Fair warning: this post is essentially a photo dump. But then, who’s not down with a photo dump??
So we went to San Francisco a couple weeks ago! As a couple! Without Emma! (Call it Babymoon #2? Albeit somewhat less exotic than Hawaii…) In any case, it was great. We did some sightseeing, some sleeping, some lazy lounging around our hotel, some good eating, and just generally enjoyed ourselves.
We arrived on a Tuesday afternoon and got to the hotel before check-in time, so after dropping our bags we walked a few blocks to Chinatown and eventually ended up at the City Lights Bookstore, where we browsed for a while. We had dinner that night at the R&G Lounge in Chinatown. It seems to get good reviews and was recommended by the hotel concierge, but honestly I thought it was only so-so.
(We stayed at the Stanford Court Hotel, which though pricey, turned out to be an excellent choice. Very nicely appointed, with a prime location in the middle of town at the intersection of the two cable car lines.)
Wednesday was a bit of a lazy day. One of Jose’s mom’s cousins lives in San Jose, and we’ve seen him several times over the years when he visits to Corpus Christi for family events. He picked us up for lunch at Scoma’s down at Fisherman’s Wharf, and we walked around for a bit enjoying the weather before he headed back to San Jose. (Ironically, he was flying to Texas for a week the next day.)
On Wednesday night, we went to see the San Francisco Opera perform The Marriage of Figaro! Jose has been really into opera lately since taking an online music appreciation course, and it turns out that the San Francisco Opera is arguably the best in the country. We couldn’t turn down the opportunity, and it turned out to be a really fun evening — despite not realizing that The Marriage of Figaro is actually pretty long, and we weren’t totally on west coast time yet!
We headed down to the Ferry Building on Thursday to browse all the cool little stores and food stands. While there, we ate a late lunch at The Slanted Door, which is apparently a pretty well known place and turned out to be perhaps the best meal we had the entire trip! I had the ginger beef sirloin noodles and a pineapple spritzer. Both were amazing, and the pineapple spritzer was the best non-alcoholic “cocktail” I’ve ever come across. (Seriously, I need the recipe, like, now.)
(30 week baby belly shot! Jose’s idea…and not the only belly shot from this trip by any means…)
After lunch and a cable car ride up the hill back to our hotel, we hopped back in our rental car for the first time in two days to head to the Golden Gate Bridge. I’ve been there several times before but what can I say — it’s by far my favorite thing in the city. It was a gorgeous day as you can see. We walked out from the San Francisco side to the first tower and back.
We wrapped up Thursday — our busiest day — with a stop at Muir Woods. I’d been there before too, but it’s another place that’s always worth a visit. We didn’t get there until about 7:00 but there was still plenty of light left and as a bonus, the park was nearly empty! It’s so close to the city but feels like an entirely different world — so cool and calm and quiet and peaceful. We stayed a full hour until the park closed at 8.
On Friday, we hit the road to Monterey and spent two nights there. I’ll write more about the last two days of our trip next week!
If only the Bay Area wasn’t so expensive, I’d love to live there. This makes me miss it – mostly the Muir Woods shots. You look great, by the way.
Tell Jose I would love a Houston Opera buddy – I really enjoy it and its hard to find someone to go with! Houston Grand Opera is actually a pretty impressive company, I went a couple times with Buzz and Kennda a while ago (though one of the cooler experiences was the UH opera fundraiser I went to with Helen). Anyway, I would totally be up for a show if he can be tempted!