A Quick Musing: SAN FRANCISCO ADVENTURE

The America's Cup world race is being held in San Francisco Bay this October. San Francisco is redesigning and fancying up the entire Embarcadero. America's Cup will have its own pier, currently being built, and Oracle Racing (America's own team), has an information and gift center all ready to go. The race is a very big deal. I knew Clyde would love seeing the 71' sailing vessels up close and personal, but thought a visit in October would be a nightmare of crowds. I researched online when we might be able to catch sight of the boats out in the bay before the actual event. For months, the website listed Feb. 8 as a qualifying event. So, as a Merry Christmas present to Clyde, I booked adjoining rooms in what looked like a unique hotel, asked Clyde, Meredith & Sofia to put the weekend on their calendar and made a dinner reservation at a wharf restaurant highly recommended by Meredith & Clyde. And off we went . . .

Settling in to cool rooms . . .

The view from our rooms . . .

Spending the first night relaxing, playing games, visiting and getting some good sleep . . .

Saturday morning was wet, but not raining and cleared up early. We headed out on foot for breakfast and the America's Cup pier . . .

We found the pier, but where are the boats? You can't hide 71-foot boats if they really are close by . . .

We kept walking, but had to stop for lunch at a cool outdoor market on the way . . .

Didn't find the boats or any information. Thought maybe they were sailing down near Chrissy Field, so grabbed a cab and off we went. No big sail boats, but we had a lovely time at the beach
. . .

Young Clyde kept checking sites on the internet on his iPhone. Found out that there was a "Junior" event. This is getting tiring, better stop for an afternoon snack . . .

Never did find the boats, but that didn't prevent us from getting dressed up and heading out to claim our dinner reservation . . .

Glad the kids had been to this place before and knew to steer us in its direction. Most expensive meal we've ever had and worth every single cent, including a huge tip for exceptionally good service . . .

The sun set while we ate and look at the view out the restaurant window. Wow!

Individually brewed espresso coffees dripped over sweet, condensed milk . . .

Waiting for a streetcar to take us back to our beautiful rooms . . .

Our last morning in the city, we grabbed breakfast at the hotel cafe . . .

We had already had such a grand time that it didn't really matter all that much that we hadn't seen the boats after all, but Young Clyde was still determined to make his Dad's Christmas present complete. He found Oracle Racings facility at Pier 80. Way, way, way away from the Embarcadero and in a rather questionable part of the city. It was chainlink-fenced and had a guard standing watch. Apparently, we weren't seeing boats because there's lots of spying and stealing of protected, state-of-the-art technology secrets. Very hush-hush. Found out that there was Junior sailing the day before, but quite a ways down the penninsula. But, we did learn some interesting facts from the guard and did get to see two of the "junior" boats (only 45' tall). We also saw this 91-foot retired Oracle boat at the facility. Meredith told Clyde she didn't think he helped our cause by trying to explain our interest by saying that Meredith is a Kiwi (New Zealand's Emirates team being Oracle's greatest challenger). We considered this stop, though, as having fulfilled our original purpose and headed for Golden Gate Park,