Trip to San Francisco – Days 1-2

Well the Avon Walk was the whole reason we decided to visit San Francisco. We decided to make it our big vacation for the year. This week I’m going to be posting about our trip. So if you want some food posts, just check back next week. I’ve also added a Travel tag to my blog.

Checking the map on the plane

Hubby and I flew out to SF on Sunday, July 4th. We flew Jetblue because we love them. Having your own TV is awesome, especially on the 6+ hour direct flight from Boston. And checking a bag for free is awesome! (Hubby and I both overpacked for this trip, as usual).

Our hotel

The flight out was good. We took the BART to the Harbor Court Hotel. The BART cost us $8.25/person which wasn’t bad. We were frustrated with the BART as a whole though. We’re used to the T here in Boston which is very easy to use. The BART didn’t have a map inside the train. They didn’t have a scrolling LED sign to say “Now entering this station”. And to make things worse, if you stuck your head out at a stop, there weren’t signs saying where you were at most of them. Thank goodness I had grabbed a BART map from a kiosk in the airport. Hubby and I counted the stops from the airport to figure out where we were. Without that map, it could have been a bad situation…

Our delicious lemon tart

We got to the Harbor Court Hotel (got a great deal through Kimpton In-Touch for $150/night) and the room wasn’t ready for us so we left our bags and headed out to see some sites. The hotel is right across from the Ferry Building. Hubby wanted some coffee, so he tried Blue Bottle coffee. He enjoyed it, but not as much as Peet’s (his fav). I grabbed a lemon tart from Miette. It was amazing. The lemon curd was just perfect.

The Bay Bridge

After that I was getting a bit tired and wanted to freshen up so we headed back to the hotel for a much needed nap. After our nap, we enjoyed some wine and the wine hour (5-6pm) at the hotel. Then we headed up to Fisherman’s Wharf. Our friend A was out in SF for a 3-month assignment for work. She got us all tickets for a cruise to watch the fireworks.

Mushrooms at the Ferry Building

Hubby and I needed to eat so we headed to Capurro’s. We waited about 45 minutes which wasn’t bad considering the crowds out that night. While waiting, I had to grab a hat because it was so cold! I had a fleece ear warmer at the hotel but I just wasn’t fully prepared for the wind. Luckily I was able to find a cute red hat that I’ll be able to wear again (I was this close to buying a sock hat that had I

Dungeonness crab

For dinner, Hubby had the dungeonness crab. He loves his shellfish and it was awesome. I went with steamed shrimp, also very good. He also drank two beers and our tab was ~$50 before tip. Not bad.

Next came the fireworks cruise ($55/person). There weren’t a whole lot of seats on the ferry and it was too cold to be outside. Luckily we found 3 seats and had a good time catching up with A. We did fight the bitter cold to go outside during the firework show. It was just ok. Some of the fireworks were completely covered by fog so that was kind of cool to see. After the fireworks, all the roads were a disaster.

We didn’t want to walk home, but there was no way we’d get a cab any time soon. So we went to Knuckles for a beer and some nachos. Then we jumped on the F-line to head back to our hotel for the night. We were beat but glad we made it until about 12:30 that night to help our bodies adjust to the time change.

Cheese shop in the Ferry Building

Day 2, Hubby and I grabbed the ferry over to Sausalito. They were on a holiday schedule so we had to wait around for a while for the ferry. We went back into the Ferry Building and just checked out all the various shops. In Sausalito, we asked the woman at the info kiosk for a recommendation for brunch. She recommended a place called Horizons.

Heading west in Sausalito

We didn’t even check yelp, we just went there… that was the biggest mistake of our trip. The food was just ok and definitely overpriced. We both got a variation of eggs benedict and water. Our bill was ~$40. It was the most disappointing meal of the trip. We walked around Sausalito a bit but the weather was bad so we hopped on the ferry back to Fisherman’s wharf.

Some of the sourdough in the bakery

After getting back to Fisherman’s Wharf, we went to the Boudin bakery and did the $3 self-guided bakery tour. It was interesting to learn about the sourdough and have a chance to taste it.

Ghirardelli Square

Then we walked over the Ghirardelli Square. We walked through the Ghirardelli chocolate shop and enjoyed our free piece of chocolate. Then we headed over the the other chocolate shop and cafe. Hubby had a cafe mocha and we sat outside for a while because there was a live band playing in the courtyard. I stopped in Kara’s Cupcakes and got a Fleur de Sel cupcake to save for later (it was quite tasty, but definitely not the best cupcake I’ve ever had).

My cupcake which I enjoyed back at the hotel

We continued our walk up into Fort Mason. Once we got out of Fort Mason, we hopped on the 28 bus to head over to check out the Golden Gate bridge.

Entrance to Fort Mason

The bus dropped us off right at the southern view point for the bridge. It was pretty foggy and chilly by this point. After snapping some pics, we hopped in a cab back to the hotel (~$15) because it was time to get ready for dinner.

Golden Gate Bridge in the fog

Another one of our friends, E&V had been vacationing in Napa. They were taking the redeye back to Ohio that night so we met up for dinner at Roy’s. We started with the lobster potstickers and I got a cucumber cilantro margarita. For dinner, Hubby got the butterfish which was amazing and I went with the scallops which were good as well. The entire table split the molten lava cake. It was really good. The total for dinner including my margarita, 2 beers, and 1 glass of wine was $150. It was the priciest meal of the trip for us, but also one of the best.