Quick note on my trip to the Bay area. I landed at SJC around 9pm. Got the rental car (Hertz #1 Club Gold, you're my hero!) and zoomed up to San Francisco.
What is it about freeways in California? They always seem like they are under construction. The 101 is not under construction, but it certainly felt like it. Is this the result of seismic activity? Or maintenance inactivity?
Anyway, it took under 40 minutes, which is amazing. All of my previous trips to San Fran have been during heavy traffic or on foot. There are decent signs now that take you straight to the North Beach area. I never noticed that before. It took ten minutes to find a place to park, and I was able to drive up one of those impossible steep hills in the process. All par for the course. Parked near a park with some scary characters loitering in the dark.
Walked over to Corso Christofo Colombo and headed straight to Trattoria Volare Cafe. The service was awful, as usual. It was twenty minutes before I got any attention. Of course, I don't go for the service, I go for the food, and that was terrific. Minestrone with carrots, squash, eggplant, and mushrooms. Pollo Parmigiana with scalloped potatoes and grilled vegetables. Their savory marinara is exquisite. I read the SF Weekly to keep myself from feeling lonely.
Sat at by an open window and got to smell all the wonderful San Fran smells that would probably be offensive or noxious in any other setting, but are refreshing to me because they tell me I am in a real city. A city where the restaurants are open until 11pm or later, even on a Monday.
Back down the 101 to Santa Clara, in bed by midnight, but forgot to take my sleeping pill, so I got no sleep. Up at 7am, to corporate headquarters, nice training class, bearable. Headed into downtown San Jose, which is very inviting and peaceful. I tried to get in the Cafecito, where Fatigo has played in the past, but it was closed (it was 3 in the afternoon). Got a chocolate shake at Ben & Jerry's and headed to return the rental car. I forgot to refill the tank and got charged nearly $40 for a quarter tank of gas (it's all expensed to the company, but that hurts nonetheless). In the airport reading some new books for three hours, three hours on the plane, and a ride home in a car without air conditioning. I was beat, but I'll live.
Folks, the dinner was worth the trip. All else is irrelevant.
6 comments:
i'll be sure and give Uncle Gary your advice and the name and address of this restaurant for the next time he goes to San Francisco.
Did I miss something or was there any business involved in this business trip? Sounds pretty suspect if you ask me.
Also, how do you forget to take a sleeping pill? Maybe I'm ignorant, but wouldn't you remember when you realized that you couldn't sleep? Odd.
Another good restaurant is Michaelangelo Cafe, right next door. Really, it's like the North End of Boston. You go, pick a place at random, and you're likely to have better Italian food than anywhere else, save Italy.
The pill takes anywhere from an hour to two hours to work. By the time I figured it out (2am), it was too late.
The business was the training class. It went from 8-3. As usual, I was the only one actually asking questions and trying to learn something.
I vaugely remember a phone call. Something about measuring pools. Inspiring. If you had called me the night before, maybe I would have slept.
And the picture is from Dark Passage. One of Bogart's early films, and very unique. It's film noir, but the first half of the movie you are seeing out the eyes of the protagonist as he escapes from the law and has reconstructive surgery. Very cool.
i know that's what Uncle Gary does on company trips with company money!
p.s. he calls it smoozing....riigght!
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