West Coast Road Trippin' - Day Six

In front of the Bay Bridge

San Francisco is a pretty awesome city.

By the time we left the room (and the Challenger parked for the day), it was after 11am. Our plan was to head downtown by MUNI rail to Fisherman's Wharf at Embracadero, walk the piers, see the sites and be tourists for a day. First of all though, we needed food. Roger took the lead and suggested we hit up Chinatown for some "authentic" Chinese food for lunch. After reaching Embracadero,we explored the Asian part of the city a bit before settling on an almost literal hole-in-the-wall eatery called Gourmet something or another.

The less said about that place, the better.

The Challenger gets the day off while we exercise our feet

We made our way down to the piers and strolled up to Fisherman's Wharf, passing a number of seafood restaurants, Alcatraz tours and all manner of shops and such in the process. Being as Roger and I both share an allergy to all things shellfishy, we decided against upsetting our tummies any further and did some shopping. We also saw the famous Pier 39 sea lion colony, visited the Exploratorium and rested our feet with some light drinks at Fog Harbor Fish House.

Roger admiring the sea lions

Apparently at times, the colony numbers in the thousands.

Seafood bars litter the place

Historic part of the wharf

The infamous Alcatraz

Nice decor

The Bay Bridge

Roger trying to figure out where the heck the train left us

Golden Gate Bridge in the distance

After waltzing up and down Embracadero, we so wanted to get that taste of kung pao out of our system that we decided to have a late lunch at The Naked Lunch. A short walk from wharf area, this sports bar and grill has an interesting menu that apparently changes daily and a no-nonsense atmosphere to it. I had their staple, farm-fried chicken sandwich while Roger elected for the burger-of-the-day. While I have no doubt the chicken sandwich is absolutely scrumptious, this time around it was less than stellar (the chicken could've been left in the fryer a little longer) and probably further aggravated my already-karate-chopped stomach. Nothing a cold IPA can't assist with.

We were scheduled to leave San Fran' the next day, but we couldn't bid adieu without at least sampling the city's nightlife. Roger suggested we hit up a hip hop club that was relatively close by. Called Double Dutch, the place boasts a pretty rad interior design, one that I'm sure will appeal to my DJ counterparts. As you walk in, you're met with a wall made almost entirely of vintage boombox radios on one side, while the bar itself sits opposite. The wall above the bar, is decorated with pictures of hip hop icons like Naughty-By-Nature, Run DMC, Ice Cube, etc. The DJ spun pretty well, though the transitions could've been better (my DJ criticals would not be contained) but everyone there seemed to be having a good time. Knowing we had a full day ahead, we stayed an hour before returning to our base (hat tip to Phil!).

Did I mention we got a parking ticket during our day trek downtown? Apparently we parked Big Sexy Grey in an area (adjacent to our base) where street cleaning happened during a specific time. It just so happened that while we were gone, that's when the street cleaning happened. Parking in this city is tough, man. The parking instructions alone, left for us by our host had us triple and quadruple checking our spots to ensure we weren't breaking any laws and parking by any green, yellow, blue, red or black sidewalks.

In that order.

We had a pretty good day all the same. Check out the video below for our views on Day Six as well as what's to come on Day Seven when we tackle the famed Pacific Coast Highway: