Eat & Drink

Thirsty Bear Brewing Company, San Francisco—We try and hit a brewery in every city, so we can collect a representative pint glass. This place has the distinction of being the only organic brewery in the city, and it receives even more bonus points because the beer is tasty. We just had appetizers as we planned on a late dinner elsewhere, their Spanish-themed menu looked good and the patatas bravas were excellent.

Scala’s Bistro, San Francisco—We were eating pretty late (after 9pm) and this place was still packed when we left. We don’t normally eat in the hotel’s restaurant, but made an exception as this place had great reviews and well, it was close. I ordered steak frites while Eric enjoyed the rigatoni with duck bolognese. A glass of wine each made us even more sleepy so we retired soon after dinner.

Sears Fine Food, San Francisco—Famous for their little swedish pancakes, it is the only reasonably priced item on the menu and while Eric loved the small pancakes, my breakfast was just okay. Service and atmosphere was fine but I have no idea why this place was so crowded.

The Spinnaker, Sausalito—One of the best meals of the trip and it was for a late lunch! After leaving San Francisco, we stopped in Sausalito for a quick bite and awesome views of downtown San Francisco. This glass-enclosed restaurant served the best clam chowder I’ve ever had and with the seafood sampler appetizer, it was plenty for a meal. Eric had the butter lettuce salad and the cheese ravioli in walnut alfredo sauce. Delicious.

Crepevine, San Rafael—We stopped here for both dessert on Sunday night (see entry above for why we didn’t have dinner) and breakfast on Monday morning. The kilauea and siena dessert crepes were scrumptious and filling. Come morning, my New Orleans benedict was good, but hardly spicy. We had some issues with the quality of fried potatoes throughout the trip and this place was, unfortunately, no different.

Zza’s Trattoria, Oakland—We met Leah and Simon here for dinner on the last night of our trip. One side is a candle-lit wine bar with dark woods and a reasonably-priced wine list and the other side is a more boisterous home-style restaurant. Eric and I arrived early, so we started on a bottle of wine in the wine bar, eventually moving next door for dinner. My Prosciutto e Gorgonzola pizza was filling and generously adorned with the good stuff and Eric’s gnocchi was rich and delicious.

Sleep

Sir Francis Drake, San Francisco—When researching hotels in downtown San Francisco, we discovered (like in most cities) that the business hotels go down in price on the weekends while the budget hotels go up. We got a great deal on this boutique hotel and the location (about 3 blocks from Chinatown and 1 block from Union Square) was great. Our king room was small, but comfortable. The bathroom had Aveda products and for being in a busy section of town, our room was remarkably quiet. I would definitely stay here again.

Travelodge, San Rafael—Your standard noisy-because-its-near-the-highway motel, it was clean but the floor sloped, so it felt like you were falling as you walked across the room. We also managed to somehow lock ourselves out of the bathroom. Thankfully the hostess let us in but every interaction with her was pretty chilly. This is exactly the kind of place that makes me rethink just how important saving money is when it means staying at accommodations like this.

Millwood Inn & Suites, Millbrae—This was a very pleasant surprise. We needed a place to stay near the airport and most of the hotels in the area had disparate reviews—except this one. Our king room was large, with comfy blankets, nice bath products and most importantly peace and quiet. The included continental-plus breakfast and wifi were also big bonuses. Highly recommended.

When they say that this is the foggiest and most windy area of the west coast, they are not kidding! You can just see the ocean down below, thankfully all the yellow lupine were in full bloom so there was lots to look at otherwise.

The Point Reyes lighthouse. We skipped the 20 story down and up climb.

After the short hike to the lighthouse, we drove to the other end of Point Reyes called Chimney Rock and saw breathtaking views of The Headlands. It was foggy, but at least we could see the beach below. Plus there were all kinds of flowers on this trail, sea oats, lupine, daisies, and paintbrush.

Near the Chimney Rock overlook is another viewing area for the elephant seal population that hangs around on Drakes Beach. Eric’s zoom lens allowed us to see the lazy creatures up close and we could hear them but not smell them, so everyone wins!

Before our drive back to Oakland for dinner we stopped at North Beach for some shots of the acres of ice plants in bloom. Stunning.

One of the first things that Eric researched after we bought our plane tickets was potential waterfall hikes. It hasn’t rained in San Francisco for several weeks, so we knew the waterflow was going to be low, but we were hoping it was still early enough in the season to get lucky.

Once we were on the ground we decided to concentrate on the Laurel Dell trail near Alpine Lake because the hike paralleled Cataract Creek and there were bound to be at least some water flowing over the falls.

Compared to other people’s photos after a good rain, the water flow was meager, but we enjoyed the fresh air and gratification that a new waterfall every couple hundred yards brings.

Eric photographed ten cascades along this uphill hike… all the shots are in our San Francisco Flickr set. We’ll also have all the photos and directions up shortly on our waterfall database.

We didn’t have time on this trip to make it out to Sequoia National Park to visit the largest redwoods, but we still got to see some enormous coastal redwoods on a hike through Muir Woods near sunset.

The setting was almost surreal. We were surrounded by huge trees while shafts of light filtered through into the still quiet of the woods. I told Eric that if fairies suddenly appeared, I wouldn’t be surprised.

We took the Hillside Trail, the longest way around, and as the trail ascended, we quickly lost sight of most of the other people sharing the park with us. The two mile walk was a lovely transition from city to nature and warmed us up for the hiking we planned to do the following day.

While exploring downtown San Francisco (specifically Chinatown) was entertaining, this type of stroll is much more our scene. We would take hiking in the woods over hoofing it around a city any day.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve never been to San Francisco, everyone knows what the Golden Gate Bridge looks like. Admittedly, I was pretty darn excited to see this bridge for the first time.

We caught a glimpse as we drove up Lincoln Blvd on the western side of the Presidio, but the money shot is from the parking area on the south side of the bridge.

The sky was as clear as it was for our entire trip on Sunday afternoon, so the view was magnificent. We crossed over the bridge and got another shot looking back toward downtown San Francisco.

On Sunday afternoon, after braving the BART ride back to the airport to pick up our rental car, we stopped off at Golden Gate Park to visit the Japanese Tea Garden and the SF Botanical Gardens.

Eric remembered enjoying the Tea Gardens when he was there as a child, so we made it a priority to make it back.

We were able to find free parking on the street instead of having to park in the deck, so the $4 per person entry fee didn’t bother me that much. What did bug me was that the gardens were very crowded (not their fault) and didn’t seem very well maintained (definitely their fault).

The structures are lovely, however, and when you did find a little quiet way from all the people it was a nice setting.

Across the street, the SF Botanical Gardens were overall more impressive in terms of peacefulness and sheer amount of flowers.

The gardens are divided into regions sharing similar climates to Northern California—Chile, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. Easily a great way to spend an afternoon.

We saw lots of plants familiar to us from our trips to South Africa as well some new specimens, like this “big red” anigozanthos and marmalade bush.

We started this blog about a million 8 years ago in preparation for our wedding. We wanted a space to share the planning and excitement of the upcoming event with our friends and family who lived nowhere near us. Since then, it has grown into a healthy snapshot of our life together through multiple moves, home improvements, a mini schnauzer rescue, and extensive travel photos.

And perhaps unexpectedly, I’ve made several online friends whose blogs I’ve been reading for years; None of whom I’ve ever met in person.

One of the more surreal (and flattering) experiences I’ve had was this post. Her incoming link was how I found her blog a few years back and I’ve been hooked ever since.

So, upon planning our recent trip to San Francisco, I contacted Leah of agirlandaboy.com to see if she (and Simon!) were free any of the nights we would be in town. They met us for dinner in Oakland on Monday night and although we were all exhausted from a busy weekend—birthday partying and visiting with friends for them and us hiking and driving around—we had a wonderful time at dinner. We felt instantly comfortable with them (the glass of wine may have helped on my end, hee!) and there was never a pause in the conversation.

I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to travel as much as I do, and when it gives us the chance to finally meet people that we’ve technically known for several years, well, that’s a pretty sweet chocolaty icing on the cake.

Thanks again guys for the lively company and a very tasty restaurant suggestion! :)

After spending a lovely night at the Sir Francis Drake on Saturday night and a hearty (but overpriced) breakfast across the street at Sears, we spent Sunday morning walking around Chinatown.

It was still early, so the streets were free of tourists. I loved the ambiance, smells, and artwork that filled the windows on Grant Street. There was also the liberal use of lanterns.

I picked up some ginger tea at the TenRen tea shop and we also bought some freshly-made fortune cookies (with naughty fortunes!) at this tiny factory in Ross Alley.

She was nice enough to pose without me asking, I guess she’s used to silly tourists. :)

We have been going non-stop for two days and are completely exhausted. We haven’t even reviewed all our photos!

So, in the meantime, here’s a shot to prove where we are…

It was the first time I’ve seen it and the Golden Gate Bridge is absolutely as spectacular in person as it is in photos.