JJ's birthday was at the end of January so we combined that celebration with an early Valentine's Day celebration and headed to San Francisco and Napa Valley Feb 4-9. Seriously one of the best vacations ever! And only like the 3rd or 4th time JJ and I have flown together! We are usually flying out to visit each other or I am trying to keep up with all his football travels.
JJ's actually birthday- I made Texas Sheet Cake!
Again, thanks to Trip Advisor and Emily (who lives in the Bay Area) We had an amazing trip planned out and I just have to share all of the activities!
We got in Thursday morning and spent the day wandering around Fisherman's Wharf (right near our hotel). It is totally touristy, but it was nice to walk around near the water and see the sea lions too! Obviously, we had to have clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl at Boudin, the go-to for sourdough bread in San Fran. JJ did point out something that I had never really thought about...why is New England clam chowder one of the things that San Francisco is known for? My only thought is because they are known for sourdough bread there, and what goes better with sourdough bread than clam chowder? If anyone knows the real answer I would love to hear it!
Next we wandered up to Ghiradelli Square and sampled and purchase some delicious chocolate to bring home to my parents. We also walked right by the most adorable tea place Crown and Crumpet. Yes, it was quite possibly the girliest place in SF all decorated in pink and flowers, but JJ being the good husband he is joined me for afternoon tea. Really good tea, and fabulous scones. Life doesn't get much better than that.
After a brief nap back at the hotel we headed out to Pier 33 for our bout ride and night tour ofAlcatraz. Of course, it was pouring rain and we had prepaid for our tickets, but other than that I was really excited to go! I thought the tour as really interesting, glad we had the audio guides otherwise it would have been really boring. Because of the rain and the fact that we had to walk back to our hotel, we just ducked in to a random restaurant near our hotel for dinner, it was nothing special so i won't even bother linking it.
View of Alcatraz from the boat
Friday we got up early to try to find a battery for my camera, luckily there were about 6 different camera stores at Fisherman's Wharf. We then "hopped on" our tour for the day, Mr. Toad's Tours (and yes, I did chose it because of the name, but it had awesome reviews too!). We rode around in a funky 1930's open air bus. The weather was gorgeous and this tour was a perfect way to see the city. We drove around for 4 hours through downtown, Chinatown (if you go, try the House of Dim Sum near the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory for killer shrimp dim sum and awesome egg rolls!), Golden Gate park, Nobb Hill, Presidio, Pacific Heights and much more. The guide was very fun and knowledgeable so if you go, ask for John Francisco, no joke.
Mr. Toad's tour bus
Golden Gate Bridge
Postcard row, perfect!
That afternoon we met up with Emily and a few of her friends from law school. She took us on an amazing culinary tour of SF! We started out in Union Square and enjoyed some cream puffs at Beard Papa's in the mall. If you go, vanilla was my favorite, but we also tried chocolate and caramel. Next we went for some fried rice at Katana-ya. Seriously far better than any other fried rice I've ever had. It wasn't greasy at all! Next we went deep into the heart of Chinatown to the Vital Tea Leaf and sampled about 20 different Chinese teas. The hostess who was serving us did a really good job of telling us about the teas and all of the health benefits of each one. Very interesting!
Even after all of our snacking, we were ready for dinner at Incanto. A restaurant that features a Food Network chef and boasts about using the whole animal in their cooking. This was pretty adventurous for both JJ and I, but we really loved everything we tried! (I did have to pass on the duck brain though...I just couldn't do it)
Happy to explore one of the most beautiful cities in the country and so happy to visit Emily in her new surroundings! Next, we were off to Napa!!
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