Saket Vora

10:30am

Deepak Uncle has work to take care of at Adobe, so Naman joins us for a trip to ‘The City’. We decide to drive our van there, because the roundtrip fare on the Caltrain would be more expensive. We made good time, and arrived in under an hour. Naman was at the helm and we navigated our way to Union Square and parked in the large deck under the square. I had visited San Francisco in February for an IEEE conference, and walked around the Union Square / Market St. area during breaks. Nader took me down to Fisherman’s Wharf. We walked a similar path this time, but walked through a lively part of Chinatown. I loved walking through the corner markets, with fruits and vegetables in crates on display. One crate had a cat sitting on top picking at the fruit. We stared at the tanks of fish and seafood, shining cleavers active in the back. Naman pointed with wide eyes at a fish still flopping on a tray of ice, his peers lacking the same vigor. Feeling the sun, we stop at a corner stand and I order a pineapple ice. Naman ventures a stab at a “red bean popsicle” and got, well, pretty much an ice popsicle with red beans embedded throughout. Hmph. After the bustle of Chinatown, we walked downhill to the Fisherman’s Wharf. We headed to Pier 39 where the sea lions make their home, and spend fifteen minutes smiling as we see their enviable lives. The sea lions lie on floating pontoons. One seal attempted to pull himself up on one, but that corner started to sink. The other sea lions (who were awake) got upset and moved to push him off. On another pontoon, one big fat sea lion took up one half while eight others occupied the other half. One maverick boarded the pontoon and somehow managed to push the King off. Later though, the King leapt back on board and with stunning speed fought the maverick all the way across the pontoon and right off its edge. All this time we hear the incessant barking of all the sea lions. Noisy and smelly as they are, it’s no surprise that the City decided to keep them.

We stopped for lunch at Bodoins, supposedly famous for San Francisco sourdough bread. The food was good, but they forgot part of our order. Still on foot, we continue west along the water’s edge. Our destination was Ghiradelli Square. Ghiradelli is familiar to some as the purveyor of fine chocolate squares. I never knew that it was based in San Francisco. We pass through a small but nice park and enter a very small but nice square reminding me of a miniature European square. We shared sundaes at the famous Ghiradelli café, then took a cable car ride back to Market Street. I discovered at a souvenir shop that sold compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) at a crazy price – 4 bulbs for $2.00. Turned out that the local power utility is currently subsidizing the cost of CFLs as an incentive for customer adoption. What a great idea! Around the Market St. area I showed Naman H&M, a popular trendy clothing store originating from Sweden. Euro-trendy attire for Old Navy-like prices. Its probably the only real successful Swedish clothing import to America. I find it amusing because of its popularity when I was studying in Sweden. He bought a nice $10 polo, thinking he might pick up more in Chicago.

We walked down to the Yerba Buena Gardens, where I wanted to show them the nice city park with the fountain. Moscone West had Apple logos on the windows, the WWDC 2007 event, and subsequently we discovered that the nice park was taken over by Apple for a kickoff party. Friendly staff informed us we couldn’t enter. Judging from the tables and tables of cocktail food and beverages, it wouldn’t surprise me if Jobs himself was going to make an appearance. Across the road we spotted a Crème Puff café and wanted to check it out. I thought it was going to be more exotic than it was, but at least I got a coffee out of it. We meandered back towards Union Square and into the car, and drove back home. One highlight was that we spotted the facility that the It’s It ice cream sandwiches are made. Peyton emphatically told me that I must have an It’s It while I was in California. Much to my chagrin, we couldn’t find it anywhere!

8:00pm

At home the four of us eagerly wanted to help with making dinner, so we got busy in the kitchen. I chopped up some bell pepper and okra, Naman oversaw the okra dish to completion while I checked up on the paneer shak. More dishes kept being added, and ultimately dinner was quite a feast. We talked about the next day’s activity – we easily decided to spend another day in San Jose. Eshaa and Ronak were going to have a half day at school before the start of their summer vacation. It is planned that Deepak Uncle will take a half day too, pick up Eshaa and Ronak, then join us as we go back to the city to see the Golden Gate Bridge, the Presidio, and then cross the bridge to see Muir Woods and Stinson Beach.