the foggy sunny day
We had a great time today. We got to Golden Gate Park just after 10AM, and unsurprisingly it was foggy. We parked outside of the botanical gardens. I haven't been to many botanical gardens, so perhaps i'm just lacking in comparison material, but I think that the botanical garden's in GG Park are simply gorgeous. The sheer diversity of plant life is amazing, and the way that its integrated into its surroundings just makes all the more so. We wandered through the gardens for a while trying to find some squirrels to feed peanuts to. Eventually we ran into a bunch, and David had a grand time feeding them. Afterwards, we drove further west in the park, and had a lovely picnic. Denise put together a super lunch of assorted cheeses, breads, salami, and carbonated cranberry juice, and it was all super tasty. Next we went to the model yacht club pond, and again David had loads of fun watching the assorted birds (gulls, pigeons, ducks, and a few crows), pointing out the model boats on the lake, and throwing random leaves into the lake. Afterwards, we drove further west to this oblong lake about a quarter mile west of the bison padduck. It was a nice lake, but there wasn't much going on around there. We made a brief stop at Ocean Beach where we watched some rather impressive people flying these crazy looking kites, and doing assorted tricks with them. Following that we drove up to Crissy Field, and the sun finally came out. It was still rather windy, however we took a long walk across the entire length of Crissy field all the way over to the Gulf of the Farallons Marine Sanctuary visitor center. David was starting to get worn down at that point, but we made it all the way back to the car, gave him a small snack, and drove to A16.
Finding parking in the Marina district is not fun. The problem is primarily that at least 50% of all the curb space in the area is occupied with garages, and then compounded by the fact that some of the available spaces are really tiny. After driving around for 20 minutes, we finally found a space.
The dinner and service was good, however both Denise & I had higher expectations. We started off with an appetizer of Mozzarella burrata with olive oil, sea salt and crostini. This was probably the best mozzarella i've ever had. It was just slightly rubbery on the outside, and oh so amazingly creamy on the inside. We ordered David a tomato, oregano, garlic, olive oil pizza, which he was quite happy with (and only managed to eat half of). The only disapointment was that we explicitly told our watress that it was for David (which we thought was pretty clear that it should come with our dinners), yet it arrived with the appetizer. Thankfully this wasn't too much of a problem, since the appetizer was there too, and David ate that, and the pizza was extremely hot, so needed time to cool anyway. Denise ordered Alaskan halibut cheeks with almonds, meyer lemons and parsley and a side of roasted potatoes with red onions, capers and chiles. I tasted a little, and it was very good. I ordered Berkshire pork loin with pinenuts, currants and garlic with a side of Cannellini beans with garlic and oregano. It too was quite good, and the pork loin almost tasted like a very mild ham. The beans were somewhat different than what I was expecting, as they had the consistancy of mexican refried beans, rather than being whole. They were still tasty, but it was odd, all the same. For dessert, Denise ordered Chocolate budino tart with sea salt and extra virgin olive oil. Initially, she liked it, but the more she ate, the more underwhelmed she was. I ordered Crespelle with pecorino crema, strawberries and black pepper. I liked this combination alot. The strawberries were quite flavorful, even though they had been cooked a bit. The pecorino cheese was a nice compliment to the sweetness of the strawberries. The Crespelle was basically these crepes that were filled with a rich cream sauce. I loved them. So yea, the meal was good, I have no big complaints, but from what I've read many others say, I was expecting the best Italian eating experience of my life, and it was much closer to 'good' than spectacular.
Tomorrow we're driving down to the aquarium in Monterey, and then going to the drive-in movies in San Jose in the evening.