Rice A Roni - The San Francisco Treat

We do our best to take advantage of any time off of work, so a four day weekend presented a lot of options.  Matt found a killer last minute deal to San Francisco and the Memorial Day weekend was decided.  Great food, interesting neighborhoods, the ocean, shopping, and museums were some of the few things we took part in.  We had an absolute ball and are crossing our fingers for some added federal holidays.  

The crab chowder, in a bread bowl no less, at Fisherman's Wharf was incredible!
Matt "the birdman" showing off his wing span on the banks of Alcatraz
Alcatraz as approaching
God Bless America
A tall statement - we had to see if it was true
There's a submarine and battleship docked just off of Fisherman's Wharf.  On Memorial Day a ceremony was performed for soldiers who had been aboard those two ships (and others) during WWII. 

Also near the Wharf was a mechanical museum where they had a ton of turn of the century mechanical entertainment.  It was basically an old sort of nickelodeon where you could pay a quarter and have the magician predict your future, see a wooden barbershop quartet move their legs to the music, see what the belly dancer does on her day off, watch the piano play by itself... and more.  We LOVED it!  
We did our fair amount of shopping and here's Matt trying on his new shirt for size - lookin' good!

The cartoon museum was awesome!  Their exhibits totally varied from The art of Stan Sakai and his samarai bunny (which Matt collected as a kid), to the featured objects from the recent film, to newspaper cartoons over the course of the last century.  It was really great and a nice change of pace. 
So, San Francisco is cold - wished we could've seen the opera or the ballet (pictured behind me), but we were between seasons.
He's so sensitive and artistic
We walked ALL OVER the city exploring the different neighborhoods and really got a taste for the city.  Pictured are some colorful houses in the neighborhood made popular in the 60's -  Haight Ashbury.  
Matt showing off his cleansed palette. 
The palette cleansing culprit - a blackberry sorbet served at Cuba d'Asia
We ordered the tasting menu at fabulous Cuba d'Asia, so we tried a lot of different flavors and were very pleased (and full!)
Clearly food is a big part of travel for us.  We ate breakfast at Mel's one day - it was so so, but a good picture.  
A French cafe where we dined for brunch.  We were spoken to in French, and the menu was in French - it was legit. 
China town
Me making a Hindu pose in front of the China Town gates - appropriate... er.
Crossing the bridge on the 5th floor of SMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art).  We're both big fans of Modern and Contemporary art and loved exploring this museum. 
We all need one of these.  This is within the Clift hotel that Philippe Starck designed - it was really simple, all about textures and beautiful chairs, we loved it!!!