Blog of Bermanism

As I said in my last post, the purpose of this post is to chronicle the journey that was Memorial weekend 2007. We had a great time this last weekend. My sister Emily came out to visit us from Texas, along with her best friend and one her best friend’s best friends (got it? good). Anyway, the friends arrived the night before Emily because they were in town for a communications conference in downtown San Francisco. They were kind enough to brave the public transit from Oakland airport to Sausalito (which involved a shuttle, the BART subway, a four block walk, and a ferry ride from downtown SF to Sausalito). In doing that, they saved me 70 miles of driving and about three hours of hassle. We all went to work the next day, but met up for dinner at this wonderful little place in Sausalito called Avatar’s. This place was introduced to us by Rachel’s friend Tanya and has been a favorite of ours ever since. The restaurant serves a fusion of Indian, Pakistani, Italian, and Mexican food, all rolled into one mouth-watering experience. On their menu, they state that they are, “Purveyors of Ethnic Confusion.” Right they are, but they do it with elegance and style. Before this post turns into a raving review for Avatar’s, let me finish by saying that even if the food was the best thing about this place, you’d be happy with your experience. Luckily, the owner and server, Ashok, is one of the happiest, most lively, and friendly servers you’ll ever have. He, and the rest of the staff are so genuinely concerned with your satisfaction, that they won’t charge you if you don’t like what they serve you. You will leave happy, as we did that night.

Much later that night, my sister flew in. I had to work the next day, but Rachel took her all around Sausalito, met me for lunch at the Cliff House Bistro, and then took her to some of the major sites in San Francisco that all tourists do (Fisherman’s Wharf, Coit Tower, Lombard Street, etc.). Afterwards, I met the entire group in Union Square where we did the famous Rachel sojourn to the largest Old Navy you’ve ever seen (she loves that place). Then, we headed out to dinner to a place that my friend Aleisha insisted that we try when she was in town, the R & G Lounge in Chinatown. This restaurant has definitely become one of our favorite places in Chinatown. They serve both authentic and creative Chinese cuisine, and the food is excellent. We had our fill there and then headed out to a downtown bar called the Hemlock Tavern. This place is pretty much a dive bar, but it is very trendy and draws a really great crown on the weekends. We all got thoroughly trashed there, played some pool with a guy we nicknamed “Jedi Mind Trick” (because thought he was so awesome at pool, and his prominently displayed ass crack agreed), and then headed home for the night at around 12:30pm (rowers are wusses, we can’t stay up past 10pm very effectively).

Despite a strong hangover, Rachel, Emily and I all got up and went to rowing practice at 6:30 the next morning. Em got to ride on the coaches boat with my coach and watch our practice, something she enjoyed, but thought was cold. After that, we went to breakfast with the rowers (until 11am!!), got back home, showered, and headed out to continue the touring. We took her to Golden Gate Park first, which is one of my favorite places. We went to the Japanese Tea Garden (a magical place), and then to the deYoung museum. The museum has a very unique view of the city from its observation tower. Sadly, that was the best thing about the place that day (except for the glass exhibit, I really thought that was cool). Then, we went to Haight-Ashbury so Emily could experience the hippyness, then went over to the Castro to get a cookie from the Hot Cookie (awesome stuff) to tide us over until dinner. After that, we took a drive up Market Street into the financial district, and eventually over to North Beach for dinner at one of our favorite Italian restaurants, the Mona Lisa Ristorante. After a yummy meal there, we headed home because everyone was totally tired. I think we were all asleep by 10.

Sunday, we got up, Rachel and I went rowing (Ken and I tried rowing a pair for the first time ever, it was great!), and then we came back, got showered and dressed and went with Emily to breakfast at the Lighthouse Cafe in Sausalito (it seems like all we did was eat!). Then we raced over to Mt. Tamalpais High school to catch a shuttle to see the Mountain Play, which was performing Hair at the top of Mount Tamalpais. There were an enormous number of people there, and, since the entire weekend was foggy, the amphitheater was happily far above the fog line, making it a beautiful, sunny and warm afternoon experience. This was my first time seeing a production of Hair, and, sadly, I was only mildly impressed. The troupe performed it well (under the very difficult condition of being outdoors), but the content of the musical was pretty much lacking. There wasn’t much of a plot and the musical really focused on protest songs about the Vietnam war. While the musical was apropos for our current time, I thought that it would have been much better with more of a plot line. Perhaps if I had watched it stoned (as it was likely written), then I might have gotten it better.

After the play, we headed to get some dinner at the E & O Trading Company in Larkspur, then headed to the Marin Brewing Company for some yummy microbrew beer. Afterwards, we headed home, polished off a bottle of our favorite Zinfandel, and went to sleep.

Emily’s friends left early on Monday morning and we headed out to Sonoma to experience some wine tasting before Emily had to get on the plane home. We managed to get to four wineries before heading back to SFO to get Emily to her plane on time. We visited Viansa, Gloria Ferrer, Schug, and Ravenswood. I don’t think any of us were very impressed with Gloria Ferrer, but we all liked something at the other three, with Ravenswood being our favorite. Rachel had been to Ravenswood once before, and had gotten a pourer named Larry, this cute old guy who knows a whole lot about wine. She requested him again and we got about twice the number of wines that we were supposed to on our tasting list. They were all really, really good and we bought a few of them. We were also all trashed after all that wine, so we had to chill out for a little while before heading back towards the city. Once I was sure I could drive in a straight line, we went into downtown Sonoma for some ice cream, then drove to SFO. We got Em to the airport in time for her flight and headed home to recover from a very busy weekend. It is always fun to have visitors come into town because it gives us a chance to explore this wonderful area we live in, more than we would on our own. The Bay Area has so much to offer and so much to do, it would take several years of trying to do it all to get it all done. We loved having Emily and her friends here, and we invite them back anytime they want to come.

Emily also wrote a blog entry about this weekend. Check it out here.

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