San Francisco (Day 2)

As expected, our second day in SF was busier than the first, despite taking some time to relax from time to time. We started out by getting breakfast at a little croissant place and Starbuck's and then headed South of our hotel to the SF Museum of Modern Art and the surrounding Yerba Buena Gardens. The SFMoMA was definitely the best museum I've been to in the States but was fairly average when compared with similar museums in Europe. The highlight of the collection was a temporary exhibit of modern Chinese art, much of which was anti-Mao and therefore quite flagrant. After this, we made our way over to Union Square and the Civic Center and then started heading North towards Lombard Street.

On our way there, we stopped into the big Masonic Temple and Grace Cathedral across the street, eventually followed by a brief but neat visit to the Cable Car Museum. We then got lunch at a Chinese restaurant on the outskirts of Chinatown and chilled at Vesuvio, a dive bar made famous for being a hotspot for the Beat poets. After this break, we opted for some serious climbing up Russian Hill to see Lombard Street (the world's curviest street with eight curves in a single block) and Filbert Street (San Fran's steepest street at a 31.5 degree incline). After all this walking, I needed a break at a local coffee shop, after which we returned to the hotel to collect ourselves before going out for the evening.

Our night out consisted of dinner at a California Fusion restaurant called The House followed by trying to see what the dance club scene is like in town, making it to no fewer than three clubs. Actually, we just stood in the first club's line, leaving once we found out the cover charge was $40/person to see Deadmau5 spin! Fortunately, we found a couple other places in the SoMa district, one called Harlot which wasn't really our thing, and another called 111 which was having some sort of 80's night. Although we didn't really find the true dance scene on what might amount to our last viable night out (being Sunday now), I'm at least glad we tried.