I knew all along that this one was going to be tough. Finding time for a domestic vacation in between all of our international vacations and obligatory domestic trips (for weddings, family events, work, you name it), PLUS doing so in such a way as to do San Francisco justice was no small feat. Back in April, in fact, my friend Kim e-mailed me to ask if Taylor and I would be interested in a Labor Day trip to San Francisco with them. It was to be the final leg in their 4-month (yes, you read that right) summer of travelling before they move to Oxford, England for her husband Will to attend business school. My first thought when she asked me was "but that is after I turn 30! It won't count!" Then I actually started looking at my schedule for the summer and also realized 1) We weren't going to make it before I turned 30 anyway and 2) even Labor Day was a stretch. I told her that we would consider it, but that our schedule and budget were a little tight so it would be a last-minute decision.
Fast forward over 4 months, less than two weeks before Labor Day. I received my annual bonus at work and decided that I knew the perfect thing to put it toward, a trip to San Francisco!! So, we booked our flights (for a pretty penny since it was only 12 days before), found lodging, and decided to tag along for the trip after all. Boy am I glad we did!
Our trip to San Fran started Thursday night with a very late arrival to Oakland Airport. We didn't get to our lodging until 2am San Fran time, which is 5am Eastern time, so needless to say we were TIRED. The place was great, though. It was a pretty small 1-bedroom apartment, but it had everything we needed and 2 beds, so we all crashed pretty quickly.
Friday, August 30
On Friday morning, we woke up and headed up to Napa for a day of wine tasting! First things first, though, we needed coffee. After getting lost in our own neighborhood, we decided it best to just follow the GPS and head up to Napa. Luckily, on the way, we saw a coffee place called Philz and decided to give it a try. Boy are we glad we did! Philz makes only one-at-a-time pourover coffee and they have some great flavors. The boys took a liking to the Tantalizing Turkish, which comes accented with mint. I ordered the Philtered Soul, which had Hazelnut, and Kim chose the suggestively-named Silken Splendor. YUM. We re-visited Philz every day thereafter.
The trip to Napa had lots of traffic, but not as much as if we had gone on Saturday or Sunday, so we were happy with our choice. We spent the day visiting 4 different wineries and meeting the characters that worked at them. We also learned a little about the turf wars and grudges in Napa. So dramatic :) The wine and views were great, and after that we headed to explore a little of downtown Napa. We stopped at a great little market and a burger and shake place before driving back in to San Francisco for pizza at Tony's before heading back for bed. The only photos I took in Napa were of grapes:
Saturday, August 31
On Saturday, we had our first official day of exploring San Fran. We started by grabbing coffee at Philz (of course) and then returning our rental car. Next stop: Fisherman's Wharf to catch a ferry to Sausalito and on to Muir Woods. We arrived at Fisherman's Wharf to find that the next ferry wasn't for an hour, so we took some time to check out the seals, walk around the area, and even saunter over to Ghiradelli Square and have some ice cream (chocolate of course).
Then, we hopped the ferry to Sausalito, which was awesome because it went past both the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz along the way:
Our trip to San Fran started Thursday night with a very late arrival to Oakland Airport. We didn't get to our lodging until 2am San Fran time, which is 5am Eastern time, so needless to say we were TIRED. The place was great, though. It was a pretty small 1-bedroom apartment, but it had everything we needed and 2 beds, so we all crashed pretty quickly.
Friday, August 30
On Friday morning, we woke up and headed up to Napa for a day of wine tasting! First things first, though, we needed coffee. After getting lost in our own neighborhood, we decided it best to just follow the GPS and head up to Napa. Luckily, on the way, we saw a coffee place called Philz and decided to give it a try. Boy are we glad we did! Philz makes only one-at-a-time pourover coffee and they have some great flavors. The boys took a liking to the Tantalizing Turkish, which comes accented with mint. I ordered the Philtered Soul, which had Hazelnut, and Kim chose the suggestively-named Silken Splendor. YUM. We re-visited Philz every day thereafter.
The trip to Napa had lots of traffic, but not as much as if we had gone on Saturday or Sunday, so we were happy with our choice. We spent the day visiting 4 different wineries and meeting the characters that worked at them. We also learned a little about the turf wars and grudges in Napa. So dramatic :) The wine and views were great, and after that we headed to explore a little of downtown Napa. We stopped at a great little market and a burger and shake place before driving back in to San Francisco for pizza at Tony's before heading back for bed. The only photos I took in Napa were of grapes:
Saturday, August 31
On Saturday, we had our first official day of exploring San Fran. We started by grabbing coffee at Philz (of course) and then returning our rental car. Next stop: Fisherman's Wharf to catch a ferry to Sausalito and on to Muir Woods. We arrived at Fisherman's Wharf to find that the next ferry wasn't for an hour, so we took some time to check out the seals, walk around the area, and even saunter over to Ghiradelli Square and have some ice cream (chocolate of course).
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| Chocolate ice cream! |
Then, we hopped the ferry to Sausalito, which was awesome because it went past both the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz along the way:
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| The city as we depart |
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| Alcatraz aka "The Rock" |
In Sausalito, we stopped for a quick bite to eat before heading to the shuttle to Muir Woods...only to realize we missed it!! That's right, we missed the last shuttle so instead of going to Muir Woods, we grabbed some wine at a little gallery/wine bar overlooking the water before catching the next ferry back to San Fran.
On our way back to our apartment from the ferry, we stopped to rent bikes, which we planned to use on Sunday for all of our touring. The bike shop is located in this hipster area of town that I can't remember then name of. A lot of the business are actually housed in shipping containers (the one behind us int he below photo, for example). The bike shop was no different. I had been calling them but unable to reach them, so when we got there, I asked why they hadn't been picking up their phone. The bearded guy running the place gestured toward the ground where a cell phone was hooked up to a large contraption and was like, "Oh, for some reason the solar panel here isn't charging it, so we aren't able to get calls." Really?! In the cloudiest city in the country you choose to run your business on a solar panel? Genius! :)
We rode the bikes back to our apartment to begin to plot out our plans for the evening. We decided to go to dinner at a dim sum restaurant called Mama Ji's. It came well-reviewed on Yelp (despite it's paltry 75 reviews, which is like zero in San Francisco, the land of Yelp). The restaurant was crowded but nice. They served Belgian beer, which suited us all fine. The food was really good and we were shocked to learn that they had only been open 3 months. All-in-all it was a great experience.
After dinner, we headed to Top of the Mark, a bar on the top floor of a beautiful old hotel in downtown. We had a drink and watched a crew of middle-aged revelers dance in ways that made me almost confident enough to go get my groove on myself. But I contained myself and we left after a drink to get home and get to bed for an early morning.
Sunday, September 1
Sunday morning, we had to be out of the apartment on our bikes by 8am for a 9am 5k that we had signed up for in Golden Gate Park. The run was very small, maybe 100 people, but the weather was great and it was an awesome way to see the park on foot. After the race, we hopped back on our bikes and went to a coffee shop for some coffee and breakfast (this is the only day we didn't go to Philz!). After coffee, we biked over to Haight Ashbury, the area famous for being the center of the 70s hippy/flower child movement. We stopped in the famous Amoeba Music and a few other stores.
On our way back to our apartment from the ferry, we stopped to rent bikes, which we planned to use on Sunday for all of our touring. The bike shop is located in this hipster area of town that I can't remember then name of. A lot of the business are actually housed in shipping containers (the one behind us int he below photo, for example). The bike shop was no different. I had been calling them but unable to reach them, so when we got there, I asked why they hadn't been picking up their phone. The bearded guy running the place gestured toward the ground where a cell phone was hooked up to a large contraption and was like, "Oh, for some reason the solar panel here isn't charging it, so we aren't able to get calls." Really?! In the cloudiest city in the country you choose to run your business on a solar panel? Genius! :)
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| No one told me that my helmet looked silly until after we were done riding, thanks guys! |
After dinner, we headed to Top of the Mark, a bar on the top floor of a beautiful old hotel in downtown. We had a drink and watched a crew of middle-aged revelers dance in ways that made me almost confident enough to go get my groove on myself. But I contained myself and we left after a drink to get home and get to bed for an early morning.
Sunday, September 1
Sunday morning, we had to be out of the apartment on our bikes by 8am for a 9am 5k that we had signed up for in Golden Gate Park. The run was very small, maybe 100 people, but the weather was great and it was an awesome way to see the park on foot. After the race, we hopped back on our bikes and went to a coffee shop for some coffee and breakfast (this is the only day we didn't go to Philz!). After coffee, we biked over to Haight Ashbury, the area famous for being the center of the 70s hippy/flower child movement. We stopped in the famous Amoeba Music and a few other stores.
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| We just missed Maddie of http://maddieonthings.com/ |
After Haight Ashbury, we biked over to the famous Alamo Square Park, which is the site of the beginning montage of Full House and the location of the "Painted Ladies" row houses:
Finally, we headed up to the Presidio near the Golden Gate Bridge (but it was foggy) and to see Lombard Street, the most curvy street in the world. Unfortunately, you can't go down it by bike, so after walking up the VERY steep hill to the top, we barely could get a photo of it. Luckily, we were able to get a couple more views of the bridge.
When we finished at Lombard Street, we realized that Will's bike had a flat tire, so Will and Kim took a bus (luckily they let you put your bike on the front) and Taylor and I rode back to the bike shop to return our bikes. Across the street from the bike shop was a little ice cream place that, like Philz, makes your ice cream one at a time using actual cream, flavorings and liquid nitrogen. Sounds like a good idea in practice, but what it really means is a LONG wait for what amounts to basically a regular scoop of ice cream. We were underwhelmed, but at least we tried it!
After a day of biking around hilly San Francisco, we were BEAT, so we headed back to the apartment to get set for dinner. We finally got to venture to one of the Mission District's famous burrito joints. Our bike guy recommend El Farolito, so to there we went! It was simple and simply amazing food! The joint was crowded, dirty, and just exactly what you need after a crazy day of biking. We stuffed ourselves and stopped at a cute corner bar before heading back and passing out.
Monday, September 2
Our last day in San Fran was really spent more like locals than tourists. We grabbed coffee at Philz (and even got to see Phil in the flesh!!!!):
Then, we did some shopping, mostly things that Kim and Will needed to get before their big trip to England. It was nice to just relax and take in the city with no real agenda. By mid-afternoon, we headed back to the apartment, packed up our things, and hit a local taco joint for dinner before heading to the airport for our red eye flight back to Detroit!
Thanks so much to Kim and Will for inviting us on a fantastic trip!!
Finally, we headed up to the Presidio near the Golden Gate Bridge (but it was foggy) and to see Lombard Street, the most curvy street in the world. Unfortunately, you can't go down it by bike, so after walking up the VERY steep hill to the top, we barely could get a photo of it. Luckily, we were able to get a couple more views of the bridge.
When we finished at Lombard Street, we realized that Will's bike had a flat tire, so Will and Kim took a bus (luckily they let you put your bike on the front) and Taylor and I rode back to the bike shop to return our bikes. Across the street from the bike shop was a little ice cream place that, like Philz, makes your ice cream one at a time using actual cream, flavorings and liquid nitrogen. Sounds like a good idea in practice, but what it really means is a LONG wait for what amounts to basically a regular scoop of ice cream. We were underwhelmed, but at least we tried it!
After a day of biking around hilly San Francisco, we were BEAT, so we headed back to the apartment to get set for dinner. We finally got to venture to one of the Mission District's famous burrito joints. Our bike guy recommend El Farolito, so to there we went! It was simple and simply amazing food! The joint was crowded, dirty, and just exactly what you need after a crazy day of biking. We stuffed ourselves and stopped at a cute corner bar before heading back and passing out.
Monday, September 2
Our last day in San Fran was really spent more like locals than tourists. We grabbed coffee at Philz (and even got to see Phil in the flesh!!!!):
Then, we did some shopping, mostly things that Kim and Will needed to get before their big trip to England. It was nice to just relax and take in the city with no real agenda. By mid-afternoon, we headed back to the apartment, packed up our things, and hit a local taco joint for dinner before heading to the airport for our red eye flight back to Detroit!
Thanks so much to Kim and Will for inviting us on a fantastic trip!!
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