After enjoying several musicals in San Francisco for the past several years, we decided
to subscribe to the Best of Broadway series of 6 shows at San Francisco. ( http://www.bestofbroadway-sf.com/index.html
) The first show happened to be Peter Pan, staring Cathy Rigby. Cathy Rigby originally was
best known for being an Olympic gymnast. Since 1991, she has been in several productions
of Peter Pan. So on 1/29/2000 we took BART to San Francisco for a matinee performance.
Taking BART to the Orpheum theater was a great idea as the Civic Center station was right
in front of the theater on Market Street.
We only had a few minutes before the 2 PM
show, so we went to Nyala Ethiopian cafe for a vegetarian buffet. On the net I found this
little write-up: A terrific Ethiopian restaurant right by the City Hall.
"Interesting uses of spices. They do an interesting and varied vegetarian buffet for
lunch and dinner. It was very good, pretty cheap and filling." Others find their food
to be of no particular distinction. Open Mon-Fri 11am-3pm & 4pm-11pm (buffet).
Nyala, 39 A Grove Street,
Civic Square, 861-0788
After the quick lunch we enjoyed a great
performance of Peter Pan at the Orpheum Theater ( http://www.bestofbroadway-sf.com/orph_main.html
)
Official Peter Pan WEB: http://www.peter-pan.com/
Since photos were not allowed, here are some pictures from the official Peter Pan WEB.
Here was Kathy Rigby
as Peter Pan flying through the air.
Another picture of Peter Pan flying. Even
since the show I've been begging Theresa to let me go flying since I wanted to be the boy
who refused to grow up.
Here
are a couple pictures of the villainous Captain Hook.
If you remember the story about Peter Pan,
you know that his shadow was missing. Here was my shadow.
I arrived at "Never Land."
Okay, actually it was me on a beach in Taiwan. Now I understand why Theresa and I always
enjoy going to the beach at Carmel.
We did not find any Indians or pirates. However, here were my eldest
brother Alex, myself, and my dad.
Here were Alex, Mom, Kai-yee, myself, and Stanley exploring NeverLand.
Was that Tiger Lily standing on the left? Actually, here was my sister
Kai-yee, my brother Alex, myself, Mom, and Dad.
Were we on top of Marooners' Rock in front of the Mermaid's Lagoon?
Here were my brother Stanley, my sister Kai-yee, myself, Dad, and Mom.
We did not exactly fly around. Here was the family in front of our first
and brand-new family car. It was a Ford Falcon. As the youngest, I was always stuck
sitting in the front between my Mom and Dad.
Here was a family photo long ago.
Here was a family photo taken in 1999.
Guess which kid never grew up? :-)
Of course, the family grew larger.
In the story "Peter Pan", Wendy and Peter remained friends. Here
was a picture of us--yes we lived happily ever after. Theresa does frequently refer
Stephen "Peter Pan" Woo as the boy who refused to grow up! :-)
Official WEB: http://sfpl.lib.ca.us/
As a kid I loved to read. My mother would tell people that I spent most of my allowance
on books. I read both Chinese and also western stories. I would often read the same book
several times. I don't seem to recall that there were any public libraries in Taiwan, at
least while I was growing up. So it was great to come to U.S. and see all the public
libraries. Theresa loves to read. In fact, she reads a lot more books than me. So after
leaving "Peter Pan" at 4:30 PM we decided to visit the newly build San Francisco
Public Library that was just one block away.
Theresa and I was impressed by the
furnishings.
I was especially impressed by the
central dome that filled the whole library with light and air.
What a
great library.
Millennium Monument
was on display in the Library.
Theresa was standing in front part of
the 2000 baby food glass jars. Each glass jar was filled by a San Francisco public school
student with some special items to commemorate the new Millennium. The items could be a
photo, a toy, a penny, a ballgame ticket, a drawing, a strand of hair, etc.
We also enjoyed some of the stories that
were videotaped. Theresa and I both enjoyed this special exhibit and were especially
touched by these children's joy, honesty, and spontaneity. This exhibit certainly brought
out the youthful exuberance in both Theresa and me. :-)
This was also the second official meeting of 4 couples who are part of the Gourmet
Dining Group. We wined and dined at the famed Aqua restaurant in San Francisco.
Aqua
252 California Street, San
Francisco, CA 94111
(415) 956-9662
A review on Digital Lantern: http://www.digitallantern.com/san_francisco/r/0/r61.html
Here is a sample menu: http://www.kerrymenu.com/Aqua.htm
We all decided to go for the Tasting Menu: Five Courses of the Chef’s
Selection Specially Prepared for the Entire Table
We started our dining adventure with warm bread roll and peppery lentil soup.
We also had a tasting of a small raw oyster.
The crabcake appetizer was one of my
favorites.
Savory Black Mussel Soufflé (Chardonnay,
Garlic and Parsley) with cheese sauce was another appetizer.
Theresa liked the sautéed monk fish,
which was one of the two entrees.
My favorite part of the meal was a triple
decker of fried potato, seared medallion of rare Ahi tuna, and seared Hudson Valley Foie
Gras. Pinot Noir sauce was heavenly. All through out dinner Bob and John order some
fine wines, domestic Chardonnay, a German Riesling, and two French red wines. Theresa was
especially pleased with the Gloria Ferrer Chardonnay ( http://www.gloriaferrer.com ).
Of course, the meal was not complete
without desserts. We had the Aqua dessert sampler platter. To be honest, I don't know all
the things that I ate: Milk Chocolate Napoléon, Warm Chocolate Torte, White
Chocolate Ice Cream, etc. Just like a little boy, I even had an old-fashioned root
beer float with warm chocolate chip cookies and two straws made out of chocolate!
It was nice that we also got to celebrate
Alene's birthday.
Do you believe that it took us more than 3.5 hours to have dinner? We were so tired
that we decided to go to Top of the Mark at Mark Hopkins Hotel ( http://hotels.san-francisco.interconti.com/
) another time to enjoy some great view, food, drinks, music, and dancing :-).
GGWG (Gourmet Global Working Group)
Rev 0, 10/26/99
Who can this be? The Chinese
version of Peter Pan? :-)
