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Today Elsa and I will take the Amtrak to the City and meet up with Grandma at the Embarcadero BART Station. Our goal is lunch at the La Mediterrannee Restaurant who has Middle Eastern cuisine. La Mediterrannee Restaurant Web Site
Gobo and Patti have previous engagements and will not make this trip and miss out on a great day.
It is a cold, wet morning in Stockton. We have umbrellas ready. Warm jackets and winter gloves.
Stockton Amtrak Station
Our train pulling into Stockton
Loading up
A view of a Delta home in the middle of nowhere
A stop at the Martinez Amtrak Station
I-680 bridge in the back. A tanker on the river.
I-80 bridge at Crockett
We get to the Emeryville Amtrak Station about 10 minutes early. I call Grandma's cell phone. She is on BART just approaching Lafayette and said the BART will get to the Embarcadero Station at 11:09 AM.Elsa and I board the Amtrak bus for a ride over the Bay Bridge. The bus is nice and high and I can take a few photos of the new Bay Bridge that is being built adjacent to the current Bay Bridge.
The new Bay Bridge which is in progress
The new Bay Bridge with Treasure Island in the background
Coit Tower from the Bay Bridge
The Ferry Building and Embarcadero from the Bay Bridge
We hook up with Grandma and walk the two blocks to the Number 1 Muni line.The 1 bus is a straight shot up Sacramento Street. We get off the bus at Fillmore and the restaurant is across the street and about three doors to the north.
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The restaurant
The interior of the restaurant
A party platter
Today's lunch bunch
We order the 10 item sampler on the menu:Mediterranean Meza (for 2 or more) — 15.95 per personThe cold dishes
An assortment of 10 house specialties & appetizers including Lamb Lule, Chicken Pomegranate, Spinach & Chicken Fillos,
Dolma, Hummos, Baba Ghanoush, Tabuleh & much more.
I was too busy eating to take a picture of the hot dishes when they arrived so....What's left of the hot dishes
The weather is amazing for mid December in San Francisco. The temperatures are in the high 50°'s but with no wind. The two outdoor tables of the restaurant are filled.Diners alfresco
I just had to take a photo of the little girl's lunch................The little blonde haired girl's lunch
We are on Fillmore Street about 5 blocks north of Japan Town and 13 blocks from the apartment I stayed at in my college days from 1964 - 1966.It is amazing how compact and varied the San Francisco neighborhoods are. North Beach the hang out for the 1950's Beat Generation is just across Columbus Avenue from Chinatown. In fact Upper Grant Avenue was a popular address for the Beatniks. Whereas Grant Avenue is the heart of Chinatown.
Across the street from the restaurant is the refurbished old Clay Theatre
We use our Muni transfers after lunch to catch the 3 bus since that one gets us to Union Square.The 3 bus eventually heads to down town on Post Street and we get off at the Powell Street intersection at one corner of Union Square.
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The obligatory cable car photo
Macy's shot from Union Square
Macy's donated this huge Christmas tree for display in Union Square
This year there is an ice skating rink set up in Union Square
Some ice skaters
After watching the ice skaters for a few minutes we head up Powell Street to Nordstroms where the ladies are trying to use up Grandma's gift certificate.Nordstrom's on Market Street. This is a seven floor building open in the center.
At the basement level of both Nordstrom's and the next door Bloomingdales are food courts. On both the basement level and the first floor there are hallways between the two buildings. There are more restaurants and dessert shops in Bloomingdales than Nordstroms, so we wind up at Bloomingdales for dessert.For dessert we get Red Beard cream puffs at Blomingdale's basement eatery court
We catch the Amtrak bus in front of Bloomingdales and get to the Emeryville station.The train is 10 minutes late but we make up some of that time until just before we get to Antioch. There is a broken down train on the tracks that delays us another 40 minutes before it can be repaired enough to move it out of the way. The train is crowded and we are talking to a mother and daughter who is just a few years younger than us from Fresno so the time passes fairly quickly. Taking Amtrak is not for those on a schedule, but the Lunch Bunch are all retirees who are no longer in a big hurry. :-)
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