Last Saturday morning we headed downtown to check out the new Blue Bottle Cafe, which was written up in the New York TImes last week for its fancy new $20,000 Japanese siphon bar. Thingy. The coffee was good. Possibly the best coffee I’ve ever tasted, even. But I’m not much of a coffee drinker, and I doused it with cream and sugar out of habit. That was a mistake, but there’s more coffee where that came from.

A couple things: It’s really fun to watch the coffee being made. Really. That’s not something I ever expected to say, but there you go. I could try to describe it for you, but instead I’ll just link to the Times’ slide show. It could only be improved by putting the coffee bartender in a lab coat, goggles, and big leather gloves. Also, the little salted caramels they served with the coffee were amazing. Without question the best caramels I’ve ever had.

Last night, we headed down to Fisherman’s Wharf and got on a boat (for about two minutes) bound for Forbes Island. Which is a restaurant. And a floating island. Or a really fancy houseboat. Owned by a batty old man (that would be Forbes). Whatever, the food was mediocre, but they have a lighthouse and are near the sea lions. It was fun.