San Francisco!

[baratron]

So it seems that PAX and hanging out with Freezepop ate my brain, because I've only just now got round to organising my trip to San Francisco, and I'm leaving tomorrow. Oops. Maybe if you look at the pretty pictures of the pretty Freezepop, you'll understand. Personally, I think that this is the best photo I've ever taken.

Anyway: my plans are totally up in the air, I haven't even looked at a San Francisco guidebook, I have no idea where any of the parts of the Bay Area are in relation to each other, and I don't have anywhere to stay organised yet. Woohoo. For some reason I am super-flaky this trip. I'm planning to remedy *some* of that disorganisation on the flight at least, assuming I get to a bookshop in the morning. Currently I also seem to have snot, although I'm remaining optimistic that it's "just allergies" rather than a cold, despite evidence to the contrary.

What I do know:
Tuesday evening:
Getting in to SFO at 5.20 pm. Being picked up by the_ogre, whose cellphone number I don't have. Having dinner with kshandra.

Wednesday daytime:
Probably doing tourist stuff with kshandra.

Wednesday evening:
No plans

Thursday daytime:
No plans

Thursday evening:
Having dinner with tiger_spot, brooksmoses et al.

Friday lunchtime/early afternoon:
Seeing firecat on the way back to the airport.

I still want to fit in mactavish and leback and others, and I want to be taken to some of the awesome museums that people mention, and see Bay Area LGBTQ stuff. Apart from that, I'll go along with whatever. I can eat pretty much anything as long as it's vegan, and I really like vegan desserts that aren't fruit salads or sorbet. (Though I am willing to forgo them in front of people who aren't allowed to eat them for medical reasons. It seems mean to put temptation in your way.)

I also have an American cellphone number. I may as well post this publicly as I'm not exactly going to be keeping it forever: (206) 779 9051. The SIM is in my usual phone, so calls and text are equally fine. (My British SIM is in a spare phone that I don't know how to use properly, so I'm not really using it for text at the moment.)

Comments

[kshandra]

Assuming I remember in the midst of schlepping gridlore around tomorrow, I will look into lunch reservations at Greens for Wednesday. (They don't list a lunch menu, despite having posted lunch hours, but the dessert menu does have a non-fruit-based vegan offering. *grin*) My former-roommate-turned-hairdresser worked at their cafe counter, Greens to Go, when we were living in SF, but as Doug is an extreme carnivore, I've never had the chance to try it. I'll get as late a booking as they'll give me (assuming anything is available).

[nitoda]

Please give lovely people hugs from me! :-)

[pir.livejournal.com]

I recommend a trip out to Alcatraz Island if you haven't been there before, just early and preferably early on a weekday to avoid crowds so you get a real sense of the isolation out there. Audio tour is worth doing.

[aardvarkoffnord.livejournal.com]

That is a very, very cool photo. It is extremely hard to take a good picture under nightclub conditions. I certainly never have.

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

If I knew where you were staying, I could look for nearer-by things. In the meantime, here are places I know of close to Caltrain stations.

Near Palo Alto Caltrain station:

Loving Hut
http://www.lovinghut.us/paloalto/index.html
I haven't actually eaten here, but it's all vegan. Sort of Chinese, I think. Big on raw food.

Pluto's
http://www.plutosfreshfood.com/
Largely salads, but they are big interesting custom-made salads. Also sandwiches and things, but I'm not sure how many of those are vegan.

There's more on this street, but I'm not sure how much of it will have vegan things. Probably some.

Near Mountain View Caltrain station:

Godavari
http://www.suesindiancuisine.com/
Our favorite Indian place. Has lots of good vegetarian dishes, but I don't actually know whether they use butter or vegetable oil in most things.

Many Other Restaurants
http://whatsopen.in/mountain_view/today.html
For instance, there's a great Thai place. Or we can wander up and down checking menus for likely vegan things. (I recommend against Garden Fresh -- though entirely vegetarian, their name is a lie. Everything they serve is in the category Nasty Fake Meat and is therefore yucky.)

[firecat]

I'm still up for seeing you Friday early afternoon unless you've already made other plans.

Let me know where you will be around Friday noon so I can figure out where/how to meet up.