Making Memories of Us: San Francisco

Several months ago, Hubs and I purchased a Groupon deal for San Francisco. The City by the Bay was on our bucket list of places to see while on the West Coast, so we checked the fine print and determined that a long weekend during Hubs' Spring Break would be the perfect time to go! Last week we enjoyed a respite from typical Monterey weather with lots of sunshine, warn days, and trips to the park. When it began to rain, we worried about our weekend weather, and the constant rain the entire trip north didn't give us high hopes for the weekend. But, as is the norm around here, the weather changed by Sunday and we had one full day of gorgeous weather to explore a wonderful city that we both enjoyed so much!

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early and loaded the car right after breakfast. We arrived in San Francisco around 10, and by 10:30 had the car unloaded and parked in the city lot near our hotel. Our room wasn't ready yet, but it was steadily raining, so we grabbed the umbrella and walked two blocks to Chinatown for lunch. A friend of mine from college just happened to be in town for a conference, so he met us. We went to one place for Dim Sum while we waited for him to arrive, but the waitress was rather rude, so after one drink, we decided to leave. We waited for my friend under the awning at the door, but then wondered farther into Chinatown to find a more family-friendly place! The potstickers were awesome, and Bunkey was such a trooper, entertaining himself with a fortune cookie while we ate! By the time we were done, little guy was ready for a nap, and the University of Louisville (Hubs' hometown and his life-long team of choice) basketball game was about to start, so we made our way back to the hotel to watch the game and dry off. Along the way, I slipped on a metal grate that was slick from the rain and fell pretty hard right on my knee. I hobbled the last few blocks to the hotel and was glad to rest for a little while! I was honestly dreading going back out for dinner and wondered how it would feel with all the walking and hills this weekend.... The bottle of wine left in our room helped ease the pain just enough!

After a very exciting basketball game (the Cards are headed to the Final Four against UK!) we changed clothes and went downstairs for the hotel's nightly wine tasting by the fire. We were really in the mood for burgers, so we decided to go to the Marine Memorial Hotel for dinner. I'd heard they had a really neat bar and sometimes the owner's bull dog is there and Bunkey would like to pet him...and it was only two blocks from our hotel. We got to the top floor and got settled at a table, and all of a sudden saw our neighbors (one of Hubs's classmates and his wife) a few tables over! They were supposed to go to Napa this weekend, but there was bad weather there too, so they decided to come to San Francisco instead! What a small world! Anyway, we had fabulous burgers and then came back to the hotel where we got the baby into bed and I rested my knee!

Sunday morning we woke up bright and early and walked to Roxanne's on the corner for breakfast. I was pleasantly surprised that, while it was still very sore, my knee didn't hurt nearly as much as it had before! Thank goodness! After breakfast we caught a trolley and took it to Fisherman's Wharf. We wandered around a bit and walked several blocks to Pier 33 to catch the ferry to Alcatraz. It was a brisk morning, but not too cold, and kind of refreshing. At least it wasn't raining! By the time we got to The Rock, it was cold and I was regretting that we only had Bunkey's baseball hat and not something to cover his ears. We had a great tour of the cell block, however, and by the time the tour was over, it was warming up and the sun was shining! We took the ferry back to San Francisco, popped into a gift shop on Pier 39 for a Christmas tree ornament (a trolley car!), forgot all about the sea lions on the pier we wanted to show Bunkey (we remembered them several blocks later but decided not to fight the crowds to go back), and got away from the huge crowds for lunch. We stopped at the Boudin Cafe for sourdough bread bowls full of clam chowder!! Then we made our way up the hill to Ghirardelli Square where we bought a chocolate bar to share for dessert!

Since the weather was so nice, we decided to walk back to the hotel rather than take a trolley back. It was a couple of miles, with some really big hills, but the weather was nicer than the morning and my knee was feeling better, so we decided to go for it! We were able to stop at Lombard Street along the way and look down at all the twists and turns, and we made it back to the hotel for Bunkey to have some time to crawl around, eat, and take a little nap!! For dinner, we heard from yet another friend who was in town visiting his girlfriend, so we met them at Irish Times for dinner and drinks, and then went back to their hotel bar for more drinks. We got back to our hotel well past Bunkey's bedtime, so we skipped a bath and put him right in the pack-n-play!

Monday, we woke up leisurely (which is still pretty early by conventional standards), fed Little Man, and got all packed and sorted out. We headed a few blocks away to Lori's Diner for breakfast (and honestly, even though Lori's is pretty well-loved in San Francisco, we preferred Roxanne's, if you're planning a visit!), then back for last-minute bathroom breaks, loading the car, and taking off.

We had a great time in San Francisco! We both really enjoyed the city, saw and did everything we'd hoped to see and do, and had a refreshing weekend away...that wasn't too far away! It was the perfect start to Spring Break!