An Evening in San Francisco

Friends asked us to join them for dinner Friday night.  They were picking up a friend at the airport and wanted us to meet her.  We were to be at Ideale in North Beach at 8:30.

Now to park in North Beach you have two choices, expensive parking garages or not to park.  We chose not to park.  We rode BART and then took Muni to within a few blocks of the restaurant.

Our friends picked the restaurant after seeing it discussed on Check Please.  Spaghetti alla carbonara was the dish to order according to the program.  Ideale is in a high tourist area where there is very expensive average food.  But Ideale is more of a neighborhood place.  People having birthday parties and other celebrations.  The food is very affordable and more importantly, delicious.  The carbonara, to die for.

After dinner we walked toward the bus stop and parking garage.  We decided after dinner drinks were in order.  We went to Tosco, known for their wonderful after dinner drinks.   Everyone, except me, had the House Cappuccino.  I don’t drink coffee so I had a shot of Maker’s Mark. 

We then walked up to the bus stop.  The next bus was in 7 minutes.  Perfect timing.  We catch the bus, ride downtown to a BART station.  As we go through the gates at BART, Marty said, “Hurry there is a train at 12:02.  We might catch it.”  As we got to the platform the train doors closed, it sat there just long enough we thought they would reopen.  No, it then pulled out.  22 minutes to the next train.  That’s OK, we sat down and played on our IPhones.

We got on the next train and headed under the Bay.  At the transfer station the driver announced, “This is the last train tonight.”  What, that has to be wrong.  On weekends if you’re in the system by 1:00 a.m. you are safe to catch a train.  Well we were so wrong.  At our stop we looked at the schedule.  We were on the last train.  Then a guard came up and told us to move on, the station was closing. The system starts shutting down at midnight.

We were so lucky we got in the gates by midnight.  So much was stacked like dominos.  If we had had a second drink we would have missed the bus. If we hadn’t caught the bus, we wouldn’t have made the gates.  Not in by midnight, no way  home.  We would have had to take a taxi home major $$$$.  Or call and wake up our son or a friend and beg them to come get us.

I really agree with a friend who said, “ public transportation should run until after the bars close.”  If they don’t want us to drink and drive, give us an option to be safe.