After dinner, we went off to find an Irish Pub for drinks and music. Tiff had done some research, an

This trip was meant to do triple duty as a vacation, a chance for photographs of the SF area, and to learn more of the Irish language. I had attended this weekend course 3 years ago, and had learned much. I tried to at least keep up with the learning a bit, and had done well enough florence accommodation that I felt I was ready for Level 2 this time, rather than repeat Level 1. I hope I was correct in my self-assessment!
I had an early morning 7am flight out of Pittsburgh, so decided florence accommodation it would be prudent to stay in a local hotel the night before rather than drive the hour and a half up in the morning. When I had travelled to Ireland in 2011, we had stayed in the America s Best Value Inn near the airport, and I knew they had an early morning shuttle. In addition, I could park my car there for a reasonable fee while I was gone, so I chose the same place again.
Checking into the hotel, I chatted with the clerk, Lynn. This was the anniversary of her father dying, and her son had sent her chocolate covered strawberries florence accommodation to make the day a bit sweeter very nice of him! It was a bit difficult to get to sleep. While convenient and cheap, the hotel beds are a bit on the firm side to my liking. However, sleep I did, and I was up at 4:15 for my adventure. A quick shower, and down to check out and get on the shuttle.
florence accommodation The shuttle driver had a couple stops before we got to the airport, and regaled us with 1970s disco music during the trip, as he navigated through several airport parking lots to pick up more people.
I had already checked in the day before and had carry-on luggage only, so I showed my printed boarding pass in to the security line which was about the longest I had ever seen it. The maze was filled and the line continued out and almost to the doors of the airport. Luckily, it went rather quickly, and we were through in about 45 minutes or so. This is why I always come in plenty of time! Security was polite and efficient. I saw some people show their boarding passes on their cell phones must try that myself next time!
Once inside the terminal, I found my gate, and then grabbed a sandwich florence accommodation for breakfast and a bottle of water and some snacks for the long day ahead. I had a connection in Minneapolis and a full evening planned once I got into SF. There was some joking about on the shuttle to the terminal we all wondered what it was about 5am that got people in a jolly mood? Perhaps sleep deprivation?
Once we boarded, I saw it was a pretty full flight, with perhaps 3-4 empty middle seats open that I could see. Luckily, one was next to me. I prefer the window seat, as I love looking out the window at the world passing by. I take lots of photographs of both the clouds and sky and the earth below, if it is visible. Since I ve lost 150 pounds, I am less wary of having someone next to me (I don t like to intrude upon their space), but it was nice having the extra elbow room.
As the plane rose, we flew through a mackerel sky of dotted clouds, and I could watch the sunrise through and then over them as we rose. It was a lovely sight! The flight florence accommodation was uneventful, and we landed in Minneapolis on time. I had to trek across from terminal D to G and there was LOTS of shopping available on the way but I had several hours to kill before my flight left. I had a snack at an Italian place called Tagliere, and some delicious cookies from Cravory the salted caramel cream cookies were absolutely divine!
Again, we had an uneventful flight and an empty seat next to me. The sky was mostly florence accommodation clear, so I got to see a lot of the land we flew over during the flight. I saw canyons, florence accommodation farms, florence accommodation mountains and rivers below, and took photos of many of them. Perhaps some was even the Grand Canyon? I don t know. We were delayed about a half hour due to haze in San Francisco, but we arrived in decent time.
There was a long walk and a tram to the car rental place from the terminal, and then about an hour wait to actually get a car. All the lines were long, not just Hertz not only was this Friday afternoon before Fleet Week, there were also some major conventions in town, including Oracle and several others. Luckily, I got my car and headed off to my first stop.
I have a great love of photographing funereal sculpture Celtic crosses, angels, cherubs, etc. I do sell my photos online and at art shows, but most US graveyards have a limited selection of such sculpture. San Francisco, however, has many beautiful examples. I was looking forward to visiting Colma, a city with more dead people than live ones. The cemeteries in San Francisco were all moved to Colma at one point, so they have mostly buried folk.
I chose Cypress Lawn Cemetery for my first venture today. There were several lovely angels and cherubs, and even a couple Celtic Crosses. I noted the oriental gravesites, with their Fu lions in marble florence accommodation guarding the graves. There was a funeral going on at one of the oriental sections, so I gave them a respectful berth. The mists started rolling in, and the wind and a bit of stormy weather. Some of the mists started raining a bit, and the temperature dropped quickly. It made for some lovely atmospheric photographs, florence accommodation and I was very much enjoying florence accommodation this place.
I went on to my hotel soon, and checked in to the Days Inn at the Beach on Sloat Avenue. I had stayed here 3 years ago when I attended the class before. It is about a block from the Irish Cultural Center where the classes were held, and 4 blocks from the beach itself. It is a clean, neat place, very convenient, and a decent price. The staff is very friendly and nice. I settled in, changed, and went off to the Cultural Center. florence accommodation I was a bit early, but so were a few others, and we chatted a bit.
There were four teachers, one for each level of class. Level 1 was John from Donegal, Level 2 was Brian (from Galway), Level 3 was Barbara (from Donegal), and Level 4 was Liam - I don t remember florence accommodation where he was from. I talked to some of the other students, such as Terry and his sister Kirsten, from Orlando, Jessie from Oregon, John from Dallas. Many of these now lived locally, but some, like Jessie, did travel for this class.
There are other classes, probably closer than this, that I could attend, and I ve started looking into them. However, since this trip allows me to hang out with my best friend afterwards, I came here to take them.
We had our first lesson florence accommodation for Level 2 down in the dining room, with Brian asking several questions to help to gauge our understanding and knowledge of the language before he began with the real lessons. He is incredibly dynamic, very helpful, and great about explaining the whys and wherefores (that he knows) of the language, grammar and spelling. It was great to learn from him.
After the lesson for the evening was over, the rest of the group gathered for social hour, watching some Irish language films, singing some songs but I had plans with a very old, dear friend (I ve known her almost 30 years!) for a night out on the town. Tiffani had come to meet me, and was having a drink at the bar in the center when I was done with my lesson, so we took a cab for dinner at Fleur de Lys. This is a high end restaurant in SF, with chef Hubert Keller. This was my first time at a Michelin-starred restaurant, and I was excited. My husband is a chef, and he was quite jealous, as Keller is one of his idols.
The restaurant was very opulent, with fabric draped everywhere, dark red and wood d cor throughout. We both ordered drinks - I had a Sandeman s Manhattan, florence accommodation thinking the tawny in the description meant port. No, it was evidently whiskey, it was STRONG, and I m a lightweight. That s fine, I drank it, just not all at once! For the appetizer, Tiff had Roasted Maine Lobster Thai red curry, coconut milke, lemongrass, ginger and toasted nori . I had Rye Crusted Scottish Salmon cabbage three ways, buttered rye toast, florence accommodation radishes, pickled florence accommodation mustard seed, caraway jus . Mine was incredible, and possibly the best salmon I ve ever had. Hers was OK, I ve had better lobster cooked by my husband several times. I think it was even a bit overcooked. We were also brought an amuse bouche an asparagus soup with a carrot and beet salad. The salad was delicious, florence accommodation but the soup was quite bland and uninteresting.
The couple at the next table were celebrating the release or finish of a film they had been working florence accommodation on. It was called Mandorla, an animated short. They said it was sort of a spiritual search film. Looking it up, we were likely sitting next to the director, Pablo Calvillo. At least, it looks like him!
For our main meal, Tiff ordered Kobe Beef Cheeks, topped florence accommodation with mustard and cornichons, smoked veal jus, sweetbread fricassee with truffle spinach while I had Coffee Rubbed Buffalo Steak, florence accommodation with pickled figs, caramelized leeks, espresso and fig red wine sauce, cornbread madeleine . This time mine was OK, and hers was fantastic. The buffalo was quite dense and a bit tough to chew, though it was tasty. We were a bit confused by the Kobe beef, as it was presented shredded like a pot roast in a tower which sort of nullifies its advantage of even marbling. Still, it was incredibly tasty and well presented.
florence accommodation For dessert, we had the chocolate souffl (served with cherry and Kirsch ice cream) and a Fleurburger Lightly spiced dark chocolate ganache, homemade Beignet, Banana flavored milk shake and Frozen fennel ice cream pommes frites. It looked like a burger, fries and a shake, but it was all sweet and sugared. Bizarre, but tasty enough! The souffl was huge, and we could not finish all of it. They also brought out a sampler of other desserts mini tarts, tiny pastry puffs and such, with dipping sauce for them. So much food!
After dinner, we went off to find an Irish Pub for drinks and music. Tiff had done some research, and found one with trad music called the Plough and Stars. They had Magners on tap and a group singing in the back, so we scored. She, of course, attracted the old man who started hitting on her. There was a group of young men showing off at the pool table. We laughed