Winding Down in San Francisco

Much to our surprise, Miles' sister Sarah has discovered this blog and checks it daily. She's not much of a technology buff and still hasn't really figured out how to access our podcast, so this is impressive. But Sarah has a particular group of interests -- food/wine, San Francisco and her brother. And she specifically requested that we shoot a picture or two of the inside of the Hilton San Francisco Financial District room that we have been raving about here for the past couple of days. As you can see behind Miles above, it's a sleek, modernist room with a wall of large windows and an LED TV in the corner. Our sole complaint is illustrated by the photo to the right: The shower's for midgets. I knew this because I got here a day before Miles, so it was extremely entertaining this morning to hear him bellow from in there as he stepped in, "Oh, come ON. You've GOT to be kidding me."

My new sister-in-law's expertise more than came in handy this evening as we met up with my cousin Matt and his girlfriend, Madora, for dinner. Miles was hot to go back to the much-ballyhoo'd Vietnamese joint Slanted Door, which is over at the Ferry Building, but it is expensive and M&M are of 20somethings-trying-to-live-in-one-of- the-Earth's-most-expensive-places means. We had a Slanted Door reservation and M&M were happy to go along, but then Sarah revealed to Miles via phone today that there's a new place from the same folks but at half the price called Out The Door that's in the new mall where Bloomies is. We just got in from dinner and it was outstanding, especially the Imperial crispy rolls. Miles' beef with vermicelli was so tasty he didn't even steal any of my claypot chicken with caramel, which he commanded me to order presumably because he wanted some.
So, thanks, Sarah! And Matt and Madora for great company and one of our podcast fans, Gregory, for meeting for coffee. And now I have to get back to writing a story that I wish I could finish so I can just enjoy our last day here without hesitation. Sigh. A blogger's work is never done.