Checking in from California
 

Hey, everyone. I'm with my family in San Francisco to attend my cousin's wedding. We flew in on Thursday. That night we walked up Nob Hill and had dinner at a great Japanese restaurant. Friday, we went to the Wells Fargo Museum, walked past the Transamerica Pyramid, and then climbed Telegraph Hill. After that we had lunch at an italian restaurant off the Embarcadero, then walked down to Fisherman's Wharf. We had dinner at the Equinox, a revolving restaurant on top of the Hyatt. It was fun. Today we went back to Fisherman's Wharf to see about going to Alcatraz, but the boats were full.. Instead we watched the sea lions for a while and then had lunch. After that we took a cab to the Presidio. Then we walked across the Golden Gate Bridge. I have to say that was one of the most amazing experiences of my life! The weather is great.. It's about 65 degrees and sunny.. The view of the city was incredible. Those of you who live in the Bay Area are very lucky! It's great out here.
I have kind of a random question... I noticed at the toll plazas, CA has FasTrak, like the E-ZPass back home. I've seen two different shaped transponders though.. One is a square and one is sort of rectangular.. What's the difference?
Anyway, this is an awesome city.. It's BMW central! Practically every other car is a BMW or Mercedes.. I saw a black brand-new M5 here.. Plenty of 6-series, 5-series, etc..

I was just wondering what you have been up to, since Curious George is getting more play than Curious Joel these days :D Have fun Joel!!

wait til you come out to the burbs in the eastbay.. I'll be in the San Francisco tomorrow for the US Half Marathon.. PM me if you want to meet up after. There's also a huge M5 meet in palo alto tomorrow at 3pm. There will be 4 E60 M5, a couple of ferrari's and lambo's too

Welcome to california. How long you gonna be here? There may be a few restaurants you may want to try. Hope you get to the wine country. If you do start here. http://www.domaine.com/
When it's time for dinner try one of these.
http://www.farallonrestaurant.com/
http://www.boulevardrestaurant.com/nav/nav.html
http://www.mooses.com/
http://www.fleurdelyssf.com/
Two different shaped transponders? There may be two different models but there is no difference that I have heard of. Hope you have a great time.

I think the square one is a newer model, no functional difference.

Don't forget to go to Lombard Street, Palace of Fine Arts, visit Union Square for shopping, Golden Gate Park will be fun tomorrow as the roads are closed, and you can bike or roller blade through it. Check out Stow Lake, you can rent a boat and go around the lake, there is a brand new DeYoung Museum there.

So much to do in the Bay Area. Have fun.

I'm home... I had to get up at 4:30 this morning! I wish that we had more time to spend there. The food was great there, the city was beautiful, and the people were friendly.. Any time my mom was holding her map arguing with my dad about which direction we were going, someone would just come up and point us in the right direction. We saw some of the major attractions.. We went to Fisherman's Wharf, we walked across the Golden Gate Bridge, and we saw Lombard Street. We also went up to the Coit Tower, and our hotel (The Hotel Monaco) was about two blocks from Union Square.

It sounds like you had a great trip and saw many of the highlights of San Fran. Next time you are there you need to rent a BMW and drive down Lombard Street - http://www.sftravel.com/lomabardcrookedstreet.html

Where can you rent a BMW? BMW Dealers? I'm going to be in D.C. area this Thanksgiving and would like to rent a X5 or BMW 5-series for 5 days. If anyone has any information, please help!