San Francisco

When Chris and I had the opportunity to go to San Francisco, we jumped on it! I was my first time going to California.  Chris had a work conference on Thursday and Friday so we decided to stay the weekend.  We had an amazing time! We flew in on Wednesday night and out Sunday afternoon. 

We flew on United, which was nice because we leave directly from Grand Forks, connect in Denver, and then out to San Fran (unlike the other way which would be back tracking through Minneapolis).  Flying into San Francisco was really cool! If you the option to sit by the window, DO IT! When landing at the SFO airport it looks like you are going to land right in the water! We flew in at night and it was still very fun to see.

We stayed at the Marriott Marquis, located right in the downtown area.  The hotel was really nice! We did have an issue right when we arrived; they had given out all of the king bed rooms and only have double beds.  The guy at the front desk ‘guaranteed’ us we could move to a king bed in the morning for the rest of the stay—fine.  Frustratingly enough, when I called the front desk the next morning, the new worker told me that the worker from the night before didn’t put anything about reserving a king bed room in the system--- ugh.  Long story short, they found us a room with a king bed and all was good in the world.  Lesson learned: if you book a hotel room online, you need to still call the hotel and make them put in there system which type of room you prefer (they apparently don’t get that information from online bookings). 

The hotel was in a great location; there was the City Target the building over, wonderful shops within the area, and pretty easy to walk to almost anything.  The Marriott also has this amazing bar on the 39^th floor, the view is just amazing! It has large circle windows on each side so it has spectacular views of the city during the day and the sparkling lights at night. 

On Thursday, we walked over to a Lori’s Diner and had breakfast.  Chris went off to his conference and I went shopping (you guessed right that I got the better deal). The shops --though most too spendy for me—were so fun to walk around.  I went into the Westfield San Francisco Centre Mall, had lunch on the lower level at this wonderful salad place.  I also found a set of curvy escalators that went up 5 stories… don’t worry I rode up 3 floors just for fun!

After the mall, I stopped into Target to some snacks and drinks.  I would totally recommend this to anyone that doesn’t want to spend $8.50 on the bottle of water in your hotel room.  We had dinner plans with one of the surgeons that Chris works with and his wife.  We had happy hour up on the 39^th floor of the hotel and then went to dinner at a wonderful place called UMAMI.  It was delish! It is a sushi restaurant with a very fun atmosphere.   After our wonderful dinner, we had these dessert sushi rolls.  For sure might try these at home, they were chocolate chip cookie dough wrapped around vanilla gelato with toppings (caramel sauce, chocolate sauce, chocolate chips and nuts) and then cut into cute sushi bites.  They were to die for and I don’t normally go for dessert!

On Friday morning we grabbed iced coffee at this cute little cable car coffee shop.  It was gorgeous weather all weekend! We decided to walk up (and down) Powell Street.  This street was fun to be on because the cable car goes on this street! We walked by Union Square, Chinatown, North Beach and then made it to Fisherman’s Wharf.  We stopped by the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory (although the chocolate isn’t made there any more but still have tours and shops).  We filled up a cute little cab car box with yummy Ghirardelli chocolates and went to have lunch on the patio of “The Pub” below the Factory on Beach Street.  It was soo good! I think it was my favorite meal of the trip! Plus the view was amazing!

After lunch we walked around to take a few photos and took the F-Line on the Street Cars back to the hotel.  The Street Cars are basically buses but they only cost $2 per person and they trip was very quick.  We got back to the hotel to get ready since we had a fun night in store! That night we went to the JOSHUA RADIN/ MATT NATHANSON concert in Oakland!!

Joshua Radin has been my favorite for a long time! I have seen him in concert once before in Minneapolis and couldn’t wait to see him again.  Chris was looking up different things before our trip and when we found out they were playing we booked tickets right away.  What I didn’t know was that Chris got us VIP tickets for Joshua! What that included was that we got to go into the concert hall with a small group and watch Joshua during the sound check.  To say I was super excited would be an understatement.

So to get to Oakland we decided to take the BART (subway type transit).  It worked out really well and stopped right by the concert hall.  The concert was such a great time! The VIP tickets were so worth it and really fun. Joshua asked us which songs he should play for his sound check and then came down and met us/took photos with us. He is super nice and seems like a pretty genuine guy.  The actual concert was very entertaining!

On Saturday, we decided the easiest way to see all the sights was to take a bus tour! I had never been on a double-decker bus before so it was all new to me.  However we did find out that ALL BUS TOURS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL! We reserved and took the ‘Blue Bus Tour’ with ‘Super Sightseeing Tours’.  It was not great.  Maybe it wouldn’t have been as bad if we didn’t see the other bus tours being way better? Who knows, all in all if we go back again we will not be using them.  I am planning on writing a review about them just so other people don’t make the same mistake we did. 

On the positive side, we hopped on the blue bus at the Hilton Hotel.  Road the blue bus all the way to Fishermen’s Wharf to take the cable car.  Taking the cable car was definitely a highlight of our trip! It is a must for anyone doing the tourist stuff.  It is $6 one way, we road from The Cannery to Union Square and then hopped on the bus again.  Then we decided to hop off at Pier 39 to have some clam chowder in a sour dough bread bowl for lunch.  Both are things to eat when traveling to San Fran. 

After, we took the bus all the way to Fort Point in order to get some close up photos of Golden Gate Bridge.  It really is a beautiful bridge and the classic sight of San Francisco! We had some struggles with the blue bus be eventually took it through Golden Gate Park, Haight Ashbury (saw some interesting people there) and stopped to see the painted ladies in Alamo Square.    Anyone else here the Full House theme song playing in the background when you look at these houses? So pretty. 

Saturday night we stopped by this German Pub to have some drinks.  I had this awesome Grapefruit Beer, sounds weird but was actually pretty tastey! The next morning we met two of our friends that live in California. Had a fun brunch and then went for a drive across the golden gate bridge! It was the perfect ending to a wonderful trip!

See you next time, San Fran! 

Much Love, 

Liz