The San Fran Marathon was really just the start to our fantastic vacation in San Francisco and Napa Valley. This was my first trip to San Fran, and I really wanted to enjoy and get to know the city.
Day 1
Pam, Hubs and I flew into SF late Thursday. We took the BART to the Hilton in Union Square and grabbed a quick bite to eat at a Japanese Restaurant around the corner. We ate pretty late around 10:00, so all three of us crashed early that night.
Day 2
Our day started off with a delicious breakfast at
Honey Honey Cafe a few blocks from our hotel. After breakfast, Pam and I walked around Union Square to get in some shopping on our way back to the hotel. For the next three nights we had booked a room at the Hilton Financial District.
We quickly packed our stuff hopped in a cab to drop it off, and then headed to the Ferry Building for lunch at the
Slanted Door. Both breakfast and lunch were fantastic! I am still dreaming about the Vietnamese Food we had at the Slanted Door.
After our lunch, we walked around the Ferry Building, checked out the views of the Bay Bridge and made our way down the Embarcadero.
We had tickets for the Alcatraz Tour at 2:00, but we had some time to kill before so we walked up to Pier 39 to check out the seals. Pier 39 and Fisherman's Warf were way too touristy, but I guess it never hurts to visit those places at least once. The audio tour was fantastic. Hubs and I LOVE the movie The Rock so we really enjoyed being there.
By Friday evening the rest of our crew had flown in from Denver and Chicago, so we all met up at
Piperade for dinner. I really enjoyed this restaurant and the atmosphere, but I wasn't that crazy about the food. Granted I was being a little bit more cautious about what I ate since I was going to be running a marathon in less than 48 hours.
Day 3
After a quick breakfast at our hotel, we headed to the expo. The expo was a decent size, but was in a fairly cramped location. We grabbed our bibs, changed waves so we could run with the 3:40 pace leader, snagged as many
LaraBars as possible (I love the minis) and called it good. We decided to try to find a cafe for a sandwich by our hotel and found a little hole in the wall called
Cafe Macaroni. I split the gnocchi and a pesto zucchini sandwich with Pam and it was fantastic!!! We decided to nap and lounge the rest of the day for the race. My legs were a little sore from walking a lot on Friday, so I iced on and off. For dinner we hit up Whole Foods for our pre-race meal.
Day 4
Race Day! You can find my re-cap
here.
After dropping off Jess at the hospital to get checked out, we stopped at Alamo Square to see Postcard Row before heading back to the hotel. We crashed as soon as we got back to the hotel. We all proceed to take ice bath and hot showers before heading out to dinner.
Finding a dinner reservation for ten on a Sunday in SF, turned out to be more of a hassle than we imagined. We finally decided on RN74. It felt so good to be able to order everything I wanted! Our meal was really good, and it was just so nice to be able to relax.
Day 5
Our day started off earlier than I would have liked, but we had to make the drive all the way to Napa and then Calistoga for our first winery of the day. After grabbing a SLOW bite to eat at a cafe in Napa, we headed straight to
Schramsberg. Zach set up a fabulous tour of the winery and caves for free! The sales director used to work for his company. Joe was fantastic and we had such a blast tasting and touring the place. Joe was even nice enough to give us a few bottles for FREE on our way out to enjoy during our stay. Needless to say, we were all very big fans of
Schramsberg sparking wines by the time we left.
Our next stop was
Chateau Montalena (the winery from
Bottle Shock). It was cool to stop by, but wasn't one of my favorites.
We rounded out our day with stops at Stag's Leap and Domaine Chandon. By this point, I had a pretty good buzz going so I don't think I am "qualified" to judge the wines. However, I will say, at Stag's Leap the guy charging for the Reserve($30) gave it to our friends for free and the guy charging for the cheap wine($15) charged us full price. Ugh hello, there is a reason why we chose the cheap stuff buddy! The boys decided to test the grapes right off the vine as we left Domain Chandon. I thought they would be gross but they weren't that bad!
For dinner, we decided on
Tra Vigne in St. Helena. Some more friends from Denver and St. Louis were able to join us. We had fantastic food, but the service was horrible! I am completely fine with eating a slow dinner, but when half the table is asleep because we finished our meal an hour ago and you still haven't brought us a dessert menu or a check or OFFERED us another glass of wine, then there is a problem. I'm sure the desserts would have been delish had we been given time to order them.
Day 6
After a very busy Monday, we all wanted some R and R on Tuesday morning. We started the day with a delicious break buffet at our hotel the Vintage Inn, and then hit up the pool for some sun. After our down time, we grabbed some sandwiches in town and headed to
Rutherford Hill for a picnic. Instead of a tasting, we bought two bottles to split. Our picnic was awesome, and we all had a blast. I would definitely recommend going there just for the view. On our way home we stopped by
Mumm to indulge in some more sparkling wine.
Mumm had a great patio area and a free art exhibit which was cool. All in all it was another very successful day in Napa!
Day 7
Back to San Francisco we go! Pam, Hubs and I headed back to the city for a two days before flying home. We checked into the
Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill and headed to Fisherman's Warf and Ghiradelli Square for some tourista action. Fisherman's Warf wasn't that enjoyable, but I wasn't expecting much. I actually kind of liked Ghiradelli Square, but I also love chocolate and we grabbed cupcakes which definitely hit the spot. For dinner we decided on sushi as
Mas Sake in Cow Hollow. This place would be perfect before a night out on the town. It has a club atmosphere and really creative and delicious sushi rolls.
Day 8
We spent our last day in San Fran lounging around in the hotel before deciding to leave for breakfast. Our first stop was
La Boulange, which was again fantastic. San Francisco definitely knows food and does it well. Andrew wanted to sleep longer, so Pam and I decided to do a mega shopping walk. From our hotel we headed down California to Fillmore and then up Fillmore to Union Street. Andrew caught a cab to meet us for lunch. Out of all the places we could grab a bite, Pam and the Hubs were both insistent on In n Out! I don't understand it, but what can you do. At least I've had my fix for the year.
San Francisco is at the top of my list for favorite city. I really enjoyed being there and EATING there. It is like a food lover's mecca. The best part is the Hub's cousin lives there so I can definitely see a return trip within the year!
What's your favorite city?
We ordered:
The only dish I wasn't crazy about was the tuna tonnato. To drink we had the squeaky spritz, which is a mix of Prosecco, Aperol and Sparkling Water. According to google, Aperol is an Italian aperitif. This drink was muy delicioso! They have happy hour Tues-Sat so we will be back very soon.
Posts
