City National Bank Crystal Visa Infinite cardholders had the opportunity to purchase premium orchestra seats (first few rows in front) for Hamilton in San Francisco for the price of regular orchestra seats, so I bought the maximum of four tickets for Saturday night of Memorial Day weekend. I had attended the Tony-award-winning musical
a couple of years ago, but it was a show I wanted to see again, and knew that I could easily find people to accompany me. Last time, we were seated on the side in row Z; this time, we'd be in row D center!
Saturday morning, Karen, Nori, Sheri and I drove to the BART station to ride the train into San Francisco. Parking at the station was free on the weekends. It was easy to purchase fares from the kiosk.
Getting off at the Powell Street station, we walked a few blocks north to our hotel for the night, the
Hilton San Francisco Union Square. I didn't use points this time, as I found a decent cash rate, plus breakfast was included for
Hilton Honors Gold and above members.
Our rooms didn't have much of a view. Nori and I ended up with an accessible room, so our bathroom had an open shower, with everything at a reachable height.
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| view from Sheri and Karen's room |
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| hydration station in the lobby |
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We then had an early dinner at nearby
Puccini and Pinetti, an Italian restaurant.
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| passcode for the bathroom |
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| fritto misto to share |
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| beef carpaccio |
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| penne alfredo |
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After eating, we walked several long blocks down Market Street to the Orpheum Theater.
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| fourth row center! |
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As usual, what a spectacular show! It was worth sitting up front as you could see the actors' facial expressions and even smell the smoke as something was being burned on stage.
When we got back to the hotel, we visited the
Cityscape Bar on the top floor. It had a great atmosphere. Unfortunately, the place was super crowded at this time so we skipped drinks and just took pictures of the view out the windows.
Breakfast the next morning was at
Poached. Though the restaurant was pretty busy, we were seated promptly. The vouchers covered just the cold portion of the breakfast buffet. Our server said we could upgrade to the full buffet for a cost of ~$8.75 per person (tax and gratuity included), with access to the hot selections as well as made-to-order omelets and benedicts, so we agreed to it. At that price, it was a good value, as the going rate was $40 per person plus tax and gratuity.
Next on the agenda was the
Museum of Ice Cream (MOIC). Our entrance time was at 11:30am. We checked out of our rooms, then followed the signs pointing to Bag Drop to store our luggage.
The MOIC was just a few blocks away from the Hilton. When this place opened last year, tickets sold out immediately. Once it became a permanent exhibition, it was easier to get tickets, plus I was able to track down an obscure 20% discount code using Google. Note that it isn't really a museum, but an imaginative collection of ice-cream-and-whimsy-related art installations. You get a short period of time in between rooms, with ice cream and sweets served in a few. It was hard to eat everything because we were full from breakfast. All in all, it was a great place to take fun pictures.
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| taking the slide down to the exhibition |
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| this "fact wall" was the closest to being a museum |
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| first treat of the experience |
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| sample of Cherrylicious ice cream |
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| more "museum-y" bits |
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| second page |
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| magnetic board fun |
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| all-you-can-eat "ice dream" sandwiches |
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| unlimited candies but everyone's touched them |
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| and cotton candy! |
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| the experience ends at the sprinkle pool |
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| found a couple of sprinkles in my pocket upon returning home... |
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| you can order MOIC treats without admission |
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After purchasing items in the MOIC gift shop, we returned to the Hilton for our bags, then to the BART station and finally home - the end of a fun-filled girls' trip to San Francisco. What's next? Kaleb and I go on a long road trip to Southern California, Sedona and Las Vegas...stay tuned!
(Missed reading about our trip to Japan plus 14-night transpacific cruise on Celebrity Millennium? Start by clicking here and navigating using the Trip Index at the top of the page. Don't miss a single update! Click here to have the latest delivered straight into your inbox...opt out anytime.)
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Another disclaimer: The intention of this blog was to remind Future Me in full detail about where I went and what I did. I could have made it private, but I frequently get questions from family, friends and internet folks about how I planned things, got deals, etc., so instead of repeating the story over and over, I direct them here. If you are offended by anything I say or do, save yourself the discomfort and kindly click away from my blog. Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day!
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