ON THE STREETS WHERE I'VE DINED & DANCED

 

Fisherman’s Wharf on Jefferson Street in San Francisco and Alioto’s Restaurant where the seafood was wonderful.  My time frame for the nightlife on Fisherman’s Wharf was basically in the 1960s.

I liked to sit where we could overlook the harbor and watch the seals frolicking about.

Ghirardelli Square on the Wharf was always fun to peruse – day or night.

But A. Sabela’s Capri Room on the Wharf was my favorite where I used to go dinner-dancing with a boyfriend.  

Sometimes we went to the Tonga Room at the Fairmont Hotel atop Nob Hill on Mason Street.

The Tonga Room was a South Pacific styled restaurant situated around the old swimming pool.  Dining tables ran along the sides of the pool with a dance floor at one end, while the band, seated on a tiki ‘barge’ played while floating up & down the pool.  And at several points during the evening there would be a tropical ‘storm’.  Fun place.  For whatever reason, I don’t believe the Tonga Room is still there.  If so, what a shame.

On Jack London Square on Water Street in Oakland, we went dinner-dancing once on The Showboat – a restaurant situated on a boat docked on the Estuary.  Rather fun dining & dancing with the waves rocking the boat gently.

We also went dinner-dancing at the Lake Merritt Hotel on Lakeside Drive & Madison Street in Oakland.

Their Terrace Dining Room had a spectacular view of Lake Merritt and surrounding area.  Sometimes a group of us would go together. I can’t remember if the band sat in the protruding ‘box’, or something else was set up there?

The Terrace Room overlooked Lake Merritt which was so pretty in the early evening hours.  Ironically, my wedding reception was held there.  I say “ironically” because I did not marry the fellow I went dinner-dancing with there.  In fact, the fellow I married was not really into dinner dancing.

So after I married and we began our family, my nightlife changed a bit.  Dinner-Dancing was out, dancing to jukebox tunes at the local bar & grill on a Saturday night was in - once in a while.  We did, however, go out to dinner often enough – although not at fancy hotels.

Yes, Applebee’s off Sanquinetti Road in Sonora, and Burger King on Mono Way, and some very nice Mexican and Chinese restaurants as well as pizza parlors. J

And there is a fine dining hotel on down the highway (108) in Jamestown on Main Street where we like to go on special occasions.

And there’s the movie theater in Sonora off Sanguinetti Road in the Crossroads Shopping Center.  We go there when a movie playing sounds like it should be seen on the ‘big screen’.  Otherwise we wait for the movies to come out on Netflix or Prime or whatever so we can avoid 1001 previews at the theatre with their sound jacked up apparently as high as the decibels will go!

When our kids were in high school Friday nights were spent in the spectator stands watching the football games and listening to the band.  This is  one half of the crowd with the band behind the goal posts at a nighttime Sonora High football game.

The other half of the crowd with the opponent’s fans at the far end.  When our kiddos were in high school, we went to every home football game – both to watch the game and watch & listen to the band since all three of our children played in the band.  There were always two of them playing in the band together – first our son & eldest daughter (trombone & saxophone) and then eldest and youngest daughter (flute).

At one time the band used to sit in the stands but it became so large (300 members) they were taking up too much room in the stands, so were given their own place behind one of the goal posts which was much better – not only because that allowed more paying seats in the stands (which hold 5000 and were always full), but the band was fun to watch so the crowd could see them better and also hear them better.  This was in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.  Sonora High School, by the way, is located on N. Washington Street.

It was a good time.  We continued to go to the games after the kids had graduated, and for a while it was fun because we still recognized some of the kids playing, but after a while the enthusiasm waned and we finally stopped going.  But Friday nights under the big lights was fun while it lasted.

:-> 

La Nightingail