And what a trip it was… I won’t be able to cram in everything Aimee and I did last week in San Francisco, but I’ll give it a shot tonight, and I hope to post more pictures on a page of their own in the near future.

In the Biggest News to come my way in forever, Aimee and I got engaged last weekend, in the not-so-romantic Musée Mécanique, located in the very romantic city of San Francisco. I could tell the story, but the picture tells it better, so I’ll make it brief. In the Musée (located in a warehouse on a pier at Fisherman’s Wharf; doesn’t get much swankier), we found a photo booth to take some pictures in. After a test round, I suggested we alternate shots, so we’d end up with a nice set of two of each of us on one strip. Aimee pulled out the strip when it was done, I was on one knee, and the rest is history (or The Wedding Story, to be more accurate). We had the rest of the week in San Francisco to enjoy it by ourselves, which was really great. We’ve got a no-planning period for the next few weeks, but soon enough, we’ll be knee deep in cake and photographers. It’s a strange, wonderful feeling – being engaged, that is, not being knee-deep in cake.

I’ll give a brief day-by-day Best Of here, with more photos to come. We got in Saturday afternoon, and had an easy time at the airport and getting to our hotel. Lots of walking that day, including a run of the gauntlet down on the waterfront, where we spotted this study in juxtapostion. On the left, “Babushka,” and on the right, “Hooters.” Your choice.



The next day began with gingerbread pancakes to die for at Zazie in the Cole Valley, and a walk through the leafy confines of Golden Gate Park, which turned into a bit of a black hole for us. After a leisurely stroll through the Japanese Tea Garden, we walked around Stow Lake and couldn’t find our way out.



After getting thouroughly turned around, we eventually made our way out the north exit (which seemed like it should have been somewhere around southwest by my reckoning) and off to the Palace of the Legion of Honor, a stop on our Vertigo tour and the home of an Art Deco exhibition we wanted to see.

It was back to Fisherman’s Wharf that afternoon, for the wax museum I’d heard about on an episode of This American Life. It was nuttier that we could even have hoped for, with the gamut of good and bad likenesses, and even more creative juxtapositions. Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, and Napoleon? We’ve got ’em, all in the same shelled-out building! What do Willie Brown, Robin Williams, and Steve McQueen have in common? Who knows?! But they sure look great together!





The Musée Mécanique is just across the way, and we headed there next, for games of skill, fortune telling, horoscopes, and photo booths. After the big event, we cabbed it back to the hotel and off to Café Jacqueline for an indescribable dinner of souffle for two. We topped off the evening at the Top of the Mark, for a terrific view we had all to ourselves.

Monday, after calls to family and friends, we headed out over the Golden Gate Bridge for a beautiful walk. The view was amazing, the weather was mostly cooperative, and the gift shop was entertaining:





Lunch in Chinatown, where we spotted this fantastic sign:



From there, we found our way to a great Pop Art exhibition (plus our second, third, fourth, and fifth renditions of “The Last Supper” of the trip, the first one having been in wax) at SFMoMA. We had “dinner” and ended the evening at SBC Park, where we witnessed Barry Bonds smack his 666th career home run, as fans made devil horns with their hands all across the park. Perfect.



We popped the Champagne courtesy of the hotel and enjoyed the flowers from family and friends after the game.

Tuesday brought our first trip to Berkeley, where we dined at the Homemade Café and had a great tour of the Pacific Film Archive courtesy of Jon. I found it fascinatingly similar to work here, with familiar arrangements with overseers as well as film studies faculty, and a similarly spread-thin staff. Always nice to see a fellow institution in our small circle, and see the way they do their work.

As soon as we were done at the PFA, we zipped back on the BART to make our date at the Anchor Brewing Company, for an excellent tour and tasting that lasted the whole afternoon. We learned about the history of the brewery and the brewing process, and took a look around the brewery building. I was happy to note the Anchor Beer tap where the water usually is in their break room:



After the tour, we tried Anchor Steam, Porter, Small Beer, Barley Wine, Liberty Ale, and Summer Beer, which sounds like a lot, and was. All good, in my book, though some better than others.

After lunch at Goat Hill Pizza, we caught a bus to Valencia and wandered our way down the street, through shops and cafés, notably the Pirate Shop at 826 Valencia. This is most likely the only storefront mural painted by Chris Ware:



The Pirate Shop, where we bought books, but passed on the lard, eyepatches, and pieces of eight:



Some more fun wandering and dinner through the Castro and the Mission that night, with a photo booth rendezvous at Pop’s, and back home to the Savoy.

Wednesday started off with delicious breakfast at Dottie’s down the street, and headed to Fisherman’s Wharf (again!) for our cruise to Alcatraz. We enjoyed the trip over and the audio tour on the island, with narration by ex-inmates and guards, as well as eerie sound effects and music. After the tour was over, we ate at Taqueria Can-Cun on Mission for some amazing burritos. As we walked in, I spotted Dipak Pallana, star (ok, that’s a big word) of Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, and The Royal Tenenbaums, and son of superstar (also a big word) Kumar Pallana. He played the bookstore clerk in the first film, the math teacher in the opening scene of Rushmore, and the doctor in Wes Anderson’s third film. I wanted to ask him if we’d see him in The Life Aquatic, but didn’t want to bother him. Hah.

Wednesday night brought of one the most memorable experiences of our trip, a night at The Tonga Room in the lower level of the Fairmont Hotel. An indoor rainstorm every half hour, a band on a boat that floats out on a lake, a happy hour of pork of all kinds, and an extensive list of tacky drinks like “Tonga Itch,” “Bora Bora Horror,” and “Tematangi Ubangi.” Fantastic. Who knew it what riches the basement of a grand hotel like the Fairmont would bring?



Thursday was our day in Napa, so we picked up our rental car, sans gas tank door, at Budget and headed out on the 101 over the Golden Gate Bridge. The weather was the best yet, and we passed through Rutherford and St. Helena, and stopped for a tour at Beringer, known as the oldest continuously running vineyard in the valley, and the place where a scene from A Walk in the Clouds starring Keanu Reeves was shot. A toss-up, for me.



We picknicked at V. Sattui, and took another tour at Robert Mondavi, which was highly informative and interesting. We headed home in the late spring sun, enjoying the most beautiful day of the trip. We took Scott’s suggestion to dine at Michelangelo Caffe, for their insane decor, delicious pasta, and plentiful gummi bears in a bowl brought to each table at the end of dinner.



In order to recreate the moment, visit cubbi.org for the “Gummi Bears” animated series theme song in both original English and Russian (wow!) – though it won’t be the same as Aimee’s rendition.

Thursday morning, we tried David’s Deli down the street, which was a trip back in time, and provided an opportunity for me to order pickled herring for breakfast – fantastic! We visited the Aquarium of the Bay, notable for its “Tunnel Under the Bay.”



I also made sure to get a shot of the Wyland “Whaling Wall” mural outside the Aquarium – I feel like he painted the same barnacled humpbacks on the side of the J.C. Penney’s in Anchorage. Bet San Francisco didn’t provide him with accompaniment by Dick Dale, who was in the midst of his full-blown Pulp Fiction publicity binge when he played as Wyland painted (yes, it was weird) in Anchorage in 1994.



Anyway, we took the very nice F-Line Historic Streetcar Service to and from the Aquarium – a car from Milan on the way there, and from Boston on the way back – and then spent a hot afternoon in Berkeley before heading to the A’s game at Network Associates Coliseum. And by the way, that very day, Network Associates changed its name to McAfee, Inc., and announced that the Coliseum will soon follow suit. That’s what we get for selling naming rights – a newer, dumber name each year.



Barry Zito and the A’s got hammered by the Angels, despite the A’s new “Different Brand of Baseball” marketing campaign and corporate identity.

We topped the whole thing off with a trip to Harry Denton’s Starlight Room atop the Sir Francis Drake Hotel – think Beefeater doormen, “celebrity” photos of people you don’t recognize, attendants in the bathroom who pump soap into your hand, and a band that has the same setlist they did in 1978 – a lot of fun.

The next morning brought a BART Trip to SFO, one more Jamba Juice for the road (and one more opportunity to wonder when Jamba will be coming to Boston – turns out there’s one at B.U., but I’ve never seen it. They’d do well to expand, I’d think). A nice and easy flight back, and the end of a heavenly week. We’ve already started a list of things to do on our next visit. And…we’ll…be…married…by…then… Wow.