"Summer in San Francisco, Kissing Chlorine in the Swimming Pool"

Playing: A Matter of Time-The Killers
Reading: Guns Inquiry Urges Action Against 14 in Justice Dept. by Charlie Savage

Whenever I drop off my brother at college, I always spend a day exploring San Francisco, which my uncle describes as the most beautiful city in the world. For my first stop, my family and I went to Coit Tower, which offers a great view of the surrounding city. Plus, it's a nice area to walk around and there are plenty of European and Korean tourists there, if you're looking to work on your foreign language skills.

For lunch, I went to Tartine Bakery, which Lisa recommended. After reading some Yelp reviews, I decided to try one of their croque monsieurs and ordered the shitake mushroom one. Unfortunately, the croque monsieurs aren't made to order and aren't even reheated. However, the taste is good and my dad thought it was the best dish we ordered. I also shared a small pastry with my brother called the Frangipane Tart, which had blueberries in a puff pastry tart with almond. I would definitely try all the pastries there, if you go. There was also this super model-y looking guy there that I talked to until his boyfriend whisked him away. Figures the one time I decide to be bold and talk to a cute guy, he would be in a relationship...

Right down the street was Bi-Rite Creamery, which I've read about in many magazines, so I had to try the two flavors that were recommended the most, the Salted Caramel and the Balsamic Strawberry. I have to agree with Lisa that Tartine Bakery is more of a must. The pastries there were amazing, while the ice cream at Bi-Rite was truthfully only ok. They did have interesting flavors that day like Basil and Olive Oil and have cool employees, all with multiple piercings, dyed hair, and cool hair cuts.

After lunch, I visited the Presidio of San Francisco to hike and look around. I regret not taking a look at the Walt Disney museum there, but I enjoyed looking around the water line. If you want, you can come here for a less crowded view of the Golden Gate Bridge, which surprisingly enough isn't golden. That shocked me a lot, when I was little and watching Full House. Here's a quick note though, wear warm clothing. I couldn't hike that long because I was running around in a thin sweater and jeans. Not windy weather attire at all.

On the same road along the Presidio is the Palace of Fine Arts, which I saw on Lisa's blog and her blog kind of became my place to check out where I should go in San Francisco. It's absolutely beautiful there and it's interesting to see all this Greek/Roman influence in an area that was never occupied by them. (No duh...America wasn't "discovered" until 1492 and the Greeks/Romans lost power before we ever got to four digits.) If you have time, I recommend walking around the area and looking at all the cute houses. The styles differ tremendously so.

Actually now that I think about it, the driving time to get from place to place wasn't bad at all. With not much trouble at all, we got down to the Fisherman's Wharf just to walk around because my brother likes it down there. We mostly wanted to go to watch the sea lions roll around and be lazy like sea lions do. This is also a great area to go, if you're into boats. They have tons of boats from different eras to explore. I'm pretty sure you buy one ticket to visit all the ships.

For dinner, we headed back to Berkeley to go to one of my favorite restaurants up there called Gypsy's Trattoria Italiana, which offers amazing food at extremely low prices. My brother and I always get the cream sauce or Alfredo sauce with our pasta. (Yes, there is a difference.) I have to admit the cream sauce is better, but for this trip I got the Shrimp Alfredo, which came with tons of shrimp. All dishes come with toasted bread and roasted garlic, which is one of the best parts of the meal.

For dessert, I walked down the street to go to Cookies Rule Everything Around Me. For only $2, you get a scoop of ice cream squished between two fresh baked cookies. I usually share mine with my brother and our favorite is Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream with White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies. The other one my dad got was Blueberry Ice Cream with Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. The great thing about CREAM is that they offer vegan and gluten free choices that way everyone can enjoy no matter what their dietary restrictions are. I actually think Berkeley is extremely underrated in the food circle because they offer a wide variety of ethnic foods at a low price that tastes amazing. I have not had a bad meal there.

Title from "The Future" by Patrick Wolf