I left my heart in San Francisco...
Thursday night
I left work and made my way down to Portland!. We left super late [or was it super early?] to drive down to San Francisco! I packed a lot of snacks [club crackers, easy cheese, veggie chips, gardetto mix, beef jerky, energy bars, Gatorade and gum] Wow - that's a lot of food!
Friday [drive]
Luke drove the entire length of Oregon [I took an hour nap sometime during this part]. I switched over and started driving in California [while Luke took a one hour nap, too!]. When we were about 100 miles from SF I decided that I NEEDED more sleep - so we pulled over and slept for a few hours at a rest stop. After the hot sun woke us up, we finished our drive into the city, arriving at approx. 11:30am!
Friday [we're there!]
We arrived in San Francisco starving, so I took Luke to In N-Out at Fisherman's Wharf [did I mention this is Luke's FIRST In N-Out experience??]. We proceed to find our parking garage and then get a quick [and scary] ride to our hotel. After we check into our smallest [but super cute] hotel room ever - we're out to explore San Francisco via the MUNI. We ventured over to Alamo Square to see the Painted Ladies and walked up to Haight-Ashbury to see some hippies and to the Golden Gate Park. The Golden Gate park is so HUGE that we were only able to see a fraction of it before our feet were killing us! As we were leaving the park to catch a bus back to Union Square we stumbled across a really cute restaurant [p.s. SF is FULL of the best restaurants... every time I saw one I liked, the next was looked even better - I lost count of all the places I wanted to try!] We looked at their menu [most are posted outside] grabbed one to take with us and went back to the hotel. We noticed they had a location in another area that we wanted to check out [Marina Dist.] so we took showers - got dressed up - then hoped back on the MUNI to the Marina Dist.
OK - so this place was a-m-a-z-i-n-g. We started out with the shrimp civiche a glass of wine (me) and a beer (luke). I got coconut shrimp (with chili sauce & rice with pineapple salsa). Luke got a mahi mahi rice bowl (with asparagus, mushrooms, bok choy and pineapple salsa). It was so yummy and so reasonably priced. I was already making plans to come back to this place. It was just so fresh and delicious. I think Portland or Seattle needs this place! ;)
It's now time to head back to our hotel (via a quick drink at the Union Square Sports Grill). Day 1 = Success! :)
Saturday
We tried to grab breakfast, but failed because the line was too long :( Instead, we drove up to Twin Peaks for a quick city view, dropped off a package for my mom's relative that lives nearby in the Noe Valley then hoped on the 280 down to Santa Cruz for some beach and boardwalk time! As we were driving down 280 we saw an exit for Palo Alto and decided to go wander around the Stanford campus [it's beautiful by the way...] and then drove to downtown Palo Alto for a quick lunch at Pizza My Heart. After successfully getting ourselves lost, we found our way back to the interstate and down to Santa Cruz.
We get back to San Francisco - get ready to go out - then take the BART to the Mission District to meet my friend Matt at the Velvet Cantina. It's cool to see Matt because the last time I saw him was 4 years ago! After a few pitchers of [very yummy] watermelon margaritas and [even more yummy] food - we head over to the Make Out Room [which sucks] then venture over to East West in the Marina for a late night dance party! After our bus failed us [guess it's not that reliable at 2am] we hailed a cab and had the most "adventurous" cab ride back to the hotel! We were going about 40-50mph up and down hills and around corners. If we were really drunk we would've been so sick! Thank goodness we both survived!
This day was so much fun! Great sights, great food, great company :) Day 2 = SUCCESS! :)
Sunday
This is our last day in the city [whomp whomp]. We wake up and attempt to catch breakfast [another fail] Every morning the lines are just too ridiculously long and we don't want to waste or limited time in lines. We eventually wander downtown and catch the streetcar to Fisherman's Wharf/Ghirardelli Square and find some souvenirs. We make a quick uphill walk to Lombard Street [aka Crooked Street] then head back down the wharf to Pier 39 to catch a bay cruise of the bay. We were looking forward to this cruise - but it turned out to be awful bay weather [wild winds and freezing salt water]. The cruise had amazing views of the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge - we snapped some great photos then headed back to the Pier for some fish and shrimp tacos [yummmm!]
This day was a little more chilly than the other days so we go back to the hotel and change [I take a quick and much needed nap] then we're back on the MUNI to Fisherman's Wharf/Ghirardelli Square to get some ice cream and watch the fireworks. Apparently everyone else in San Francisco had this same idea... There were TONS of people which made for a rough time trying to get out of there. Our only option ended up being a long, hilly walk back to the hotel. Don't even get us started on the bus/cab situation! We arrive back at the hotel [via the footmobile] about 2-3 hours after the fireworks had ended and all we want to do is pass out.
Day 3 = This city is wearing us out!
Monday
This is the day that we drive home :( We stopped at Little Skillet - but of course it was closed. Breakfast had officially failed us every single day this trip! We walked over to AT&T Park to get a few photos [too bad they were outta town] then drove over the foggy Golden Gate Bridge back to the NW... Vacation is over :(
What a fun trip, huh?! I look forward to the next time we go back to San Francisco [might fly instead of drive because it's soooo easy to get around there without a car!]. Next time we wont have to do all of the tourist attractions and we can focus more on local attractions. AND try all the wonderful restaurants we saw all over the city!
I left work and made my way down to Portland!. We left super late [or was it super early?] to drive down to San Francisco! I packed a lot of snacks [club crackers, easy cheese, veggie chips, gardetto mix, beef jerky, energy bars, Gatorade and gum] Wow - that's a lot of food!
Friday [drive]
Luke drove the entire length of Oregon [I took an hour nap sometime during this part]. I switched over and started driving in California [while Luke took a one hour nap, too!]. When we were about 100 miles from SF I decided that I NEEDED more sleep - so we pulled over and slept for a few hours at a rest stop. After the hot sun woke us up, we finished our drive into the city, arriving at approx. 11:30am!
Friday [we're there!]
We arrived in San Francisco starving, so I took Luke to In N-Out at Fisherman's Wharf [did I mention this is Luke's FIRST In N-Out experience??]. We proceed to find our parking garage and then get a quick [and scary] ride to our hotel. After we check into our smallest [but super cute] hotel room ever - we're out to explore San Francisco via the MUNI. We ventured over to Alamo Square to see the Painted Ladies and walked up to Haight-Ashbury to see some hippies and to the Golden Gate Park. The Golden Gate park is so HUGE that we were only able to see a fraction of it before our feet were killing us! As we were leaving the park to catch a bus back to Union Square we stumbled across a really cute restaurant [p.s. SF is FULL of the best restaurants... every time I saw one I liked, the next was looked even better - I lost count of all the places I wanted to try!] We looked at their menu [most are posted outside] grabbed one to take with us and went back to the hotel. We noticed they had a location in another area that we wanted to check out [Marina Dist.] so we took showers - got dressed up - then hoped back on the MUNI to the Marina Dist.
OK - so this place was a-m-a-z-i-n-g. We started out with the shrimp civiche a glass of wine (me) and a beer (luke). I got coconut shrimp (with chili sauce & rice with pineapple salsa). Luke got a mahi mahi rice bowl (with asparagus, mushrooms, bok choy and pineapple salsa). It was so yummy and so reasonably priced. I was already making plans to come back to this place. It was just so fresh and delicious. I think Portland or Seattle needs this place! ;)
It's now time to head back to our hotel (via a quick drink at the Union Square Sports Grill). Day 1 = Success! :)
Saturday
We tried to grab breakfast, but failed because the line was too long :( Instead, we drove up to Twin Peaks for a quick city view, dropped off a package for my mom's relative that lives nearby in the Noe Valley then hoped on the 280 down to Santa Cruz for some beach and boardwalk time! As we were driving down 280 we saw an exit for Palo Alto and decided to go wander around the Stanford campus [it's beautiful by the way...] and then drove to downtown Palo Alto for a quick lunch at Pizza My Heart. After successfully getting ourselves lost, we found our way back to the interstate and down to Santa Cruz.
We get back to San Francisco - get ready to go out - then take the BART to the Mission District to meet my friend Matt at the Velvet Cantina. It's cool to see Matt because the last time I saw him was 4 years ago! After a few pitchers of [very yummy] watermelon margaritas and [even more yummy] food - we head over to the Make Out Room [which sucks] then venture over to East West in the Marina for a late night dance party! After our bus failed us [guess it's not that reliable at 2am] we hailed a cab and had the most "adventurous" cab ride back to the hotel! We were going about 40-50mph up and down hills and around corners. If we were really drunk we would've been so sick! Thank goodness we both survived!
This day was so much fun! Great sights, great food, great company :) Day 2 = SUCCESS! :)
Sunday
This is our last day in the city [whomp whomp]. We wake up and attempt to catch breakfast [another fail] Every morning the lines are just too ridiculously long and we don't want to waste or limited time in lines. We eventually wander downtown and catch the streetcar to Fisherman's Wharf/Ghirardelli Square and find some souvenirs. We make a quick uphill walk to Lombard Street [aka Crooked Street] then head back down the wharf to Pier 39 to catch a bay cruise of the bay. We were looking forward to this cruise - but it turned out to be awful bay weather [wild winds and freezing salt water]. The cruise had amazing views of the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge - we snapped some great photos then headed back to the Pier for some fish and shrimp tacos [yummmm!]
This day was a little more chilly than the other days so we go back to the hotel and change [I take a quick and much needed nap] then we're back on the MUNI to Fisherman's Wharf/Ghirardelli Square to get some ice cream and watch the fireworks. Apparently everyone else in San Francisco had this same idea... There were TONS of people which made for a rough time trying to get out of there. Our only option ended up being a long, hilly walk back to the hotel. Don't even get us started on the bus/cab situation! We arrive back at the hotel [via the footmobile] about 2-3 hours after the fireworks had ended and all we want to do is pass out.
Day 3 = This city is wearing us out!Monday
This is the day that we drive home :( We stopped at Little Skillet - but of course it was closed. Breakfast had officially failed us every single day this trip! We walked over to AT&T Park to get a few photos [too bad they were outta town] then drove over the foggy Golden Gate Bridge back to the NW... Vacation is over :(
What a fun trip, huh?! I look forward to the next time we go back to San Francisco [might fly instead of drive because it's soooo easy to get around there without a car!]. Next time we wont have to do all of the tourist attractions and we can focus more on local attractions. AND try all the wonderful restaurants we saw all over the city!
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