Nick and I decided to take a little vacation without Jackson and head west to San Francisco. We have been able to take a couple vacations this last year but they have all been with family so it was nice for just the two of us to get away for a few days. Nick had never been to San Francisco and I hadn't been in twenty years so we wanted to pack in as much touristy activities as possible. Here is a quick rundown of our trip:
~ We arrived Saturday afternoon and decided to take the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) to our hotel after the flight attendant told us a cab would cost $45 and our hotel was a couple blocks from one of the stops. What we didn't plan for was the rain we'd have to walk through to get to the hotel and that the "couple blocks" was more like 10!
~ Almost two hours after our plane landed we were in our room relaxing. Our itinerary (yes I had a daily itinerary for our trip) for Saturday afternoon included walking around Fisherman's Wharf which we decided to skip due to the rain and just hang out until dinner, which was so nice...I can't remember the last time Nick and I just hung out for a few hours. And he didn't even turn football on!!!
~ We had an amazing dinner at Town Hall followed by the most delicious dessert, Butterscotch and Chocolate Pot de Creme! We were so full but the dessert was so good, we took the rest back to the hotel and asked for a fridge in our room so we could enjoy it the next day, ha!
~ We woke up bright and early Sunday morning and decided to walk to brunch since the rain hadn't really started yet. We borrowed some umbrellas from the hotel and started our hour long walk to Home Restaurant. At this point it was drizzling which wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't so windy. I had MANY issues with my umbrella, I'm blaming it on the umbrella and my height ;) Needless to say our walk was a wet adventure full of laughs...at my expense!
~ After enjoying a delicious brunch, we headed back to the hotel stopping at a few stores in search of ponchos! We had booked the Alcatraz tour that afternoon and the forecast called for heavy rains. After a few stops, we found some adult ponchos at Walgreens and were ready to head to the Pier. Although we missed the views on our way out to The Rock, we really enjoyed the Alcatraz tour.
~ The rain finally stopped about an hour before dinner so we decided to walk to dinner. Although I specifically told Nick, I was fine strolling but I couldn't walk fast in my 4" heels, we ended up booking it to dinner! We ate at Boulevard and had another yummy meal. Both of our appetizers (crab salad and tuna tartare) were the best we've ever had, mmmm.
~ Monday brought our first day of beautiful sunshine. The time difference had us up early again so we had a quick breakfast at a diner around the corner and walked up (and I mean UP) to Fisherman's Wharf and Ghirardelli Square. After walking around for a couple hours enjoying THE toursit location, we hopped in a cab and headed to the Ferry Building. The Ferry Building is a marketplace all about local, seasonable and sustainable food. We could've stayed all day eating all the yummy meats, cheeses and breads! There are also a few restaurants overlooking the bay so we enjoyed an outdoor table at The Slanted Door for our first Vietnamese meal. After lunch we decided to take a walk along the bay to AT&T Park since the SF Giants were headed to the World Series.
~ We were picked up by a tour bus on Tuesday morning to head to Muir Woods and Sausalito. We spent about an hour at Muir Woods walking the trails and then headed to Sausalito with a quick detour to enjoy an amazing view of the Pacific Ocean! We arrived in Sausalito at noon and Nick and I decided to go our separate way from the tour, enjoy lunch, walk around all the shops, and take the ferry back to enjoy the views. The weather was picture perfect, pun intended, and we got some great shots of Sausalito, The Golden Gate Bridge and The Rock.
~ After arriving back at the piers, we headed up to the top of Lombard Street and then back down and across to North Beach (Littly Italy) and Chinatown. We walked through a few of the markets and by we, I mostly mean Nick as I was too grossed out by what I saw in the first one! Then we headed over for dinner at House of Nanking, a popular hole in the wall restaurant. Unfortunately, their menu was very limited especially for those with seafood allergies and those (Nick) craving specific Chinese entrees (Mongolian Beef).
All in all it was a fantastic trip and we were able to do/see all we had planned despite the weather the first couple of days. Wednesday morning, we were all packed up with our Ghirardelli chocolates, sourdough bread, and of course trolley cars for Jackson and Emerson, and ready to head back east!
