The Weintraubs enjoyed a very green Fourth of July. We left Sacramento. Yup, did a last-minute getaway on Amtrak. You can park right in front of the train station on 5th and prepay your parking. Then, go inside to scan the printout bar code from your online reservations and hop right on that train. The Capitol Corridor drops you off in Richmond, where you can prepay a RT to the City on BART, to the most fabulous city in America, and next thing you know, you realize the Redline doesn't run on Sunday, so you have to transfer in Oakland, but who cares? It's SAN FRANCISCO!!!
I had checked out some of the getaways published in the Sacramento Bee last Thursday. Sustainable Relaxation, the Bee called it. I first looked at the Bardessono Hotel and Spa in Yountville. I like Yountville. My buddy Myrl Jeffcoat and I went to Bouchon for a spring lunch not too long ago. Bouchon is in Yountville. But yowza. The rates for Bardessono were $1,500 to $1,800 per couple for a wine tour and room. You know they're luring suckers from LA. Not Sacramento.
The Orchard Garden Hotel is the first newly built hotel in California to earn LEED approval. And it's in Union Square just a few blocks from the Chinatown Gate. That was $300 for a junior King suite on the top floor. Much more reasonable, and there is just so much to do in San Francisco -- I swear, we never run out of things to do. And did I mention it was 70 degrees? It was more than 100 in Sacramento.
So we didn't drive and we stayed in a LEED approved hotel. We took the Muni about town and over to Ocean Beach. I dragged my husband to the The Cliff House because I wanted to show him the fortune teller and the exhibit. Except, guess what? It's been moved our to Pier 45, and it's no longer there. But Sunday was a beautiful day for the beach. High 70s.
For dinner, we checked out a somewhat newer restaurant not too far from our hotel. It's called Sons and Daughters. I wish I had more time right now to write about this place, so I'll just say if you're in San Francisco, go there. You're foolish if you don't. I started with the local raw halibut ( above) with caviar and golden berry. Chose the wine pairings. Followed the halibut with fennel soup, paired with a Cremant D'Jura -- I am ordering a case of this wine! We Googled this wine at the table, it is that spectacular. It has its own little volcano action going on in the center of the glass. Crisp. Curt. It slaps your face. Oh, kiss me, again.
My husband urged me to get the squab. I hesitated. No, no, no, you like it, he says, and if you don't, I'll trade you for the lamb. Is it? I asked, glancing back and forth, nodding my head toward the sidewalk? No, no, no, it's not a pigeon from the street, you'll like it. Then, they served it with an actual pigeon's foot. Nope. I'm a wimp. No can do. I did taste the squab, though. But that part of me that won't let me pick up slithering snakes would not let me eat a second bite of squab. If they just hadn't included the foot -- but the foot is part of the creativity, so they shouldn't change it. This restaurant is brave, daring, adventurous, and I wish it were in Sacramento because I'd dine there with every menu change!
But a Sacramento restaurant owner whom I will not name expressed to me in private that he thinks Sacramento is still a cow town. I doubt we'll ever see a place like this in Sacramento. Sons and Daughters, I'm telling you, go there.
On Monday we went to the Picasso exhibit at the de Young Museum at Golden Gate Park. My husband says the pitcher with apples is not really a still life, regardless of the title. He says it's a woman. He would know, I suppose. And I could swear we visited the Musee National Picasso in Paris, but he doesn't recall. You'd think I would remember the bronzed goat, but I don't. There are so many artists who paint goats. Especially contemporaries. And Picasso will always be a contemporary to me, even if the kids at Berkeley were not yet born when he died.
Happy Fourth of July, everybody. I'm not back at work tomorrow. Even a Sacramento short sale agent like me has to take an extra day of vacation every now then. Check back tomorrow to find out where I am going.
Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub, BlackBerry camera
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Certified HAFA Specialist
My Sacramento Real Estate Listings
Elizabeth Weintraub is an author, home buying columnist for The New York Times-owned About.com, a Land Park resident, and a Land Park real estate agent who specializes in older, classic homes in Land Park, Curtis Park, Midtown and East Sacramento. Weintraub is also a Sacramento Short Sale agent who lists and successfully sells short sales throughout the four-county Sacramento area. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 35 years of real estate experience to work for you. Broker-Associate at Lyon Real Estate. DRE License # 00697006.
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Hey, watch it. Plates of pigeon feet are a delicacy in Chinatown. Or was it pigeon heads, sweet and sour? I forget.
Being a wuss, I ate rice and crisp veggies.
SOunds like you had a great time. My weekend was much less eventful--unless you count finding coins in the laundry.