I Left My Heart In San Francisco

"I left my heart in San Francisco," is a classic lyric from a Tony Bennett song (1962), but it was true for me as Anne and I visited San Francisco.

Anne already has my heart and San Francisco captured both of our hearts. From Sunday (2/22) to Wednesday (2/25) we had a wonderful time there.

We stayed at the lovely Grand Hyatt Union Square, and our room (2007) had a beautiful view of the city. Each morning at breakfast we met very interesting people and on two of those days we had breakfast with them.

The weather each day was gorgeous, 65 to 70 degrees, clear and sunny.

Fisherman's Wharf is one of our favorite San Francisco venues, and we bought a sourdough bread at Boudin's on Fisherman's Wharf. Boudin's bakes one of the best sourdough breads we've ever tasted.

We then caught a cable car at its Fisherman's Wharf terminus and rode it all the way up to Union Square, while enjoying the company of a German tourist, a 50 ish woman we met on the cable car.

The next day, we visited Coit Tower, another San Francisco landmark, a lovely Tower built in 1933 to display art and to offer gorgeous views of the city.

The weather was so remarkably clear, we were told by the staff that on this day, we could see five counties from the the top of Coit Tower. We looked out at Oakland and at UC Berkeley as well as the bay itself.

We then walked back to our hotel through North Beach, and stopped to have Gelato from a little shop just above Washington Square, a square block sized park. There we shared a park bench with a very senior citizen, an interesting lady who has lived in her North Beach home since 1970.

She declined our offer to buy her a Gelato but she enjoyed discussing the city with us, and I think she enjoyed having our enthusiastic attention.

Afterward, we walked back to our hotel through Chinatown, on a sidewalk filled with people, as we drifted in and out of the shops.

Each night, we had room service in an intimate setting, just the two of us overlooking part of the city and a bit of the bay, from our window.

Although it was not on their menu, the hotel very thoughtfully arranged to serve me vegetarian burgers, as I am a vegetarian and this was my vegetarian choice.

When it came time to leave, it was hard to say goodbye. Perhaps we will return again sometime soon.

Dick