San Francisco (Day 1)

As it turns out, we do have an internet connection here, so hopefully I'll be able to write at least a little summary of what we've been up to each day.

So, our first day in San Francisco started off with taking MARTA (Atlanta's "metro system") to the airport, flying with Delta to SF, and then figuring out how to take SF's BART line to the city (by the way, the train we took was HORRENDOUSLY loud). After checking into our hotel (which is awesome...more later), we looked for some lunch in the Ferry Building nearby where we had some sandwiches from an Italian deli. Then we toured the area a bit on our way over to Chinatown, which was less impressive than I had remembered but still neat.

Following Chinatown, we made our way up to Coit Tower, where we took the elevator up to the top for its fantastic (although unfortunately often fog-covered) views of most of the city. Then we headed back down Telegraph Hill towards our hotel, passing briefly through the Italian North Beach area (deciding to come back here later for dinner). Just before returning to our hotel, we got sidetracked by an early Oktoberfest party going on at this old German restaurant, complete with two polka bands (one outdoors and one indoors)! Then we raced back to the hotel to catch the first Presidential debate and relax before eventually heading out for an Italian dinner in North Beach and a quick visit to the famous City Lights bookstore.

In general, I feel we covered a lot of ground for a half day (considering we were traveling for the first half), and now we're up, well-rested, and ready to tackle a day full of site-seeing and eating out at interesting local places!