San Francisco

We spent the day in San Francisco! There is so much cool art in the city! We started out at he Embarcadero Center.

Do you know what this building is? This is the famous clock tower that stopped at 5:16 during the 1906 earthquake. And underneath it is the Ferry Building Market Place! Every Tuesday and Saturday there is also a huge outdoor farmers market too! The Ferry building is filled with amazing gourmet shops!

First stop olive oil tasting! Yum!I have never seen so many cheeses in my life! This place is great ! You pick a number and when it is your turn they will let you try any and every cheese they have! And they know everything about cheese and tell you where each one comes from how it is made and with what kind of milk and how long it takes to make. We bought 3 different cheeses to bring home.Super Aged Gouda, Winchester
Jules Wesselink, the owner and operator of Winchester Dairy, was born and raised in Holland and he brings traditional Dutch cheese making methods to Winchester County, California. Each big yellow round of Winchester Gouda cheese is labeled "Boere Kaas," which promises that the cheese is "home made on the farm."Winchester's Medium Gouda is aged for at least three months during which time it develops a full, piquant flavor in its firm, creamy paste. The sharp is aged for at least six months during which time it develops an edgy sharpness and the paste becomes dotted with crunchy crystals. The super-aged is aged over a year, during which time it develops into a very sharp and assertive cheese with and a hard, gratable paste.Mimolette Extra Vieille

Shaped like a pitted melon, this neon orange cow milk cheese from Flanders, Normandy has many stories told about its creation. My favorite tells a tale of France's King Louis XIV, who banned the importation of Edamin (Edam) from his country. Apparently, the king decided that the Dutch cheese was getting too popular among his subjects, whom he felt, should be eating local: French cheese for French people! He commissioned a French copy of the cheese and ordered it dyed orange. Now, either that was to ensure that no one mistook the Mimolette for Edam again, or, given that Louis XIV had issues with the Dutch Royal House of Orange-Nassau, maybe it was a bit more personal.Dyed with the annatto seed, Mimolette is aged for at least two years during which time it develops a chewy texture and a smoky, almost bacon-like flavor.

This one is my favorite and the most expensive $38 a pound!Midnight Moon
Situated where the giant redwoods kiss the Pacific Ocean in the rugged northernmost reaches of Humboldt County, California, Cypress Grove Creamery gets unique inspiration from the salt-etched voluminous fog that coolly rolls in nearly every day.The legendary Humboldt Fog, along with variations on French style goat cheeses, are made at the Cypress Grove Creamery in downtown Arcata. To supplement production, cheesemaker Mary Keehn has traveled to Europe to find cheesemaking partners who can make classic cheeses to her specifications.The goat milk sister to Lamb Chopper, Midnight Moon is also made in Holland, following a Dutch gouda recipe. Dense and chewy, Midnight Moon is aged for at least one year, during which time it develops a lovely brown butter flavor with intense caramel undertones.

This one is really sweet! The had amazing fungi or mushrooms but we didn't really know anything great to do with them so I just took a picture.Oysters anyone? The San Francisco Fish Market had an oyster bar out so Michael tried one I was too chicken they were only $1.50


Miette Patisserie is a dainty little pastry shop, inspired by the patisseries of Paris. The pale pink walls and lovingly created cakes, cookies and pastries lined up in sparking glass display cases evoke a slice of Parisian life on the San Francisco Bay. Many of the ingredients are organic, and most are from local producers. Beautiful gift packaging is available during the holidays.
The name, "Miette," means "little crumb" in French. Some favorite items available at the Marketplace are Parisian Macaroons, Chocolate Eclairs, and exquisite Gingerbread Cupcakes. Favorite cookies include the Lavender Shortbread and Chocolate Sables.This is one of my new favorite places! Miette they have the most wonderful sweets! We tried a lemon tartlette ( Michael really likes lemony sweets) english toffe, hand pulled taffy and these pistachio macaroons pictures above.They had many other wonderful shops with fresh herbs and even a cavier bar! oh and we got some sourdough bread from acme bread. But our last stop was Ciao Bella! I was told they have the best Gelato and they do! I got Turkish Pistachio and Dulce de leche! Wow great ice Cream!This was only the beginning of our adventure! I thought we would walk down to Pier 39 well it was a lot farther then I thought! But we made it! I wanted to ride the cable cars and well that was even a bit further only six more blocks! But we made it! And what a great deal for only $11 you can ride the cable cars, buses, trains etc, all day and get all around the city! It was both of ours first time ever riding on a cable car! It was really fun we rode on the back. The cable car workers were so friendly and helpful! You can even ride them hanging off the side like you always see in pictures!

We took the cable car to powell street werethe super cool newly remodled mall is and hang out thee for awhile.

We decided to take the cable car back to the Embarcadero Center was and get some dinner, but the cable car line we needed to take was broken so we hopped on another one to take us back to Fisherman's Wharf and oops we got on the wrong one and it was taking us even further way from our car so we were at the to of Lombard street and I thought we could get off there and catch the right cable car at the bottom of Lombard street. Well I was wrong it was about 4 or 5 blocks. But it was really cool walking down Lombard street. Lombard street also known as the "Crookedest road" when my sister and I were really little we insisted our dad drive us down "The Crookedest road" every time we went to San Francisco by chanting "Crookedest road" "crookedest road" until he gave in!
Well we never did find another cable car and we made it back to Fisherman's Wharf for a crab cocktail and fried calamari snack for our dinner. Which was fine cause we were still kinda full from all the goodies we had gotten earlier at the Ferry Building.

And we made it back to our car on one of these old fashion Market street railway cars. What a great day we had! But I was so sore the next day from all that walking in boots!