19 Thursday Dec 2013
Posted in California, North America, San Francisco, United States
Tags
California, Fisherman's Wharf, Musée Mécanique, North America, San Francisco, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, United States
Mr. Selfish and I are not huge fans of Fisherman’s Wharf. Since it tends to be overrun with tourists looking for sourdough bread, we generally avoid the area. However, on one fine day, we took a leisurely stroll through North Beach and ended up at Fisherman’s Wharf.
It was a lovely day, and we enjoyed the clear view of Alcatraz from the Wharf.
17 Tuesday Dec 2013
Posted in California, Food & Drinks, North America, United States
Tags
Basque Cafe, California, Chateau St. Jean, Cline, Day Trip from San Francisco, Jacuzzi, Landmark, Napa, North America, Roche, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, Sonoma Tuesday Night Farmer's Market, The Girl and the Fig, United States
Mr. Selfish and I timed it, and it took us 45 minutes to get from SF to the first winery in Sonoma. That’s right – 45 minutes. Indeed, we will be taking many more trips to wine country during our stay in SF. This post will go over our first day trip to Sonoma, which was on a Tuesday to take advantage of the Sonoma night farmer’s market.
After doing a great deal of tasting in Australia and New Zealand, I was surprised to discover that most of the wineries in Sonoma and Napa charge a tasting fee, which can vary from $5 to even $20 per person. Being the budget conscious person I am, I researched the wineries that were either free or had lower tasting fees.
10 Tuesday Dec 2013
Posted in California, North America, San Francisco, United States
Tags
California, Legion of Honor, North America, San Francisco, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, United States
Mr. Selfish and I try to avoid paying for museums when possible. One of the first Google searches I performed while settling down in SF was free museum days. I discovered that during the first Tuesday and Wednesday of every month, certain museums are free. Moreover, if you are a Bank of America customer like we are, there is one weekend a month where certain museums are free. We are slowly but surely going to hit up these museums during the free days. We started with the Legion of Honor.
28 Thursday Nov 2013
Posted in California, North America, San Francisco, United States
Tags
California, Coastal Trail, Land's End, Legion of Honor, North America, San Francisco, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, Sutro Baths, United States
Mr. Selfish and I have been taking advantage of the amazing sunny weather we’ve been having in SF. People keep telling me that it is not typical, so every time, it’s even remotely sunny I drag Mr. Selfish somewhere outside to view my current obsession – the Golden Gate Bridge. I may have mentioned this obsession previously (Part 1 and Part 2). During one particularly nice and sunny day, we went to Lands End to walk along the Coastal Trail, which has quite a new view of the Bridge.
26 Tuesday Nov 2013
Posted in California, North America, San Francisco, United States
Tags
California, Cowgirl Creamery, Drake's Bay Oysters, Marin, North America, Point Reyes, Point Reyes National Seashore, San Francisco, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, Station House Cafe, Tomales Bay Foods, Tomales Point, Tomales Point Trail, Tule Elk, United States
Mr. Selfish and I are enjoying how close SF is to so many easy and fun day trips. One of our first day trips was to the Point Reyes National Seashore, which is located north in the westernmost tip of Marin. I browsed the various trails and decided on the Tomales Point Trailhead, which is about 10 miles round trip. Tomales Point boasts of coastal trails and an abundance of tule elk.
Since it is in the most western part of Point Reyes, the drive from SF took about an hour and 20 minutes. On our way, we stopped at Tomales Bay Foods to visit the original creamery and store for Cowgirl Creamery. We picked up some provisions for a picnic during our hike.
21 Thursday Nov 2013
Posted in California, North America, San Francisco, United States
Tags
Bay Bridge, California, Cupid's Span, Ferry Building, North America, Porchetta Sandwich, Roli Roti, San Francisco, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, United States
Mr. Selfish and I love living in cities where you can walk. Not only is it great exercise, but you don’t have to look for parking. Being in Nob Hill, we have taken to walking to the Ferry Building on the weekends. The walk is about 1.5 miles one-way and takes about half an hour at a leisurely pace through Chinatown. We usually go on Saturdays because we enjoy browsing the farmer’s market and tasting all of the delicious samples.
19 Tuesday Nov 2013
Posted in California, North America, San Francisco, United States
Tags
California, Coit Tower, Lombard Street, North America, Russian Hill, San Francisco, San Francisco City Guides, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, SF City Guides, Transamerica Pyramid, United States
As I’ve mentioned previously, Mr. Selfish and I are currently living in the Nob Hill area of SF. We are right next door to Russian Hill and have been exploring the area.
As you can see, we’ve been fortunate to have amazing weather as we face those steep hills. This post is dedicated to Russian Hill.
14 Thursday Nov 2013
Posted in California, North America, San Francisco, United States
Tags
Cable Car Museum, Chinatown, North America, San Francisco, San Francisco City Guides, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, SF City Guides, United States
Mr. Selfish and I are enjoying our neighborhood in SF. We recently learned that although we officially live in Nob Hill (a/k/a Snob Hill), we are quite close to Russian Hill and Chinatown. We’re having a grand ol’ time exploring these areas, but Mr. Selfish has particularly taken to our new quest for the best baked pork buns in Chinatown. It’s a difficult task but someone needs to blog about the best buns in SF, which will be a post as soon as we have tried a few more places.
This post is dedicated to Chinatown. Mr. Selfish and I just enjoy meandering around. It almost feels like we’re in China especially when the little old Chinese women shove me and I instinctively shove them back.
12 Tuesday Nov 2013
Posted in California, North America, San Francisco, United States
Tags
Battery Spencer, Battery Wagner, California, Golden Gate, Golden Gate Bridge, Kirby Cove, Marin County, North America, San Francisco, Selfish Years, The Selfish Years, United States
In my previous post, I went over my obsession with the Golden Gate Bridge, specifically the day that I dragged Mr. Selfish to Crissy Field, Fort Point, and onto the bridge itself. This post will continue with my obsession and go over another day during which I forced Mr. Selfish to view the bridge from the Marin side.
We drove across the Golden Gate Bridge and luckily snagged one of the few parking spots at Battery Spencer. Then, we walked up a little way and wow, the view was amazing.
06 Wednesday Nov 2013
Posted in California, North America, San Francisco, United States
Tags
Battery East, Crissy Field, Fort Point, Golden Gate Bridge, North America, San Francisco, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, United States
Since we’ve been in San Francisco, the first I do when I get out of bed in the morning is to check on our view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Most of the time, it’s sunny and glorious. There have been a few times when it has been foggy, and I’m sure I can expect the frequency of that view to increase. In any case, I adore the view and look forward to seeing how the bridge looks at the beginning of every day.
Here’s the view from our window on various days:
21 Saturday Sep 2013
Posted in Cross Country, North America, United States
Tags
Cross Country, Emerald Bay, Emerald Bay State Park, Fannette Island, Lake Tahoe, North America, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, United States
Our last stop before our destination in San Francisco was Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe. After spending a little time at Yellowstone, I figured that Lake Tahoe would also be a bit rustic and out of the way. To my surprise, it was quite developed. Nevertheless, it was still quite beautiful.
We only had a couple of hours in Lake Tahoe, so based on my minimal research, we decided to do a short hike in Emerald Bay State Park.
18 Wednesday Sep 2013
Posted in Cross Country, North America, United States
Tags
Cross Country, Fairy Falls Trail, Firehole Canyon Drive, Firehole River, Geysers, Grand Prismatic Spring, Great Fountain Geyser, Midway Geyser Basin, North America, Old Faithful, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, United States, White Dome Geyser, Yellowstone
Mr. Selfish and I didn’t have any real expectations for the hot springs and geysers in Yellowstone. We had visited some areas with volcanic activity recently in New Zealand and weren’t too sure how they would be different. We were happy to discover that Yellowstone is quite different since it has the most geysers on earth.
Mr. Selfish and I had heard about Old Faithful on numerous occasions and assumed that it would just be a lot of hype and a huge tourist trap. We were wrong. Old Faithful is worth all of the hype.
Erupting almost every 91 minutes, Old Faithful is known as the most predictable geyser on earth. It erupts between 3,700 to 8,400 gallons of water at a height of 106 to 185 feet for approximately one to five minutes. It was quite impressive to watch. Mr. Selfish and I showed up just in time to catch an eruption.
13 Friday Sep 2013
Posted in Cross Country, Food & Drinks, North America, United States
Tags
Chicago, Cleveland, Cross Country, Gaetanos, Goose Island, Hot Sauce Williams, Nellies, New Jersey, North America, Pequods Pizza, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, USA
After leaving Virginia, Mrs. Selfish and I headed north through New Jersey, Pittsburgh, and Chicago, heading west for South Dakota. While admittedly not the most direct route to San Francisco, it did take us through the Badlands and the Big Sky Country in the north.
Along the way we ate plenty of Subway and granola bar breakfasts, but we also met up with friends and family. Here’s some of the better meals we enjoyed on our way west.
The less popular cousin of the Philadelphia cheese steak, the Jersey-style cheese steak doesn’t get much love. This is unfortunate, since it is the objectively superior cheese steak – and doesn’t get much better than it does at Gaetano’s (224 Penny Packer Drive) in Willingboro, New Jersey.
The bread is fresh. The steak is tender, and best of all they use real cheese. It’s also quite a bargain at $14 for an 18” large – which is enough food for dinner for two!
While I normally order the plain cheese steak, this time Mrs. Selfish and I decided to splurge with the “Mr. Gee’s Cheese Steak”, which is a cheese steak with mushrooms, peppers, and pepperoni. Amazing.
None of that cheese whiz crap here!
12 Thursday Sep 2013
Posted in Cross Country, Food & Drinks, North America, United States, Virginia
Tags
Aroma's, Buzz and Neds, Food & Drinks, Hampton Roads, Newport News, North America, Pho 79, Richmond, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, Surf Rider, The Green Leafe, Virginia, Williamsburg
Before heading west on our cross-country tour of the States, Mr. Selfish and I stayed in Virginia for a couple of weeks primarily to see my family and friends in the area. Since we are both originally from Virginia, we didn’t do much there other than hang out. So, here are some of the food highlights from our long stop in Virginia.
Mr. Selfish and I met during undergrad at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg. Since the campus is only about half an hour away from my parents’ place, we visited a few times during our stay in Virginia. We stopped by the Green Leafe (765 Scotland St., Williamsburg, VA), which is a pub very close to campus.
We discovered that the Green Leafe still has an outstanding selection of draught beer. We were also happy to learn that the Green Leafe currently has an amazing happy hour from 5-9pm, during which all draught beer are 50% off! You can’t beat a pint of good beer for $2.
Since we were already in Williamsburg, we decided to stop by Aroma Café (431 Prince George St., Williamsburg, VA) to make and eat some s’mores. They’re not the best in the world but it’s one of the few places in the area that you can roast marshmallows and make a s’more sandwich.
02 Monday Sep 2013
Posted in Disney, Florida, North America, Orlando, United States
Tags
Disney, Disney World, Florida, Magic Kingdom, Monster Inc. Laugh Floor, North America, Orlando, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, Stitch's Great Escape, United States
In 2004, Mr. Selfish and I moved to Florida and purchased Disney annual passes. I started my law firm job right after Labor Day in September, and that week, the firm closed for a couple of days due to the impending arrival of Hurricane Ivan. Instead of preparing our apartment for the hurricane, we decided to go to Magic Kingdom. It was amazing because there was hardly anyone there. None of the rides had lines (other than Peter Pan, which always inexplicably has a line). We rode everything two or three times each. It was the best day at Magic Kingdom ever.
Mr. Selfish and I always talk about that one amazing hurricane day at Magic Kingdom, because every other time we’ve been, it is crazy crowded. Even though Magic Kingdom is usually packed, it is still a great park. It is what you think of when you think of Disney.
The Selfish Years 