TnT Travel Adventures: December 2015

San Francisco

Christmas 2015

Back on the Southwest express for the 50 minute BUR-OAK jump. Last year we ran (walked) the Jingle beer 5k which coincided with SantaCon, so we headed back for a repeat performance. We landed on a Friday and of course bee-lined it for Hog Island for an always enjoyable lunch watching the Bay Bridge. It's just become our go to place and seems the right way to kick

Marriott Marquis and St. Patrick's

off a trip to SF every time. We wandered back up Market Street and got ready for our first theater visit in SF. Turns out the theater is walking distance from our favorite
hotel the Marriot Marquis. #MarquisSFRocks...Can't say enough about this flagship Marriott property. If you can, go! And look for Rosana at the front desk. She will make you feel so welcome... That evening, we took a brisk weather walk to the beautiful SHN Orpheum Theater to see the much anticipated, Gentlemen's Guide to Love and Murder. We had seen a performance on the Tony awards last year and couldn't wait to catch it live. A quick search and I found it was playing in town, near our hotel. How had we overlooked this local theater all these years? No matter, we will be back. The play was wonderful from reasonably priced (in theater terms) tickets in the balcony.

Saturday morning it was time to repeat our not last place finish from last year at the 6th annual Jingle Beer Run from Marina Park. The goal this year was to beat the
strollers. It's a quick run/mostly walk around the wharf and embarcadero, a beautiful SF walk regardless of the blaring number on our chest that says we should be running. We arrived at pier 23 safely for our included-in-our-entry-fee bloody mary. We collected our awards, sipped our drinks and watched the real runners receive their bottle of wine trophies. We were then called up and recognized for traveling from LA for the run. Then someone said Denver then someone else said England...so we grabbed out bottle award and ran

Luigi and Pierre outside Macy's. Another Corgi sighting on the road.

Hopped on the F car and headed for Union Square to immerse ourselves in SantaCon 2016. It met expectations with young and old dressed for the day in Santa suits and interpretations. Even naked old guy with the strategically placed holly leaf was smiling for photos with anyone who dared. Its a cacophony of seasonal revelry with groups walking to bars and bus loads of St Nicks pub crawling.

After a brief retreat to our room at the always magnificent Marriott Marquis #LoveMarquisSF, we took the bus to our favorite dim sum spot for lunch. Great Eastern Dim Sum is a 2 story palace of cheap and delicious authentic lunch on a cart.

But back to the Marriott Marquis...the employee ginger bread house contest was in full swing so we cast our votes for our favorite front desk friend R. She always takes great care of us and we return to the Marquis a few times a year partly because of her!

Strolling back to the Marquis on foot to take in the sights sounds and tastes of Chinatown, even buying a strange candy spun from a taffy made of nuts. Makes a sweet crunchy taste that is unusual. The senior most family member was in the window making them by hand.

Dinner was planned at Pacific Catch to try the poke. We cabbed it there then tried to transit back when a local pointed out we were 1 block form the N line back to Powell Street. Doh! We are using this train more in the future. We had used it once before to get to Cirque Du Soleil and Pac Bell Park but not since. Time to explore soon...

Then in the middle of the night... I had flu or food borne illness. I suspect the later as it came and went in less than 2 hours. But Sunday was a loss for me and T got to shop. And shop all day in SF is not difficult. Ok so it worked out well for her. Fortunately we had a wonderful room (Thanks R!) and I watched NFL and nibbled a banana. T made dinner from the concierge lounge which does not suck at this Marriott. In fact, the lounge here is one of the best in Marriott country. Breakfast, snacks, light dinner and appetizers always make a convenient go-to when out of time or maximizing our eat out budget.

Monday we strolled the area around the Moscone center and walked to the Embarcadero and back through some new-ish shops and areas we hadn't explored before. We saw the sign in the Ferry Market tower changed to 50 and thought it was for 50 years but it is over 100 years old so wtf? Then it hit us, Super Bowl 50 was being played in Santa Clara and city preparations had begun.