checking another Rudie on my list

[Dar]

Yippee!! Peggy and I spent a lovely day yesterday with our very own
Manchester Anne and her handsome hubby!! They are every bit as delightful as I expected.

We picked them up around 8 and gave them our San Francisco nickel tour.
We managed to eat together three times. We'll see them again next Friday for dinner and dessert. Fenton's of course!

I'll post our picture later!!

[SongDragon]

Yay! Say hi to them for me! They're awesome.

~Song

[hoops]

How cool Dar, sounds like a wonderful day... and 3 (THREE) full meals together...perfect!
peace
hoops

[KarenSews2]

I'm jealous! A day and THREE meals with Dar and Peggy!

Glad you all had a lovely time!

Fenton's... MMmmmmmm! You know what I want!!!

[Eva]

Anne & the hubby are lovely. I am sure you are having a wonderful time. I remember when we (also David) were in Manchester. We ate, drank and laughed a lot :cool:

Eva

[david uk]

Anne & the hubby are lovely. I am sure you are having a wonderful time. I remember when we (also David) were in Manchester. We ate, drank and laughed a lot :cool:

Eva

oh yes that was such fun- I hadn't laughed so much in a long time!

It's always good to hear how well Rudies connect when they meet up!

[Manchester]

Sorry I've taken so long to respond, have just got back to the UK this morning and are busy trying to get into work mode for tomorrow.

Dar and Peggy are the most amazing Tour Guides, and their Nickel Tour is brilliant (ooops, just remembered, we forgot to pay!) Well, where do we start? I suppose the most obvious would be the wonderful walk around a breakfast menu with our expert Foodie Rudie! Dar made some great recommendations which set us up for our whole trip, this place was great, and the sun even came out for us.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d63/Million68/breakfast.jpg

After breakfast we went up to the Twin Peaks to try and catch the view but the San Francisco fog had other ideas. We did manage to see quite a bit, intermittently, which I believe eluded MikeUK when he also visited a few weeks earlier.

This photo was taken in Golden Gate Park, where we all thought our of Dutch Rudie friends.... but mostly of Stroopwaffels!

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d63/Million68/windmill.jpg

This is high on the hill and quite a landmark in San Fracisco - the 'Painted Ladies', beautiful Victorian painted houses.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d63/Million68/painted.jpg

We went to all points of the city, up and down some long streets more than once in our quest for insider knowledge, we did St Mary's 'Maytag', had lunch in an Eastern European restaurant in the Castro district - and there's a great deli there for picnic food, thanks Dar!

One of the benefits of visiting with locals, is they know hidden places.... this was taken at Fort Point, just underneath the Golden Gate Bridge, quietly tucked away, but fascinating history inside, and an unusual perspective of the bridge which we hadn't seen before.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d63/Million68/fortpoint.jpg

It's so hard to explain here how much time and trouble Dar and Peggy both put into making our day special. They met us at 8.00am and we didn't see them leave our hotel until nearly 6.30pm, and they had just returned from a trip away, so had lots of chores to do at home before work the next day. We really appreciated everything, the places the took us to look, and the places they took us to eat.... YUM!

See next message for more photos on our return visit after a week in Sonoma, wine country....

[Manchester]

The following Friday Dar & Peggy picked us up as planned at our hotel and we went to a favourite Chinese restaurant of theirs, they knew the menu so well, and we're still talking about an amazing green bean dish, it's fantastic - and a must have of Peggy's.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d63/Million68/chinesemeal.jpg

After stuffing ourselves to bursting, we had a crisis meeting and realised we needed to walk a while to make room for the trip to Fentons. This meant exploring the local book stores, with Dar and I acting as live marketing tools for a certain lady in one store!

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d63/Million68/marketing.jpg

From here we drove to Fentons, and little did we know what we were letting ourselves in for!!

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d63/Million68/Fentons.jpg

After battling for what seemed like days with these most delicious ice cream desserts, we had to admit defeat!

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d63/Million68/fentonsstuffed.jpg

We had such a wonderful time with you two, you were such good company and the highlight of our trip, thank you again for everything.

Next time, we'll show you around Manchester and a tour of our eateries...... just promise you won't wait too long - maybe bring Janis with you?

Anne
x

[KarenSews2]

Aren't Dar and Peggy the BEST??!! I tell ya, my mouth was actually watering at the sight of those Fenton yummies!!! Ahhh, dreams of peppermint stick ice cream with hot fudge... sigh...

Glad you had a great time in one of my favorite cities!

[DaveM]

A delightful tale of a delightful interlude. And a food thread from the very first post. No small feat! Glad to hear you all had such a wonderful time.

Do four Rudies constitute a klump or a full blown exuberance?

[hoops]

very cool anne, so glad you have such a good time
peace
hoops

[Mary6906]

Great photos, Anne... it's making me miss my trip to SF some years ago... I love it out there. One of my friends lived near Dolores Park, I loved just hanging out at the park for a great view of the city.

Fentons... MMMmmmm... I'm sure Dar found just a little bit more room for that last bite of ice cream :) hopefully, you all had your elastc waist band pants on.

Glad you had a good time.

[aabram]

I still have to experience all this. Hoping to get over to see Jeeney and co in 2010, but don't hedge your bets that I'll make it this soon with all that's going on with the economy. Notice, folks, that every time they raise the prices, when have they ever raised the wages? In a word, never. So that means that we have to do our own thing with that. It might be more realistic to try 2011 instead of 2010, just to be on the safe side.

Anne, great that you had such a wonderful time, and thanks for posting the most wonderful mouth-watering photographs. My key-board's all wet now!

Annabel

[Dee]

Mmm . . . that food looks great (and so do all of you)! http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k267/deemark/Emoticons/biggrin.jpg Thanks for the report Annie. http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k267/deemark/Emoticons/hug.gif

[gisli]

Nice book in a great bookstore. Great food and nice friends..........lovely.

[Eva]

The. Ice-cream. Looks. Divine... :eek:

Eva

[Sara]

Don't know which looks better - the pics or the food. Too close to call!

[Bat]

Gee, Anne, I'm so glad you received the grand tour from two of the best Rudies I know! ...I'm so homesick for the Bay Area I could shriek!...Lived there across the bay from Dar and Peggy for 20 years, and didn't even know they existed--my loss! On my trip out there a couple years ago, they introduced me to Fenton's, and that was the Whipped cream on the dessert! Best place for icecream I've ever been!..(thanks again, guys!)
Sounds like they showed you a wonderful day in one of the Jewel cities of the world, and glad you could come...I'm sure they had just as much fun as you did--the chores will always be there, but good company is a rare treat!
Do come back again, I enjoyed the pics and the story of your visit.:cool:

[Dar]

What great pictures!! Oh Anne, yours came out much better than mine!
I'm not even going to bother posting mine!

We had a terrific time with you two. As I mentioned in my email, I knew that you and I would really enjoy each other, but meeting Mike was SUCH a bonus! He's absolutely terrific! Handsome and funny, plus a stargazer and science fiction fan to boot! What's not to love!? AND he can eat like a champ!!

We'll definitely be heading across the pond in the next couple of years and will let you return our favor, plus we have to collect that nickel. ;)

Thanks again for the treats....I'm really coming to Manchester for more of those incredible smoked nuts!!

Hugs to you both!!

[Eva]

meeting Mike was SUCH a bonus! He's absolutely terrific! Handsome and funny, plus a stargazer and science fiction fan to boot! What's not to love!? AND he can eat like a champ!!
Mike is a cool guy eh? I like him a lot too. And he has a great sense of humour.

Eva