San Francisco! (part i)
We’re back from our San Francisco trip! It was our first trip (EVER!) to California and we had a great time! We followed our favorite city vacation schedule style —> do things all day and chill at home at night.
Mica*and Harrison made this trip possible for us – Mica used airline points for our flight out there (thank you!!!), and we stayed with them (thank you!!!) in the Inner Sunset neighborhood.
They were such gracious and thoughtful hosts, making our vacation effortless and relaxing by figuring out how to see and do the things we wanted, and by having suggestions for activities and meals. I normally do this sort of planning and leading when we travel and it was amazing to have someone else take charge. And how lucky that we got to experience so much of San Francisco through two of its residents!
Side note: that’s something I’ve been working on getting better at for when I have visitors – presenting tailored ideas for what to do, see, and eat. People can take them or leave them, but I personally appreciate having options presented.
Anyway!
We arrived in San Francisco Thursday afternoon and left Monday morning. I’ll break the recap in to two posts, so you aren’t completely bombarded with photos.
THURSDAY!
We had an easy flight from Chicago to San Francisco. It was nice to be on a plane with built-in entertainment consoles; I haven’t seen that in years since I’m usually on shorter flights. I watched Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Mamma Mia 2, and the time (thankfully) flew by.
Mica met us at the airport and we took a Lyft to her place. We hung out, got a bite at Peasant Pies, (delicious) took a short walk through Golden Gate Park (stunning) and then hung out and ordered Mexican food from Papalote Mexican Grill (amazing).
I was a bit out of it due to the longer day – being up at 5:00 am central time and staying up past 10:00 pm pacific time, but I got enough sleep that night and felt fine the next day!
FRIDAY!
When we woke up Friday morning Steven asked if I smelled smoke. We wondered if someone nearby was burning something. Sadly, it was from the Camp Fire wildfire. You could smell the smoke most of the day, and it was extremely hazy, as you’ll see in the photos below. I had been somewhat considering a run, but when Mica told me it was advised not to run with all that smoke, I was fine with that! (We saw so many people wearing face masks all weekend.)
Friday was our super touristy day! We had a short list of things we wanted to see/do in San Francisco – go to Alcatraz, see the Golden Gate Bridge, ride a cable car, see the Painted Ladies, and eat all the food (including a vegan donut). So Friday was our Alcatraz, Fisherman’s Wharf/Pier 39 (figured we might as well walk through), Ghiradelli Square, and cable car day.
Another side note: people were super opinionated with telling me what to see and do in San Francisco when I told them I was going. A lot of people love the city and want to share the love! But a lot of people don’t know me, like the random Lyft driver from the week before who told me to skip all the touristy things and just go up to Napa Valley. Um, no, dude. That’s you. That doesn’t appeal to me, except for the scenery. And I am not going to go to San Francisco for the first time and miss all the landmarks.
Anyway (again).
So off to Alcatraz we went! It was so cool watching the island come in closer view on the boat!
Our limited knowledge of Alcatraz Island is all from the movie The Rock and what little I read in the guide book, so I found the self-guided audio tour of the penitentiary very informative, interesting, and well-done. I have bad hearing, and get distracted in a group with a guide, so an audio tour is perfect for me.
The views of the city, Bay Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge, and surrounding areas from the island are remarkable… if only we could see them through the haze. We couldn’t even distinguish the bright color of the Golden Gate Bridge! Nutso!
But we still enjoyed touring all the buildings on the island, and seeing the different trees, plants, and flowers. At one point I was looking down at the choppy waters wondering what it would be like to be a criminal trying to escape by jumping and swimming and my snis text me (at that exact moment) “Don’t fall off the island snist.” Her snister senses were definitely tingling!
We went to Boudin at Pier 39 for a late lunch of sandwiches and all decided it was like an overrated Panera. We also tried some mediocre cookie dough (at DOUGHP).
*Not actually legit
The most interesting part of that area was watching and listening to the doofus-y playful sea lions (despite their horrible smell)!
Oh! And Steven made a smashed penny (with a cable car design) for his collection.
We walked through Ghiradelli Square to see if there was anything interesting there (no), then got our cable car tickets.
I think we waited in line for an hour for our ten minute ride but we didn’t care because the weather was nice and we had each other to chat with.
The ride was unremarkable – it was super crowded inside and we couldn’t see anything, except the top of Lombard Street at one point – but it was fun to do together.
(This all sounds very negative but we were having a good time – my point here is that I wanted to check out the tourist trap areas and confirm they weren’t for me – they weren’t. We’re more in to walking around random neighborhoods and discovering things. But I’m grateful we got to see what they were like, and on a Friday instead of the weekend.)
We took a Lyft home and walked to VeganBurg for dinner with Harrison when he got home from work. It’s difficult for me to decide on a meal when I go to an all vegan restaurant – I’m used to combing the menu for the one or two things that are vegan or that I can customize to make vegan! We enjoyed it (once we picked out our meals).
We stopped for ice cream at The Ice Cream Bar, then went home and played Five Second Rule and Overcooked 2… until midnight! Overcooked 2 is ADDICTIVE. And stressful. I hadn’t even heard of it (we don’t use our very old gaming system and I don’t stay current with the new games (although I do know what Red Dead Redemption II is, thanks to my brother-in-law Will)). In the game, you work with a team to create dishes at a restaurant. At first you’re just chopping vegetables for salads, but the meals become more complicated and obstacles are thrown in your way. It was super fun but I feel bad about yelling at people to get out of my way in the kitchen. Ha ha. Mica knows about my competitive-ass nature when playing games, so it’s all good! And we went to bed feeling (somewhat) successful as a group (okay, there were some moments where certain people were just spinning around in circles with the fire extinguisher).
Gosh, that game obviously made a good impression on me since I wrote so much about it!
More on the rest of our trip in part ii! (see part ii here)
*Mica and I have been blog friends since March 2009
Themocracy
Sounds like a fab trip so far! We still haven’t made it all the way to SF ( got very close).
It was! I am surprised you haven’t been yet! But it’s not like it’s super close.
Thank YOU for making the trek all the way to SF to visit us! I know it’s non-trivial; the amount of work, travel time, and expense almost makes it feel an international vacation!
We had so much fun hosting you (and creating a superbug). I’m amused that you think we were such special hosts because I was inspired by trips to visit you with a mix of sightseeing and hanging out. I’m glad you enjoy those kinds of visits too!
Think of how many burritos we can eat (and maybe make in a later level of Overcooked 2?!?) next time! <3 <3
You are welcome!!! Thanks for having us! And you are right – the amount of travel does make it feel different. Going east is definitely worse lol.
YASSS SUPERBUG. Steven is fighting it now (it’s not that bad yet ha). Aww, thanks for the nice compliment – that makes me feel good. PURMID HOUSE!!!
Every meal should have a burrito of some sort! WE CAN DO THIS. And please keep me updated on Overcooked 2.
We were in California at the same time! Although we hit SFO the week before you – we were in Orange County during your visit. I used to go to SF a lot during my senior year of HS with my boyfriend – it was a quick 50 minute drive there and yes, we did all the touristy things many times over. I don’t remember having to buy a ticket for a cable car; I do remember standing on one and hanging off, so maybe we just jumped on? LOL. Glad you had such a fun time experiencing everything! BTW I’ve never actually been on Alcatraz island – seen it many times, yes, but now I feel like I need to visit it for real.
I was wondering if we were! That would have been so cool if we had been in the same place and had met up!
That is awesome you’ve been there so much. What is your favorite thing? I thought Alcatraz Island was super interesting! But having just been through a month of people telling me things I HAD TO DO in SF I won’t say you HAVE TO, I’d just recommend it 😉
Honestly, we just liked walking around the locals, seeing the cool houses, and going to the Castro district. SF is such an interesting place!
It is! We spent some time in that area Saturday!
Going to San Francisco is my DREAM. I’d love to go, but ticket prices from Florida are so astronomical that I can’t bring myself to buy them! Maybe one day. I love that you did the touristy things! That’s what I tend to like to do.
Also – we would travel very well together! I, too, like to do all the things during the day and chill out at night.
THEY ARE INSANE. That is why I say Mica made this possible by getting our flight there! I hope you get to go someday though! It was lovely. And you’d like the warm weather sand humidity!
It sounds like we would! Do you like some alone time spread out throughout the day too (jk I know the answer is yes!!!).
Sounds like a fun trip! I love being able to see a new city through the eyes of locals and getting the benefit of their expertise 🙂 I’m the same way when I go to a place that has a lot of veggie options, it’s hard to choose!
It was! I’m grateful we had them to show us around. It really made things SO easy for us!
What do you usually lean toward? I also go for carbs. Ha!
It tends to vary based on what I feel like that day 🙂 But tacos will almost always win if they’re on the menu! Otherwise, I’ll look for things that would the hardest for me to make at home or that I can’t find anywhere else.
Yes, tacos! You would like my lunch today “fish and chips” tacos with the fish and chips in the taco. Ha.
That is a good idea – try something unique!
Based on your Blog Update post today, I’m not sure what will happen with these comments, but I’m going to leave them anyway just in case.
Yay, I’m excited to read all about your trip! I went to San Francisco for a super short trip a little less than two years ago (flew in late Friday night, left super early [like 6 a.m. early] Monday morning), so it was a nonstop touristy adventure. I really, really liked the city, especially all the beautiful old architecture! *heart-eyed emoji* Alcatraz was awesome, and definitely one of the highlights of my time there. I’m glad you were able to be out and about even with all the smoke, too. I have a friend who lives in San Francisco who was posting on Facebook about how bad the air quality was, and I wondered how it would impact your trip!
Thanks for still commenting! They will just be on the version of the post here, and not at the new url (I think?! I don’t really know!)
I can totally see two days being a nonstop touristy adventure – that is how I’d want to do it with two days, too! There is so much just to see! Isn’t just walking around seeing the buildings a blast?!
I am glad we could get out too. Thanks for thinking of me. Mica says it’s actually worse now. I really hope CA gets some rain.
[…] is part iii of my San Francisco recap. See part i here and part ii […]