In San Francisco Before VMworld
Published on 10 Sep 2007 · Filed in Information · 488 words (estimated 3 minutes to read)Before I embarked on the busy schedule that is VMworld this year in San Francisco, my wife and I spent the day today strolling leisurely around the city. Before we’d even known it, we’d covered a total of about 6 or maybe 7 miles on foot, and seen more of the city than we’d planned on visiting today.
Our trek started out downtown, just down from the Moscone Center at the San Francisco Marriott, where we’re staying. From there, we walked over to Union Square, Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39. From there, we visited the sea lions at Pier 39, then made our way over to Ghiradelli Square. Next on the list was Coit Tower (we were in that general area anyway), and that about wiped us out. Those hills leading up to the tower are tough when you’ve already walked 3 or more miles in the space of just a couple of hours. (Either that, or we are just horribly out of shape, which is quite likely.)
Once we’d visited Coit Tower, it was all downhill from there, both literally and figuratively. We were famished (we hadn’t eaten anything other than some banana nut bread for breakfast much earlier in the morning), and so we set out to get something to eat. In our searching for a restaurant, we stumbled into Chinatown. “Why not eat Chinese?” I said, and so we set off to find a Chinese restaurant in which to eat.
After a series of false starts, we finally decided on a place. The wait staff’s English was not good, and so we had a hard time placing our order, and the food wasn’t anything like what we’d expected. Not to say that it was bad, but it wasn’t what we expected. Not even close.
With that adventure behind us, we made our way back downtown (via the Financial District), stopped off at the Apple Store downtown, and went back to the hotel. We stayed there for a few hours, napping and relaxing, then set out to find some dinner. (Let’s just say the Chinese food—what parts we did eat—hadn’t stuck with us.) A San Francisco local directed us to John’s Grill on Ellis, which was not far from our hotel or the hotel where some of my co-workers are staying (and where we were supposed to meet later that night). Apparently, this place is somewhat famous (featured in the novel The Maltese Falcon, and one of only a few establishments to survive the Great Earthquake of 1906), but I’ll remember it for the food. Talk about excellent! I haven’t had such a good dinner in a while.
After dinner, it was a quick meetup with some fellow engineers from ePlus Technology, then back to the hotel to call it a night and rest up for Partner Day tomorrow. It’s going to be a busy week…stay tuned for updates as often as I can give them.