Frisco: Day 2

I'm realizing that some of this might be repetitive - I forgot that Dan actually blogged about the trip when we got back, so this will just be my version.

We finished up Day 1 by checking into our hotel, the Sofitel (which we ended up calling the "Snot-fitel") and heading to a Navy Pier-ish type place called Pier 39 for dinner. Nothing too exciting, but we were hungry and the food was good.

We stayed in the aforementioned "Snot-fitel" because it was across the street from where the conference was being held (at the Oracle campus) and all the attendees and speakers were staying there. And it was being paid for since it was a work trip for Dan (at $275 or whatever it was, we definitely wouldn't have chosen it!). It was fancy. And as fancy hotels go, the more you pay, it seems the less you get. No free stuff...not even a coffee maker in the room! And, I love french things and all, but this was just a little too stuffy, including the staff. Thus, "Snofitel."

Anyway, Dan went to his conference and I slept in, took my time getting ready, did my nails and pampered myself a bit which was nice. Then I headed down to the lobby for breakfast. No free continental breakfast here. But it was vacation, so I decided to treat myself to a proper French breakfast. I ordered fresh berries with creme fraiche and a pot of French pressed coffee. I will say this was the BEST part of the stay at Sofitel. Though extremely overprices at $18 for berries, cream and coffee, it was superb. Each berry was huge and perfect, and if you haven't had creme fraiche it's sort of like a mix of yogurt and sour cream - delish. And the coffee was perfect. I sat there for a quite a while enjoying my morning and the paper (something I rarely do).

After that I packed up, checked out (since check out was during the conference) and then headed out with my laptop to find some wi-fi and spent most of the afternoon at Starbucks. Soon it was time to pick up Dan and head to our next destination - a Marriott we had pricelined for $55 / night. We spent the next 3 nights there and it was perfect - good location and super nice with friendly staff.

OK, enough about our hotels. I'm starting to ramble.

That night we decided to check out Fisherman's Wharf. We had heard it was a bit of a tourist trap, but wanted to check it out nonetheless. It was definitely a little touristy, but it was fun to peruse the seafood stands and partake in some of the cuisine - crab cakes and fried shrimp...yum.








We also visited the Boudin bakery there, and picked up a loaf of sourdough to take with us. I saved the paper bag it came in, because the story of the bread is fascinating. You can read it here, but this is the part I found interesting:

"In 1849, the Boudin family struck culinary gold. Wild yeasts in the San Francisco air had imparted a unique tang to their traditional French bread, giving rise to “San Francisco sourdough French bread.” Today, the Boudin family's initial recipe lives on in the hands and hearts of our expert bakers, with a portion of the original mother dough still starting each and every sourdough loaf we make."


From there we headed to Girardelli Square, which is the original Ghirardelli factory that has been turned into a cute shopping / eating area.



We looked around and I fell in love with the little shop I blogged about here, Crown and Crumpet. And we had the BEST cupcakes ever at a cute little shop called Kara's cupcakes. So, so good.






Then we had to have some Ghirardelli chocolate. We went to their little cafe for some drinking chocolate and were able to watch some of the original machinery on display, still making chocolate.





It was another lovely day in San Francisco!