The Golden Gate City. The City By the Bay. The City With Hills That’ll Give You Calves of Steel. Whatever you’d like to call it, San Francisco, California is now the home of my boyfriend, the law student.
Don’t worry, this isn’t a sad post on long distance relationships. I’d rather share with you my adventure in the city that brought us fortune cookies, hippies, and Full House!
We arrived in San Francisco at about 5am on a Tuesday morning. The first thing two things we noticed were the insane amount of traffic, even at the early hour, and the incredibly dense patches of fog. Our first adventure was to the iconic row of Victorian style houses, nicknamed the Painted Ladies (think Full House). We figured we could walk there. Big mistake. Those hills are no joke! On a clear day, you can see the city skyline behind the row of houses; however, all we could see was fog, fog and more fog. For dinner, much to my inner flower child’s delight, we walked down Haight street to a cute little British style pub called Mad Dog in the Fog (clearly sticking with the fog theme here).
On Day Two, we decided to be total tourists and tackle Fisherman’s Wharf. It’s actually a fully functioning wharf, but you’d have to wake up really early if you wanted to see the fishing boats come back in with the catch of the day. I’m not really about that life. For lunch, we had seafood, á la carte, from a place called Sabella & La Torre’s. The crab salad was delicious! The rest of Fisherman’s Wharf, along with Pier 39, is great for families but was far too crowded for our liking, though we did come back for dinner. Did you actually go to the West coast if you didn’t eat In-N-Out Burger for dinner at least once??
The following day happened to be my 26th Birthday!! (Okay, you caught me. This post is a tad overdue!) I spent a good portion of the day flying solo, due to law school orientation. Thankfully, I love exploring on my own so, I had a grand old time. It was recommended to me to stop by Susie Cakes, in Cow Hollow, to get a free slice of cake for my birthday. Turns out, you also get 2 free cupcakes if you download their app and join their rewards program. Sign me up for all the free cake! I found a lovely spot along the water to enjoy some of my treats and take in my first view of the Golden Gate Bridge. It was truly magical. The nearby Fort Mason, Golden Gate National Recreation area also provided some stunning views of both the bridge and the city. Next, I ventured to Ghiradelli Square because…free chocolate! This place has it all from an old fashioned soda fountain to a mini golf course. The evening was spent drinking our way through the breweries of the South Park district.
Though I had previously caught a glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge, I needed to get closer. So, we spent our Fourth day at the Presidio of San Francisco to get our Golden Gate fix. The former military post, turned recreation area, is a really cool place to get some unique views of the Golden Gate Bridge, without the crowds. I really wish we had more time to explore the whole park but we had a football game to catch! Nothing beats cheap, mid field, seats to your home team’s preseason game against the local team. Go Lions! Unsurprisingly, they lost…
Day Five was my final day in the city so, we decided to cram in as much as we possibly could. We stopped by Chinatown (the original and biggest Chinatown outside of China!) for some lunch and a Chinese Mai Tai from Li Po Lounge. Then, we worked off our lunch hiking the road up to Lombard Street, the curviest street in the world. We ended the day with a little bar exploration in North Beach which, included Comstock Saloon, a Gold Rush era saloon, complete with a urine trough below the bar. #Classy
I’m sure I’ll be back soon and next time, I’ll have my very own local guide to take me to all the cool places he’s discovered off the beaten path!
All these pictures are so AWESOME!!! Looks like you guys had a really nice time. I’m glad you had time to explore. I hope to visit there sometime as well. Maybe next year, if I’m lucky.