:00 AM to our body clocks and we were sleepy, and everything tasted good...well, again, we slurped everything down really fast, so maybe it wasn't that good after all. After settling the tab (note to readers: if you pay by credit card, you write the tip in first, sign, and then they run that amount through and bring you a receipt so you don't have any surprises a la Enjoy! restaurant in AV-town), we cautiously headed downstairs and made our way back to the hotel.

I took a shower when we got back, mainly to warm up, and learned that my new jeans (which were so new they hadn't been washed yet, except for the London rain) gave me a rash all over my legs and up onto my hips! Piss! I didn't realize this until after I got out of the bathroom and finished hand-washing my jeans after the shower, and sat down in my bed to put on lotion, when I pulled up my pajama-pant leg and saw a pink rash all over myself. And it was itchy like a mutha-f*cka, too! So I took a good dose of Benadryl, or whichever generic equivalent I had with me, and turned in for the night. What a day or two!

original post: September 18, 2007 ("London/Dublin 2007! Day 1, Part 1")

Hello again, my pretties! Oh, to think of the fun I've had this summer...well, it makes me feel old. But I am, so screw it!

As you may or may not know, this summer I went to London and Dublin (and surrounding cities/towns) for vacation and to join in the celebration of my high school friend's wedding on July 4. Gotta keep the American spirit alive in foreign countries! So I packed up my blue suitcase and hit the road on Friday, June 30, to London via Chicago and Dublin.

I flew from Minneapolis to Chicago via Northwest, and then Chicago to Dublin via Aer Lingus. I flew on Aer Lingus one other time, when I was studying abroad in Edinburgh--my friend Nathalie and I went to Dublin to meet up with her friend Pete for a jolly good time. This plane I flew on from Chicago to Dublin was a brand new Airbus, so I had one of those nifty tv screens in the headrest plus my own remote control for playing video games (or sudoku, which they had in the games section). I, however, spent the entire flight watching season 6, part 1, of "The Sopranos," as I had not yet seen these episodes. The gal next to me spent the entire flight reading the "New York Times" and playing sudoku on the handheld game set. She was a bore. But I didn't care, because I was happy watching my tv show!

Anyhoo, we landed in Dublin at around 5:45AM, and I made my way through customs, collected my bag, and made my way towards the check in desk for Ryanair, Europe's version of Southwest Airlines. I don't know if you've ever been to the airport in Dublin before or not, but apparently everyone flees the country on the weekend. The place was crammed full of drunken Irishmen! Seriously! I took one step off of the escalator from the baggage claim area and was immediately hit with a wall of boozy air! It was like getting a contact high! There were little Conan O'Brien look-a-like kids running around, frustrated dads pushing baggage trolleys chock full of bags (in case you have not seen this phenomenon in person, every single British and Irish person feels the need to rent a trolley at the airport and lug their luggage around, instead of just carrying it or buying a suitcase with rollers on it), trashy looking moms were yelling at the kids to behave, and then there were those of us foreigners who walked around in a daze. Lucky for me, I got pointed in the direction of the Ryanair check in desk by a nice airport police officer, and was able to walk right up and check in. Ryanair has a ridiculous 15 kg weight limit on all checked baggage, which is about 31 lbs, so I had thinned my bag out somewhat in Chicago, getting it down to 15.2 kg. The gal didn't say anything, so I wasn't charged the excess weight fee, and I continued my journey towards the security line.

Here's where it gets ugly/sweaty. So the line/queue for security check in was like a maze, with four or five lines converging but not going anywhere, and then hapless airport workers would introduce a new line to nowhere, and everyone got frustrated. On top of that, it was about 75 degrees in there, but super humid, so everyone was sweaty and disgusting. It was not a pleasant sight. I was wearing a black fleece pullover courtesy of the MN Soccer team via Debbie D., and I was a sweathog. Thank goodness there were no hotties there, only the family members described above. However, when it was my turn to go through security, I got an extra search because of my WMD's, so the female guard had to pat me down a little bit. But, hey, if it keeps the country safe, then so be it! :)

Well, I made it through to the gate for Ryanair, which has a "first come, first serve" boarding policy...so people start lining up at the gate door about one hour before boarding time. Seeing as how Southwest doesn't fly to Minnesota, I have not experienced this process before, so I started talking to a nice Irish woman sitting next to me, and she explained the whole thing. A light went on in my head, so as soon as she stood up to get in line, I followed suit. Luckily, I was one of the first people on the plane, so I was able to choose a window seat toward the rear of the plane, and since they boarded via both the front and back exit, that meant that I would be one of the first to exit the plane as well. In the middle seat next to me sat a young guy (about 16 or so) who was American, and he was traveling with his dad, who was British. They were going to London for the Concert for Diana, which was being held the next night.

So off we left for London! It was a rainy morning in Dublin, which isn't saying much, especially considering it had been raining for about 20 straight days by this point. The flight was fairly uneventful--a bit bumpy, but nothing major. That is, until we get close to Gatwick, our final destination. We descend and are probably no more than 1,000 feet away from the runway (I could make out words on the signs in the carpark at the foot of the runway) when the plane speeds up and whoosh! We take off again. It seems that our friendly pilots didn't have clearance to land! The kid sitting next to me woke up, turned to me and asked what happened, then asked me to wake him up again when we landed. So we circled around the airport and finally landed about 10 minutes later. This part of the flight was pretty bumpy, so I was quite glad when we landed, mainly because the pilot didn't seem too trustworthy at this point!

We landed and I made my way towards customs and baggage claim. Since I had already arrived into the E.U. in Dublin, I went straight through to baggage claim, but as I was walking through, I heard someone calling my name, and look over to see mom and Al waiting in line for customs arrival! They had just landed from Minneapolis, as they took a direct flight (I had originally planned to spend my entire trip in Ireland, but my mom and brother decided to tag along, so a stop in London was added). So I went upstairs, waited for them to get through customs, got my bag, and then we were off to the train station.

(Day 1, part 2 coming soon!)