San Fran and Tahoe trip 2009

I have blogged about Tahoe and San Fran before, but I hit up a couple more spots on this trip so I thought that I would share my thoughts on them. The 10 day adventure out west included 6 days in Tahoe and 4 in San Fran. I got into Tahoe late on Friday night and stayed at Harrah's for the first time. It was a very nice hotel, with much larger rooms than Harvey's across the street. The rate that we got was excellent at $84 per night + tax. It's definitely the nicest of the casinos within the South Lake Tahoe area. Our first dinner of the trip was at New York Pizza on the Nevada side. The pizza was big and very meaty, which is very appealing to me. It had good flavor and was the best pizza that I've had in my 4 trips to the Tahoe area. Breakfast on day 3 consisted of Chicken Fried Chicken with biscuits and gravy and scrambled eggs at Cecil's. It was called country gravy, but was nothing like what we have here in the south. It was a good breakfast for the West Coast, but I would recommend Cracker Barrel to anyone that really wants a Southern Breakfast. Other stops on the Tahoe part of the trip included some fast food and a trip to Applebee's and Hard Rock, both of which were pretty crappy. The food at Northstar at Tahoe was marginal. The burger was terrible (tasted like the soy burgers that you would get in elementary school) but the Rosemary & Garlic Fries were very good. Barbecue (Beef Brisket) at the 360 degree smokehouse at Sierra was very good and was probably the best ski resort food that I have had. I have officially taken Heavenly off of my list for ski destinations as there is way too much flat ground. It is simply a pain in the ass for a snowboarder to have to skate across the flat terrain all day. I spent much more energy taking my board on and off along with the skating than I did actually boarding down the mountain. I think I was able to convince my dad and step mom to take it off their list as well which made the trip a resounding success. Northstar at Tahoe is a nice little resort on the north side of the lake. It doesn't have the vertical drop that some of the others in the area have, but for those that like a terrain park and blue runs, this is the place to go. Sierra at Tahoe remains my favorite of the mountains that I have boarded in the Tahoe area. We also got 6 days of fresh powder which was very, very nice.

After, 6 days of boarding in Tahoe, it was off to San Francisco for Valentine's Weekend with Caroline. I made a short trip out to Point Reyes National Seashore before getting into San Francisco. It was almost dark when I got there, but from what I could see, it is definitely a place that I would like to return to. The lighthouse was closed when I got there, but the view along the coast was priceless. I saw a ton of deer, a fox, a rabbit and lots of cows in the 20 or so minutes that I was there. The drive down Hwy 1 from Point Reyes to San Fran is a slow one and would probably be gorgeous in the daytime, but I couldn't see anything except for all of the curves. Meal #1 after picking up Caro from the airport was In N Out and it was nothing short of spectacular. I made my typical morning stop at Stella's Pastries on Friday and Saturday. We had lunch at Scoma's (Fisherman's Wharf) for a dungeness crab on Friday afternoon. At $26, it was very reasonably priced. Dinner was at Rogue Public Ale House for a Kobe Beef Burger (still the best burger that I have ever had). The beers were very good, Double Dead Guy, I2PA and Triple Jump IPA. There were also some very bad beers Menage Frog, Bullfrog Ale and a couple of others. Lunch on Saturday came by way of a recommendation from Guy Fieri. We went to Tommy's Joynt for a sandwich. The sandwiches were very good with freshly carved meats (roast beef, ham, turkey, brisket and several others). Caroline chose the Ham and I chose the BBQ Beef Brisket. Her side of choice was cole slaw, while mine was mashed potatoes. I ate all of mine and was quite miserable afterwards due to the amount of food that they give you. It was $19 for both of our meals which I considered an excellent price. I will definitely make a return trip the next time I go out. Valentine's Dinner included a trip to Trattoria Contadina, a small Italian restaurant at Mason and Union. The food was very good (better than Calzone's). I had a Gnocchi pasta with a tomato cream sauce and grilled chicken. Caro had some kind of meatball with marinara type of pasta. She enjoyed it, but even the small size was more than she could eat. The fresh sourdough bread with olive oil is a great starter, along with the Clams and Mussels in a white wine sauce. The prices are very reasonable as 2 appetizers, 4 or 5 drinks and 2 entrees was just under $100. I will make a return trip and try out some of the other dishes on the menu on my next San Francisco trip.

Once again, the food and beer options that San Fran has to offer are unmatched by many cities in the states. The culture and overall beauty, along with the food and beer keep it at the top of my list of favorite US Cities with Portland, New York, Denver and New Orleans rounding out the top 5.