Kever Hunters, San Francisco edition

This is my first time in San Francisco. We have had a giant painting of a view of the Bay Bridge hanging above our couch for the past 17 years. We inherited the painting from my husband's Uncle Irving who lived out most of his adult life in Los Angeles.

The painting is a bit unusual in that it lights up. With the lights off you see the view of

the bridge by day and when you turn off the living room lights and turn the lights in the painting on,you get to see the same scene at night. The painting straddles the line between lovely and kitschy.

One of our Shabbat dinner guests told us that he thought that the painting was the view from California Street. Today after doing a few of the obligatory San Francisco tourist activities we decided to go searching for the spot where our bit of the city was painted from.

We first went to the Ferry Terminal.

We loved seeing this familiar landmark from our painting. We went inside and discovered that it was an elegant food market similar to Quincy Market in Boston only more California chichi. We ate lunch and continued on our quest.

We spoke to the concierge in the lobby of a building near the base of California Street who suggested that we go to the bar of the Marriott Hotel across the street. We knew the view was from higher up the hill,but thought that if we failed we would try the view from the Marriott.

We located California Street and hopped on a cable car going up the impossibly steep hill. As the cable car travelled up the hill bits of the image we know from our painting began to pull into view.

It was incredibility exciting. We could see that so many new buildings have been built since our painting was painted (I am guessing in the 1940's), we weren't sure we would actually be able to find our view.

We got off the cable car at the top of the hill. We stood at first one corner of the intersection and then another and then realized that the painting was of an even higher point,from a high floor of the Intercontinental hotel.

We went inside and spoke to the concierge. We explained our quest. He suggested that we go to their penthouse bar,Top of the Mark. We weren't exactly dressed for drinks at such a fancy hotel but the concierge assured us that we would be fine.

We took the elevator to the top floor of the hotel. We explained our quest to the hostess. She suggested that we sit in the 'Weeper Seat'. The hostess was right. It was exactly the right spot. We called our order son who was home and asked him to send us a photo of the painting.

We shared the photo above with our waiter. He was really impressed.

The cocktails we were served were really strong. We called each of our kids and told them where we were.

Given that they are our kids,and have developed a taste for dopey adventures along with their silly parents, they enjoyed sharing the moment with us.

We had the best time doing something that probably isn't in any of the San Francisco tourism books.