I seldom end up where I wanted to go, but almost always end up where I need to be. ~ Douglas Adams

Happy Three Pizza Day!

During my last week of freedom from work while recovering from my heart surgery, I spent the day walking in San Francisco. I spent some time at the Cal Academy of Sciences, Golden Gate Park, The Haight and made three separate pizza stops including a new place I’ve wanted to review for a time.

My first stop of the day after a three mile walk up from BART was the California Academy of Sciences. I really like this place, mostly because of I love planetarium shows and they run three different shows every day, so yes, I did three planetarium shows. I also want to give Cal Academy credit for having True Moo chocolate milk in their cafeteria, without a doubt, the champagne of chocolate milks.

They have a new exhibit on for the summer, about a dozen animatronic dinosaurs, including a pretty huge T-Rex and Brontosaurus type dinosaur. If you’d like to see videos of those check out my Instagram page at @michael_rev_kane. Cal Academy has a mix of old school museum rooms and more modern features like the planetarium, I always find the Africa Room to be a bit depressing with it’s majority of stuffed critters, but the live penguin exhibit is always a hit with the munchkins. One small but interesting visit is the earthquake room where you get a taste of both the Loma Prieta and the Great 1906 quake. I always find the 1906 quake experience to be amazing, and they only put you through it for one third of the time the quake actually lasted. The one stuffed critter I do find amazing there, is the mount of the last living California Grizzly, a chance to see this extinct species up close.

The planetarium shows were amazing as always, I love their little planetarium. The aquarium is ok, it’s actually probably way better than I give it credit for, but when your 90 minutes from the Monterey Bay Aquarium it’s hard to be impressed by anything else. One really well known feature of their aquarium is their giant albino alligator in their Southern Swamp exhibit. Of course, I’ve often wondered if it was actually alive, every time I’ve been there it’s in one place and never moving. So it was a rare treat this time around as I got to see him actually swimming. They also have a several level rainforest experience and honestly all I ever care about is the highest level because that’s where the butterflies hang out and there’s a ton of them and they’re gorgeous and occasionally even land on you.

Below is a gallery of some images from Cal Academy.

After leaving Cal Academy I strolled through Golden Gate Park and over to the Haight, it’s the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Grateful Dead, so the Haight’s been hoping for a bit this year. There were even a couple of old style deadhead touring buses and heads around the neighborhood. Some pictures below from the Haight:

The beauty of my route this day was that rolling through the Haight I would pass two pizza places, an outpost of Tony’s Slice House, which I’ve reviewed on the Pizza Page, and a place I’ve been meaning to get to that gets a bit of press, Escape from New York. Finally, the walk back to BART would take me back past Gioia Pizza, the best NY slice in San Francisco and pictured at the top, couldn’t wait to take a bite before I took the photo. Tony’s Slice House, an outpost of Tony’s Napolatana in Little Italy, is always a bit disappointing to me. Tony Gemignani, the owner, is maybe the most decorated and awarded pizza maker in America and frankly, a pizza at his restaurant is amazingly good. At the Slice Houses though, the experience just doesn’t translate, I think because the slices sit and don’t hold up that way. I was lucky on this stop to get a pepperoni slice from a pie that had just come out of the oven, so much better than normal. The one thing they do absolutely right is their pepperoni is super high quality.

I’ve seen Escape from New York Pizza end up on several best NY pizza in the city lists so I’ve been curious about getting a chance to check it out. The good, it feels like a NY pizza place, pizzas on display behind a glass counter, celebrity signed photos and posters on the wall, and even the we don’t give a shit about you attitude of the employees. Hell, right down to the overflowing garbage cans and the crappy soda machine. The pizza looked good and it was fine, it would be an average slice in NY, grade it out at a “C”, compared to the slice at Tony’s that would be a “B” and Gioia that would be an “A”. If you’re in the The Haight and hungry, definitely worth it, although walking a half block further to Tony’s would be better, assuming you can get something fresh out of the oven. Some images below from Escape from NY Pizza.

All in all a great final walking day in the city before I go back to work. Lovely weather, a great walk, about nine miles and a day full of pizza is always a happy one. ~ Rev Kane