Monday, November 17, 2025
You can read Part 1 here, Part 2 here and Part 3 here. This is Part 4 and there are no more Parts after this one.
As usual at the end of a visit to San Francisco, I find myself wishing I could have spent more time there and seen more of the city. I don’t like walking or even riding in a car in the super-hilly neighborhoods but the town has so much to see and do and eat and experience. It’s really a great place to be but maybe not when one’s knees are giving one as hard a time as mine were giving me this weekend.
Our return flight to L.A. didn’t leave until 3:28 PM so we didn’t have to leave for the airport until 1 PM or so. Lying in bed Monday morn, trying to decide what to do with our remaining time there, I decided that Brinke (and, I guess, I) deserved a better seafood meal than we’d had the night before…and I’d kinda promised her a lobster roll, plus I deserved better clam chowder so via my cell phone, I made a reservation for a restaurant I knew to be pretty good. It also opened at 11 AM which allowed us to eat light breakfasts, take our time packing, check out, check our suitcases and Lyft back over to Fisherman’s Wharf for an early lunch.
It’s called the Fog Harbor Fish House and like every other seafood eatery in the city, it claims that its clam chowder has been voted the best in town. I don’t know who it is who votes such things and how it is that every restaurant can claim victory in these votes. If Mike Lindell wants to find a solid example of voter fraud, he should look into the matter.
It was raining but not aggressively at the Wharf and the Fog Harbor gave us a table with a great view of the harbor where boats dock and very large seals flop up onto the little piers that thrust out into the bay. Every few minutes, a guard would come out wielding a shield to, I guess, protect him from seal bites. He would shoo them off those landings and back into the water, then he’d go inside and the seals would immediately climb up and assume the exact same positions on the piers. We couldn’t figure out the point of it and I finally decided there wasn’t one.
We both had clam chowder and lobster rolls WITH NO OLD BAY SEASONING!!! and relaxed after a hectic several days. The lobster rolls were excellent and the chowder was better than the place we’d dined the previous night…but that’s kind of like beating the New York Giants these days. (I’ve still never found better clam chowder than what’s served at the Paradise Cove Beach Cafe in Malibu.) But it was a relaxing lunch and when I signed the credit card slip, I told Brinke, “That’s the last time I’m writing my name in San Francisco this year!”
After that, it was back to the hotel, where we fetched our bags, then Lyfted to the airport with a cheery driver named Richard. At SFO, as I had at LAX last Friday, I had a wheelchair waiting for me and someone to push me in it. If you’re flying and having trouble walking, don’t hesitate to request this, preferably in advance. It saves you trudging through the airport and sometimes having to stand in long lines when standing is not easy for you. It also gets you through the TSA area faster. Just be a good person and tip your wheelchair-pusher.
The flight back was choppy but Alaska Airlines again lived up to its on-time rep. In fact, we landed fourteen minutes ahead of the announced time, making me wonder if their record is due to padding those announced times in the first place.
It was pouring rain in L.A. but my assistant Jane was right there to meet us in my car and get us safely to my house. Aside from that little problem with the Old Bay Seasoning, it was a great trip and I owe a lot of that to my splendid traveling companion. Thank you, Brinke.
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