Christian and I had the wonderful privilege of traveling to San Francisco this past week for an early 10 year anniversary celebration…KID FREE!!! This was the first time we had been away from either of our kids overnight…in almost 3 years…definitely long over due!
We left out early on Tuesday morning. I’m always amazed every time I fly at the view from way up there. Cohen asked me if this was snow…looks that way doesn’t it?
Once we arrived we just decided that we would walk the 8 blocks from the train station to our hotel since the cable cars (that would take us directly to our hotel) were so busy and packed. We didn’t realize just how steep some of those SF hills are and of course, our hotel was at the very top of one. We were exhausted by the time we got to the top.
Where we stayed, The Fairmont…
After catching our breaths we decided to go down to Fisherman’s Wharf…
We had heard about the famous sourdough bread and clam chowder and had both at Boudin…
After lunch, we headed over to Ghirardelli Square and had some ice cream. YUM!!
We then got the bright idea to rent some bicycles and bike to and across the Golden Gate Bridge…an 8 mile ride. (I failed to mention to Christian before we rented the bikes that I had not been on a bicycle since elementary school and I had never ridden a bike with gears before…oops!) It took me a while to get going, but other than the steep hills we had to conquer I think I did pretty well. Christian might tell a different story…
After we finally crossed the bridge we ate dinner in Sausilito and then took the ferry back across the bay to San Francisco. (If we were millionaires we would be moving to Sausilito tomorrow…incredible little town we totally fell in love with). On the way back to SF, we passed right by Alcatraz.
I was so amazed at the cargo ships coming and going…they are HUGE…those boxes on there are the backs of 18 wheelers!! Incredible they can even stay afloat…
We rode the cable cars quite often, although they’re not the most reliable source of transportation. They still turn them by hand at the stops…
When we got back to our hotel that evening we found a bottle of champange and some chocolate dipped strawberries waiting on us. Nice!
The next day we checked out Chinatown. Not as good as NYC, but the food was good!
We also went back down to the wharf and saw the bush man we had heard about. He would hide behind these tree branches and jump out and scare people walking by…so childish, but I could’ve watched for hours…hilarious!!
I don’t have any pictures of this, but Wednesday night we had some FABULOUS food at Little Star Pizza and CandyBar. If you’re ever in SF, these are a MUST…YUMMY!!!
On Thursday, we rented a car and saw a few more sights. We drove Lombard Street…
and saw The Painted Ladies…
We then headed out to Napa for a few wine tastings at Bell and Biale. Neither one of us really even like wine, but it was a fun experience and the time we had at Bell was especially nice and fun.
One of the highlights of our trip was getting to eat at Michael Chiarello’s restaurant in Napa, Bottega. The food there was incredible and the best part…he was there that day and we got to meet him!! We’ve watched him on PBS for years so it was fun to actually get to taste his food and meet the man himself.
All in all we had a blast. Missed the kiddos like crazy, but certainly nice to be away for a few days. Hopefully we won’t have to wait so long before our next trip together! Happy early anniversary to us!!
