Written by: Dominick A. Miserandino Photography by: Margherita Miserandino
We woke up today and grabbed breakfast at the Nob Hill Hotel. They had Danishes, bagels, juice and the such so we stocked up to hit the road. Margherita was insisting that we had to attempt to follow the "zone" even though we really had only carbs and orange juice. I’m not sure how that would work out, but it would.
Anyway, we walked over to the St. Francis Hotel to meet up with Jay from Victorian Walk Tours. Jay was laid off from IBM and decided to reinvent himself. He loved Victorian Homes and decided to make a tour company. Now he leaves every morning at 11:00 am from the lobby and takes the group on a bus ride a little further west to see the Victorian Homes.
Jay loves these Victorian’s and it shows. If he doesn’t know an answer to a question he would knock on the door of the homeowner and ask them what he could about the houses. Now he can tell an Italianate from a Queen Anne to a Stick style.
This was actually one of the best tours that we’ve ever taken. Jay speaks with a passion and emotion that comes right through. Sometimes tour guides are just speaking routinely about the tour information, but Jay acts as if this is the first time he’s seen the home. He’s personable, friendly and just overall cares about what he does. Tell him you’ve seen a stuccoed over home and he’ll cringe in pain. Tell him you’ve seen a beautifully restored Victorian and he’ll smile.
After the tour, we started working our way back across the city and visited Japantown. We’ve seen Chinatown, but who ever heard of Japantown as commonly. Just like the name implies, it has dozens of sushi and Japanese restaurants. There’s a little "Japanese mall", Japanese shops and well that’s everything. We had no thrilling adventures in Japantown so we walked east towards St. Mary’s Cathedral.
The Catholic Cathedral is the most modern cathedral I’ve ever seen. It looks a bit like an iron, steel and concrete iceberg designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It’s tall with four corners (as seen by the sky) ,and it’s beautiful in a New Age way. It’s not traditionally gothic by any means, and some of the locals think it looks like the center spinner of a Maytag washing machine, however I loved it. It was a combination of lines and angles that caused you to look from the outside and wonder, and from the inside to just see the vast openness and great lines of the outer wall and stare meditatively.
We kept walking east and went back to change for dinner.
Margherita loves the Nob Hill Hotel's elevator which is vintage 1900s. It has a grate to cover the doorway and sounds as if it’s climbing up with its last breath.
Anyway, we changed for dinner to head over to First Crush.. While most restaurants in the San Francisco area have been getting less and less patrons for the past few years First Crush is packed every night. They’ve done a major media blitz to get across their image and they fulfill it. They’re young, they're hip, and they're packed every night.
They have certain features like, "Flights of Wine" which are three pre-selected wine glasses at a fixed price. But then, they have the completely brilliant idea of "flights of desserts". Whenever I order dessert it’s usually so big there’s no chance of finishing it all, but here you can get a few desserts all for one fixed price. Of course they’re smaller portions of each one, but who needs a big portion. Desserts are only for nibbling and talking over.
The rest of the meal was delicious, but it’s the atmosphere and the hipness that makes the place. It’s packed every night and just people watching makes the place. It’s the type of place that you can go to and just sit and drink wine, eat and have dessert for hours.
After First Crush we got in the car for our final adventure in San Francisco. We went to Audium to see the longest running, first and possibly only theater designed for sound. Entering the theater is entering the mind of Stan Shaff. He created it, he wrote the compositions, this is his baby. The lobby has speakers everywhere broadcasting sounds like birds chirping, clocks ticking and cars rushing, creating a landscape of sound.
Then Stan greets you at the door and welcomes you in. This is his dream and you get to witness in.
When you walk into the theater it’s nothing like you've ever seen. Something like walking into the belly of an alien ship, or a projection of the future from the 1960s. Just like the Jetsons, everything is stark white and there are egg shaped new age chairs like in Men in Black. Speakers cover the walls akin to Spinal Tap’s dream. Spinal Tap might be able to go to 11 but Stan Shaff can blast you with over a hundred speakers at 10.
He then turns out the lights and it’s completely dark, way dark. A frightening mix between nightmare and back in the womb type of dark. Then the sounds start. Ethereal computer generated sounds mixed with live recordings. Stan is standing in the corner like the Wizard of Oz’s man behind the curtain, conducting the madness.
But without any pictures to see, and only the constant sound you’re left with one thing. Your mind starts composing a movie. Every "act" of the show causes your mind to go to a different place.
This was an incredibly unique show and an incredible bargain. For 12 bucks it’s a great show which can expand your mind.
That was it though. The next day we were going home and we had the good, the bad, and the unique of San Francisco’s non-touristy destinations. San Francisco can’t be done badly no matter what factors are against it.
