…and came home with happy tastebuds! Jeff and I did a loooong day trip to San Fran on Saturday (airfare sale + accumulated miles to burn = uber cheap tickets). We actually flew into Oakland, then took a short trip on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) directly to the Embarcadero station, from which we hot-footed it a few blocks to the Ferry Building, a place of wondrous food delights (and flowers, as you can see above) both inside, and outside at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.

There were gorgeous greens…

…and beauteous berries (which we ate on the spot).

We thought we would get pastries for breakfast, but while we were trying to decide (too many choices!), we  started seeing people with paper plates of yummy-looking Mexican food, so the pastry idea was abandoned. Instead, we chowed down on plate of scrambled eggs, refried beans, chilaquiles, avocado and amazing hot sauce. It was fabulous.
We browsed a bit more, and Jeff talked me out of buying some of the gorgeous petite melons I was drooling over (“Do you really want to carry them around all day?”). Then we walked…
…past Fisherman’s Wharf…

…past stacks of crabs…

…toward our noon-time destination…

….the Golden Gate Bridge.

We walked out to midspan (here) then turned around. If you’ve seen half a bridge, you’ve seen it all. Plus, we had been walking for miles and miles by that point. We were walking for at least two miles before we saw signs for “Golden Gate Bridge: 3.5 miles.” That doesn’t count the 2+ miles we walked in SeaTac airport while we were waiting for our plane to board at 6 a.m. We thought we would take more mass transit on this trip, but our favorite way to sightsee is on foot, and once we start walking, we often find it’s just easier to keep walking. For miles and miles.
Post-bridge, we did hop on a bus to Golden Gate Park to walk through the rose garden and to to the de Young Museum. We opted not to see the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit, which I’m totally regretting now. But you can’t do everything in a day trip! We took a bus then a trolley back to Market Street, where we briefly window-shopped before walking back to the Ferry Building. It was the witching hour when a lot of restaurants are closed down between lunch and dinner, so we grabbed a simple meal at a seafood restaurant in the terminal.
Bread and California wine was a must! They charged 50 cents per piece of bread, which I actually think is brilliant, because let’s face it, there is no such thing as “free” bread. You’re paying for it one way or another. Paying by the piece makes it a lot easier to have “just one” or even “none.”

I had a big green salad with seared Ahi tuna, which didn’t photograph well, so here’s a photo of Jeff’s crabcake instead!

The farmers market was long over, but the shops inside the Ferry Building were still open, so we picked up some goodies to take home: A few loaves of bread from Acme Bakery, some cheeses from Cowgirl Creamery, and a luscious little chocolate fleur de sel tart from Miette.
It was a long day that felt like a weekend…in a good way! I can’t wait to go back!