USA 2011: San Francisco Part 2

After lunch it was time for more walking and exploring.



My travels took me by Chile Lindo, a little hole in the wall place that had come highly recommended by the lovely Lauren from Portobello in PDX. I didn't get the vegan empanada, much as I wanted to, as I was still feeling a bit overcome by from the cheesecake I'd eaten about half an hour before. I still took photos of it though. And then there was a crazy person asking me about the photos and having this big conversation and telling me I was dehydrated because of the way my fingernails looked. He was nice enough, just rather crazy and would not stop talking. Then there was another crazy lady who joined us, and I got stuck with her for a while longer. And finally I was able to break free without being rude. One day I do hope to actually get some food from here.


Walking around the Mission of course means more murals. Here are some seals.



And there was one wall covered in all sorts of cool quirky paintings of comic book characters. I love them!


Next stop was Mission Dolores, where I spent some time wandering around and taking photos of the pretty stained glass.

Afterwards I had planned to go and check out Creativity Explored, which was meant to be a funky little art place. It was a funky little art place, but it was a closed funky little art place. Alas. I did find an adorable little shop next to it though that had some amazing cards, so I got one for my friend's birthday. They also had a sign on the counter saying they wanted pennies, so I paid for as much of the card as possible with the little buggers. Seriously, Australia got rid of one cent coins ages ago, and our wallets are better off for it! I had so many annoying little pennies weighing me down.



I was able to get a few photos of the hills surrounding San Francisco. It is kind of surreal, like the city just ends and hills begin! San Francisco has a grid-like pattern to the streets that US cities seem to love. The problem with that is that the only way to get photos like this is by stopping in the middle of the road! Hence why I have only a couple of them.



I was still feeling a little overcome from the pie, but then stumbled across what I needed to cleanse and pick me up - ice cream! Bi-Rite is a super cute ice cream shop that has a couple of vegan flavours. It was very busy - there was a line out the door. I had some time to spare and I just new vegan ice cream would fix me right up. I got the chocolate and coconut flavour, and it was delicious!


I walked by The Women's Building, which was covered in amazing murals on all the walls.

I then walked down Clarion Alley, another alley filled with murals.




By this stage I was kind of walked out and muraled out, so it was time to get some dinner.


Gracias Madre is considered a must eat destination in San Francisco. It is vegan Mexican cuisine.


I decided to get some small dishes to make up my dinner, as I had to have room for dessert. I chose the Quesadillas de Camote (sweet potato and caramelized onions folded into tortillas with cashew nacho cheese and pumpkin seed salsa). This was great, except the pumpkin seed salsa was soooooo hot. I have a bit of a sensitive stomach to hot things, so my stomach was on fire and a bit uncomfortable rather quickly. Originally I thought it was the sauce, and it took me a little while to work out it was the topping, which I then scraped off. Much more comfortable after that!


I also got Greens con Chile y Ajo (seasonal greens sautéed with fresh garlic, and chiles), which may seem a bit of a boring choice, but I needed me some greens and this was delicious!


I also got some Horchata to drink. This was my first horchata experience. It was cool and sweet, which made my burning stomach lining feel some relief!


FLAN! This was the dessert that had to be had. Everyone talks about the flan, and now I can too. Amazing! I am not sure why they even bother having other things on the dessert menu, because you'd be crazy to pass up on this!

Gracias Madre is a place I definitely want to go back to, as there are many other tasty looking things on the menu I would love to try, and this time was a little bit dampened by an upset tummy. It would be good to go with other people, so I could try a lot of different things!

Then it was back to the hotel room, and swiftly to sleep. It was a big walking day!