Monday in San Fran

Oh, hey. We spent our first full day in San Fran today, and it was glorious. These posts might start getting very picture-heavy and text-light. I woke up, went for a run with Ben, Jeff and Leon (One of Aaron's roommates, with whom I went to Mardi Gras this year). 

(Michael Rucker and Leon Kotlyar, two of Aaron's roomates. These guys were in Mardi Gras with Aaron and me. Great dudes, except for the fact that they went to Yale.)

(Beautiful TV. Beautiful State.)

After the run, Jeff, Ben and I went to Fisherman's Wharf, where we ate delicious Ghiradelli chocolate, In N' Out Animal Burgers, Clam Chowder, and Fresh Calamari. We also checked out a few of the local art galleries, including a Dali exhibit.

(Sammie, our cab driver. He has lived in San Fran for 31 years. That's no joke.)

(City Hall. Too bad the giant blue crane kinda ruins the picture.)

(A West Coast Institution.)

(An "Animal" Double Cheeseburger. Plus, killer fries. Literally.)

(The chocolate here is good. Something tells me you don't need much convincing.)

(Wall-to-wall chocolate is my favorite kind of chocolate.)

(Touristy, but then again, we are tourists.)

(No offense to Bozeman, Montana, but San Fran has some very sleek fire trucks.)

(Jeff, Ben, and Art.)

(More art. The bartender on the bottom left is pouring Jack Daniels, most likely because he is a classy guy.)

(Salvador and Jeffrey.)

(Ben and Jeff get Crabs. Insert joke here.)

(A very friendly chocolate pitbull.)

We then walked several miles down Embarcadero Street to the marketplace within the Ferry Building, right by the Bay Bridge (which leads to Oakland). We saw some pretty sweet cars revving their engines, so I decided to take a couple of quick videos.

(Shelby Cobra replica. Great engine note)

(M3 Coupe. The driver guns it a couple of seconds into the video.)

(On the left, the Bay Bridge. On the right, the Ferry Building and Marketplace)

(Alcatraz, or as Sean Connery calls it, "The Rock.")

From there, we walked up California Street to meet up with my friend Eric Noeth, who was in his second week of work at TPG. He is happy at his job, and I am happy for him, because he is the definition of a good dude.

(Eric and I outside his building.)

(California Street. Speaking of California, I still haven't seen a cloud while I've been in this state.)

We then swung by AT&T park, home of the San Francisco Giants, to buy 4 tickets for the game. Once tickets were in hand (AT&T has automated ticket machines out front, which were idiot-proof and very useful), we went to start drinking a few beers. We first hit up Zeke's, which was a bit farther from the stadium (read: cheaper), for a bucket of beers and some light fare (I had a surprisingly tasty Thai Chicken dish), then we went to Momo's, which was right on Embarcadero Street across from the stadium, and was clearly the place to be before the game.

(Zeke's.)

(Momo's outdoor deck, across the street from the stadium.)

(Momo's inside.)

(These talented young gentlemen were making ballon hats to help pay for college. Admirable.)

The game was great, because it was a Giants-Dodgers matchup. Not only are these two teams division rivals, they are the prides of their respective California cities, and the crowd was very well balanced between Giants fans and LA fans, which was a lot of fun. Chanting was prevalent, as were Garlic Fries.

(The third to last row in the upper deck. If altitude is cool, consider me Miles Davis.)

(Manny being Manny.)

(AT&T Stadium.)

(The Outfield. Play Deep. If you get this reference, then I don't want to lose your love tonight...)

After the game, we picked up Eric's new car from his office (free valet parking. sweet perk.), and headed to his new place, where we watched an episode of Arrested Development and had some Fat Tire Amber Ale, which had some seriously chocolaty undertones. Delish.  Speaking of delish, we also had some chocolate chip cookies baked by Eric's girlfriend Maya (we all used to work together at Morgan Stanley, which makes us really cool, right?)

(Happy because they have each other. And because they no longer work in investment banking. And because they received a copy of my cookbook in exchange for their hospitality.)

(The two best "That What She Said"-ers I know.)

We then headed back to Aaron's in Eric's car. Did I mention that Eric is a good dude? Because he is.

(Eric's new car. He let me drive home. His karma is sky high.)

(Jeff giving the thumbs up, while Eric and Ben give each other a hearty handshake. Immediately afterwards, Ben closed his eyes and leaned in for a good night kiss, but Eric had already driven away. What a heartbreaker.)

Ben, Jeff and I are driving around the vineyards of Napa and Sonoma tomorrow (I didn't really get to see any actual wineries yesterday, so it should be a good time. Don't worry folks, just a sip per stop for me.)

9 days down. 18 left. I feel like a million bucks. Life is good.