Check it out, the last post on our trip to California in October! If you’ve read all of these posts (here, here, and here), and we’re not related, bless your kind soul.
While planning this trip, we intentionally decided to spend the first part of our trip in Napa so we could avoid the large crowds in the tasting rooms, and also so we could enjoy the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market in San Francisco on Saturday. It may sound weird to plan a trip to such a big city around a farmer’s market, but it truly is incredible. Between the Ferry Building and the plaza behind it, there are rows of booths with fresh produce, stores with candles and ceramic bowls, and lots of yummy food stands. We stocked up on a few picnic items for the afternoon and grabbed some delicious breakfast sandwiches.
Ferry Plaza Farmers Market
Farmer’s Market at the Embarcadero
Ferry Plaza Farmers Market
Breakfast at the Embarcadero Farmer’s Market
Since we were lucky enough to have visited San Francisco two other times, we decided to skip out on walking along the Embarcadero and instead check out a new part of the city we had never visited before: Golden Gate Park. Golden Gate Park covers over 1,000 acres and is one of the most visited parks in the U.S. You could easily spend an entire weekend exploring all parts of Golden Gate Park. Since we only had a few hours to spare that afternoon, we chose to focus on getting a boat to view the park from Stow Lake before visiting the de Young Museum.
Golden Gate Park
Personal boat rower at Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park Japanese Tea Garden
Golden Gate Park
After our time on the water, we walked over to the de Young Museum, where we had a picnic before checking out the exhibits.
Outside the de Young Museum at Golden Gate Park
Our picnic outside the de Young Museum
Inside the de Young Museum
Inside the de Young Museum
Inside the de Young Museum
We left the de Young Museum and walked back to our car so we could drive by the bison paddock on our way out of the park. Yes, bison. It was a little strange to see these large animals in the middle of a large city, even if it was in a fenced off area.
As bookends on this trip, we would only get two dinner meals in San Francisco. On our first night, we had a (very late) dinner at Tacolicious. The other restaurant we love is Coqueta along the Embarcadero and we were so excited to get reservations there for Saturday night. The environment is a lot of fun, and their food is delicious. We sat up at the bar where we were able to watch the chefs in the kitchen. Warning: if you sit in this spot, you will be tempted to order every single thing you watch them prepare. We may have been convinced to order a few tapas because of this kitchen view, but they went perfectly with our paella dinner.
Before drinks along the Embarcadero. Chip made fun of this vest when I first bought, but I still love it.
Pre-dinner drinks
Coqueta
Coqueta
Coqueta
Delicious paella at Coqueta
To wrap up our night in San Francisco, we went to grab a drink and dessert at Ghirardelli Square.
Chocolate martini at Ghirardelli Square
Dessert at Ghirardelli Square
We had some time Sunday morning before our flights back to San Antonio. We decided to swing by Mama’s for a hearty breakfast. It doesn’t seem to matter how early we get there, there is always at least an hour wait. This was our second time there and I have to say, I don’t totally get the hype. Yes, the food is good, but not “wait in line for over an hour” good. If you have limited time in the city, there are a lot of other great small restaurants that won’t have as long of a wait. We had hoped to drive around a few neighborhoods and check out the Painted Ladiesagain, but we had to eat our food pretty quickly to get to the airport on time.
Glad to see these Tai Chi classes are still going on across the street from Mama’s
The view from breakfast
Breakfast at Mama’s
Driving to the airport
After a couple of flights, we were back in San Antonio to our sweet pup who was ready for some cuddle time. We loved our time in Napa and San Francisco and hope to be back again soon!
Friday was our last morning in Napa. I’m sure there are a lot of great breakfast/brunch spots in Napa, but we could eat at Oxbow every morning and be perfectly happy. We ventured from our regular tacos at C Casa for their awesome breakfast burrito and cinnamon roll. We ate it all before I could get a good picture of our meal.
Leaving RiverPointe – it really felt like a little home!
Walking around Oxbow one last time
Learning about bitters for making Old Fashioned’s at home
Before driving back to San Francisco, we decided to head back to Domaine Chandon for a quick stop. We had such a great tour there the day before, but had rushed out to our next tasting that we didn’t get to fully explore the grounds. We initially thought we would just go take a few pictures and walk around, until I remembered that as new wine club members, we get free tastings every time we visit. Twist my arm, I guess I’ll have a glass of sparkling wine at 10am. One observation while we were there Friday morning: As we got out of our car, we saw a group of 20 people getting ready for their tour. I’m so glad we visited on Thursday and had been in a small group of four people and got to ask our guide a ton of questions. I highly recommend visiting the wineries during the week for this reason.
Walking up to Domaine Chandon
At Domaine Chandon
One of our new favorite places in Napa
I could stay here all day
…Especially with a glass of sparkling rose
The right way to do a Friday
Domaine Chandon
Before we left the wine country, we had to take the funny video below outside of Chandon. Hey, cutie.
After our stop at Domain Chandon, we drove back to San Francisco for the weekend. I’m sure locals get used to it, but I am always blown away at how tall the towers are on the Golden Gate Bridge. While we usually stop for pictures at the lookout point coming out of the city, we decided to try a new spot this time as well: Fort Point. If you can only pick one place to stop for pictures, I would choose this one over the lookout spot right after the bridge. Yes, you do get the city behind you with the lookout spot, but I love how you get such a sense of how tall the bridge is from Fort Point. We took more than a few pictures there and enjoyed the water crashing up against the rocks before check in at the Coventry Motor Inn one more time.
Fort Point
Alcatraz out in the distance
Now, when we were first deciding if we wanted to take this somewhat last-minute trip to San Francisco, we saw that Of Monsters and Men would be playing in nearby Berkeley that same weekend. This sealed the deal for us. We had to make this trip. Chip and I both love music, but we don’t always enjoy the same artists. I’m a sucker for catchy pop music (I’ll always fan girl over boy bands, no shame at all), and I tease Chip about his alien music full of weird synthesizers. But Of Monsters and Men is a band that we both really enjoy and love listening to together. Certain songs from their first album will give me serious nostalgia for our first trip to Nantucket. While Chip was at his conference, I would sit out on the porch at Century House, working on emails and listening to “Little Talks,” “Dirty Paws,” and “Love Love Love” nonstop. Their new album Beneath the Skincame out in June and was pretty much always on at home and in the car for a few months. Once we realized this concert was happening Friday night, we planned our entire trip around it. So after checking back in at the Coventry Motor Inn, we hung out at the Ferry Building for part of the afternoon before driving out to Berkeley for the concert at The Greek Theatre in the UC Berkeley campus.
It wasn’t until we parked our car near UC Berkeley that we realized we hadn’t locked the doors while we were at the Ferry Building… and someone had stolen my American Giant hoodie and Chip’s sunglasses. So not cool. They left behind the blankets we had packed, so we fortunately still had those to sit on during the concert. After I got over being insulted by this petty theft, we went to Eureka! for dinner and enjoyed some great burgers before walking to The Greek Theatre. Now, this outdoor venue is designed to look like an old amphitheater with a round seating plan. The seating is unassigned and broken into three sections: the pit (where you stand the whole time), the orchestra (where you sit on cement steps, which is why we packed blankets), and the lawn. After reading online reviews from veteran concert goers, we decided to sit in the orchestra section. We wanted to get some good seats in this section, so we finished our dinner and walked a mile through the UC Berkeley campus, checking out all the buildings along the way and got to the concert gates before the doors opened. The line was longer than we anticipated when we showed up, but most of the early comers went straight to the pit, so we got a great spot in the middle of the orchestra section.
I can’t say enough good things about the concert. The opening act, Amason, was great and did a great job setting the tone for the night. Chip and I had been debating over what we thought would be Of Monsters and Men’s first song. Would it be from the old album? The new album? We went back and forth on it, but neither one of us expected it to be “Thousand Eyes.” We didn’t even think they would perform this song. I’m so glad we were both wrong because this was AMAZING live. It was so dramatic with the lighting and the drums. The song ended and we just looked at each other and laughed. We knew the rest of the concert was going to be incredible and we were not disappointed. There are songs that I liked before, but after hearing it live, I love them. Who would have thought an accordion would make “King and Lionheart” sound so good live? Looking back on the concert four months ago, some of our favorite memories are singing along to “Dirty Paws,” following the drummer’s lead to clap the beginning of “Slow and Steady,” and listening to “Crystals.” They did such a great job interacting with the audience and we loved comparing how the lead singer Nanna sways as she sings while fellow band member Ragnar bobs his shoulders up and down as he plays the guitar. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we can see them again another time.
Dinner at Eureka!
Walking the UC Berkeley campus
Walking the UC Berkeley campus
Picking our seats for the concert
We loved The Greek Theatre
Amason
Ready for the concert
Of Monsters and Men
Of Monsters and Men
Of Monsters and Men
Of Monsters and Men
Listen to that accordion!
As soon as they started playing “Little Talks,” the sweet preteen in front of us started dancing like crazy. It was awesome.
I was lucky enough to have last week off for the holidays. While it meant finally catching up on laundry from our trip to Tucson for Christmas, baking some doggy treats for the first time in about a year, and general cleaning (I think I am finally ahead of Wrigley in the vacuum-shedding battle), I was also able to spend some time reflecting on 2015. It was a fast year, and a really long year. It had lots of great moments laughing with friends and family, but also some really tough days. Instead of letting those hard days define the year, I’m hoping to share some of my favorite memories from the last few months while this blog sat neglected.
One of my favorite memories of 2015 is a trip Chip and I took to San Francisco and Napa in October. It was a bit of a spontaneous trip, but we were so excited for some time together in a part of the country we love so much. I’ve mentioned this before, but we are so glad we decided to start setting aside a little money each month for the sole purpose of traveling. We love exploring new places together and seeing what life looks like outside of our bubble in San Antonio. We flew in to San Francisco on a Tuesday evening with the plan of renting a car and then driving to Chip’s favorite place for dinner – Tacolicious. We had two smooth flights before landing in San Francisco and patiently waited for the team at Enterprise to help get us a car. Since the wait took longer than they expected, they graciously upgraded us to a sports car. We were pretty excited about that! We left the airport around 7pm and started the drive into the city…
Less than 10 minutes into our drive, one of the dashboard monitors starts beeping. A lot. And loudly. We had a flat tire. We took the first exit we could and pulled over while we called Enterprise. And called and called and called some more. Y’all. We could not get anyone at the airport office to answer the phone that entire night. We eventually spoke to one of the road side assistance reps on the general help number and they called in a tow truck for us. In the meantime, we sat in the car in a thankfully very safe neighborhood while continuously trying and failing to get in touch with someone at the Enterprise airport office. We wanted to make sure that we should tow the car back to their office instead of a mechanic, and we also wanted to see if they could have our next car ready for us. We were getting pretty hungry for dinner by that point. Fast forward over an hour later (we still haven’t talked to anyone at that Enterprise) and we’re getting the rental car towed back to the airport while riding in the truck with the driver. Fast forward a bit more, and we’re finally leaving Enterprise once again, this time in a convertible since that was just about all they had left by that time (we really didn’t want to ride in a big SUV/pay that much in gas). We quickly checked in at the Coventry Motor Inn and walked to Tacolicious for dinner around 10:30.
Airplane selfie! We would soon both feel how Chip’s face looks…
Towing the first rental car back to the airport
Late dinner at Tacolicious
We decided to spend the first few days of our trip in Napa with the hopes of avoiding the big crowds that fill the wineries for weekend tastings. So after walking to breakfast at Home Plate, we loaded up the car and made the drive out to Napa.
Morning view from the hotel
Getting ready for the afternoon winery visits with a big breakfast
Driving the streets of San Francisco
These pictures just don’t capture how STEEP some of the streets are!
Love my travel buddy
Taking advantage of the convertible to enjoy the sunny day
Golden Gate Bridge
View of San Francisco from the other side of the bridge
On the other side of the bridge
Crazy hair on the drive to Napa
In serious need of a Thelma and Louise head scarf
It took us about an hour to drive from San Francisco to Napa. It’s been a warm year across the country (doesn’t feel like it right now!), so we didn’t see the amount of fall colors as we did the first time we went to Napa a couple of years ago. That didn’t stop us from enjoying the view, the wine country is really one of the most beautiful places we’ve been to. Once we got into Napa, our first stop was to get a quick lunch at Oxbow Public Market. Chip got a burger while I couldn’t resist a hot dog. Keeping it classy.
Sometimes, I have the palate of a five year old
Planning a trip to Napa can be a little overwhelming. Did you know that there are over 400 wineries in Napa? If you’re also looking at Sonoma, there are over 600 total wineries to choose from. To help pick our tours for this trip, we focused on getting a different experience from each place we would visitt. As much as we enjoy wine, it can be difficult to differentiate one tasting and tour from another unless there is something unique offered. When we first started planning this trip, I was really intrigued by a blind tasting offered at Elizabeth Spencer Wines. We had never done a tasting like this before and liked the idea of competing against each other while also learning how to get more from a wine tasting. We had 1:00 reservations at Elizabeth Spencer and we lucked out by being the only ones on this tour. We were taken into a private room with our tour guide, Dana, and had four glasses of red wine ready for us to taste. Dana walked us through the four wines, teaching us how to compare the shades of red between the wines, where you feel tannins, and more. Dana was so great and patient with us and probably spent an extra 30 minutes on our tasting, walking us through the different regions of Napa Valley and even showed us some dirt samples from each area. Unfortunately, Chip correctly guessed two of the four wines, while I was only successful with one. I’m waiting for a rematch!
Blind tasting at Elizabeth Spencer
So focused on the wines
Dana walking us through the different regions in the Napa Valley
Who knew grapes could grow in these types of soil?
Dana gave us one more sample of each wine once we finished the tasting
Elizabeth Spencer was definitely one of the highlights to our trip!
We had such a great time at Elizabeth Spencer. We loved the unique tasting experience, which was both fun and extremely informative. Out of the different wineries we’ve been to in California and Fredericksburg, this was by far one of the best tasting experiences we’ve ever had. Dana did a great job answering our questions and made us feel so welcome there. We can’t wait to do a blind tasting with my family sometime soon!
Leaving Elizabeth Spencer
After Elizabeth Spencer, we drove to our next winery: Pride Mountain Vineyards. We decided to visit this winery because of their Facebook page. Like everything social media related, a lot of wineries would post just beautiful and perfectly lighted pictures, beautiful glasses of wine with the perfect backdrop. But Pride Mountain had a lot of fun, behind the scenes posts. We loved seeing how the staff has fun while making great wine, and that they give so much credit to their field workers. We had the last tasting of the day, so it did feel a little rushed, but we loved the casual feel to the winery and seeing some of the wine-making process in action. Since the staff was wrapping up for the day, we also got to see them cleaning out some of the equipment while they joked with our tour guide. It was nice to see such a transparent picture of what life on this vineyard looks like. I have to admit, they made all that hard work look really fun.
Driving to Pride Mountain Vineyards
Chip wanted to smell the barrels outside of Pride Mountain Vineyards. Spoiler: they didn’t smell like wine.
Not a bad view from the parking lot at Pride Mountain Vineyards
Can I work here?
Grape vines for the win
Chip found some grapes. They smelled better than the barrels.
Ready to tour Pride Mountain Vineyards
In the tasting room at Pride Mountain Vineyards before the tour
You bet we bought Wrigley a bag of these treats
Speaking of Wrigley… this could have been his long lost cousin in a book at Pride Mountain Vineyards.
Part of the wine making process
More of the wine making process
On one side of the brick line is Napa. On the other side is Sonoma.
In the cave at Pride Mountain Vineyards
Pride Mountain Vineyards
Leaving Pride Mountain Vineyards after our tour
Can we live here?
More to come on our time in Napa, a concert in Berkeley, and our weekend in San Francisco!
Finally, it’s here! The last post on our vacation to California back in August! If you missed any posts, here are parts one, two, three, four, five, and six. I could have sworn I just wrote four posts. Whoa. Six? Maybe next time I’ll take fewer pictures and take less time to write about our trip. Mm, probably not.
Thursday was the last day of our vacation. We had one final breakfast at Oxbow (shocker, I know) and let me tell you, I really miss those C Casa breakfast tacos. I know San Antonio has breakfast tacos at just about any restaurant, but these were so different from what we have here. Don’t worry, fellow San Antonians, I won’t be turning down any bacon and egg tacos anytime soon. Unless, of course, C Casa opens up a location here in town.
Now that’s a breakfast taco
Mom at breakfast
Another of my “alright, Chip, put the camera down” faces
My dad does breakfast right
After breakfast, we got the car loaded up and started the drive back to San Francisco. We made really good time before our flight back in the afternoon, so we were able to have one last meal at Tacolicious as well as do some sight seeing around Ghirardelli Square and Fisherman’s Wharf before heading to the airport.
Foggy view on the Golden Gate Bridge
With my mom at Ghirardelli Square
My dad loves selfies
Exhibit A
Exhibit B – taking a selfie with my mom
Last year, we put our feet in the Atlantic Ocean. This year, it was the Pacific. And it was cold.
Really cold
Really, really cold
Dad wasn’t phased by the cold water
Neither were these (crazy) swimmers
I am my father’s daughter
Farewell, California
In case you couldn’t tell from all of these pictures and somewhat lengthy posts, we had a really great time on this vacation. If you haven’t visited Northern California before, you should try to make it out there sometime! I promise you won’t be disappointed.
That’s right. Three places in one day! #vacationoverachievers
Sunday was our last day in San Francisco. We had read about MyMy Coffee Shop online and were excited to go there for breakfast. We got to MyMy around 9:00 and there was already a long line of people waiting outside, which we all know means that the food has got to be good. Why else would people wait outside in the chilly San Francisco weather for over 30 minutes? We were seated (outside) within 30-45 minutes and soon ordered food. And by food, I mean a breakfast feast including zucchini pancakes, Tex-Mex and Frisco scrambles, lemon crab shrimp cake, and a Florentine version of eggs Benedict.
Sperry, feel free to sponsor our next family vacation. We’re ready.
After breakfast, we drove to the neighborhood right next to the Cable Car Museum. We gave each other about an hour to explore the neighborhood before meeting back at our car for our next stop. Chip and I went to the museum with my parents (which was like a toy store for my dad) while Alex and Teresa walked to Chinatown and Grace Cathedral before also checking out the Cable Car Museum. We had originally planned on then riding a cable car to lunch in North Beach but we were still full from breakfast and couldn’t handle another meal just yet. Since we had already ridden a cable car to the farmers market on Saturday, we decided to move on with our day and do a few more touristy sight-seeing before leaving the city.
Cable Car Museum
Dad figuring out the cable car brakes
Neighborhood outside of the Cable Car Museum
First up was driving down Lombard Street. It was a quick drive from the Cable Car Museum, but getting to actually drive down the street took some work since certain streets around it were closed off. After a few extra left turns, we finally took the steep drive down Lombard, complete with my dad waving his hand outside the window to get in any other tourists’ pictures (including one of mine!). After Lombard Street, we drove to see The Painted Ladies. Chip and I didn’t get to see these homes last time, so I was pretty excited that we were able to visit this neighborhood this time around. Chip was a little less than impressed by the homes and couldn’t even remember that these homes were the backdrop for the opening credits in Full House. How rude. Thankfully, he was impressed by the views the park had to offer.
View from the top of Lombard Street
Look, mom, no hands!
The Painted Ladies (one was getting a little work done)
Chip pretending to be amazed by the Painted Ladies
All of us!
City view
Once we left the park, we set out to leave San Francisco and head to the Muir Woods. When my mom and I had started planning this trip back in the early spring, we thought it would be a lot of fun to drive up to the National Redwood Forest… until we looked at a map and saw it was five and a half hours away from San Francisco and we were aiming to be in Napa later Sunday evening for the rest of our vacation. Maybe another time, Redwoods. After reading one of my travel books, we decided to go to Muir Woods instead, which also has redwoods and walking trails, and is just a little over an hour away from Napa.
We hit some traffic on our way out of San Francisco to get on the Golden Gate Bridge, but we eventually made our way out to a lookout point and got some pictures with the iconic bridge.
Golden Gate Bridge
City view
Last time my parents were in San Francisco was 30 years ago. Can you say Miami Vice?
Mom is missing the hairspray she wore in the 80s, but I’d say they’ve aged like a fine wine.
The Lopez Family
It was just a little windy…
We decided to stop for lunch before going to the Muir Woods so we wouldn’t be starving by the time we got to Napa, so after some quick map app searching, we stopped for lunch in Sausalito and then drove up to Muir Woods.
Muir Woods was a really unique experience. While there were a lot of people and tour groups there, it felt quiet and serene. We were all so blown away by how majestic the redwoods are and how they were so much taller than we could have anticipated. We walked around the trails for about an hour, but you could easily spend at least half a day there. Sorry for the crazy amount of pictures, but Muir Woods was beautiful. And if anyone has photography tips (I struggle with pictures in the shade/different lighting), please send them my way!
Chip humored me for a jumping picture…
Trying to be tall like a tree
With the Muir Woods behind us, we kept driving north into Napa. My mom and I had found another rental home for us and this was one was perfect. It was just a few blocks away from Oxbow Public Market and in a quiet neighborhood. We quickly unload the car and then went to dinner at Zuzu. Out of all of the restaurants on this street, Zuzu was the only one with a wait, so we knew the food was going to be good. We all split a bunch of different tapas as well as some paella before calling it a night. More to come on our time in Napa!
After our morning at the Farmers Market and the Embarcadero, we made our way to Pier 33 where we would be taking a ferry to Alcatraz. When Chip and I went to San Francisco last fall, we were in the middle of the government shut down, which meant all national parks (Alcatraz included) were closed. Thankfully the government had their act together (more or less….) during this trip and we were actually able to go tour the island. The ferry ride was a lot shorter than I had expected, part of me had expected it to be as long as the one to Nantucket, but before we knew it, we were arriving at the dock. I wasn’t sure what to expect from Alcatraz, but I have to say it was a lot more interesting than I had anticipated. The audio tour was just the right length and provided so much information on the history of the jail, complete with stories about different inmates there and the various attempts to escape.
On the ferry
Dad spent most of the ferry ride outside checking out the views
Watching a race as we got to Alcatraz
Getting into Alcatraz
Famous Alcatraz inmates
Chip checking out one of the solitary confinement cells
Inside the old library room
It was a little windy…
Our view of the city from Alcatraz
We finished our tour at Alcatraz around 3:00. Once we got back to San Francisco, we took a very tight cab ride to our rental home (see the evidence below) before packing up and heading to our hotel. Saturday was actually my parents’ 28th anniversary, so we spent the evening having dinner at E’ Tutto Qua. Looking back on our trip, that was hands-down the best meal during our time in California. It was so genuinely Italian that as soon as we walked in the door we were greeted by a loud “Party Lopez? Over here” and then a bunch of Italian shouting between waiters as we got seated at our table. Anytime we would serve ourselves more wine, the waiters would walk by shouting “Salute!” or would otherwise be speaking Italian to each other about food orders. The manager even came by at one point and told us all about how he created some of their signature dishes (order anything they recommend. It’s all delicious). The environment was great, the food was amazing, and it was so fun getting to celebrate my parents’ anniversary together. Cheers to you, mom and dad!
To confirm: Teresa and I are hanging off of the seats.
Starting dinner off with some champagne
One of our very Italian waiters
Happy anniversary!
“E Tutto Qua” – And that is all!
We would be visiting The Hess Collection during our time in Napa, so we decided to try their wine at dinner. Definitely some good wine!
Last year, Chip and I took a (belated) anniversary trip to San Francisco and Napa. To say we had a great time would be an understatement and we have mentioned more than once how fun it would be to go back again someday. We really enjoyed getting to see different parts of the city and the wine country was awesome (hello, it’s the wine country). So when my mom suggested these two spots for our family vacation this year, we were pretty excited. Since I was taking some time off of work this past spring, I was able to help my mom plan the trip and find places for us to stay, restaurants to try out, different winery tours, etc. Since we would be a group of six with my parents, Chip, myself, Alex, and his girlfriend Teresa, we thought a rental home would be great for us instead of a hotel. I’m glad we started planning this trip back in April since we quickly discovered that a lot of places were already booked almost five months in advance. Thankfully, we still found some really great places, but if you’re planning a trip to San Francisco or Napa, get to booking stuff early.
Chip and I flew into San Francisco on a Friday afternoon and got into the city just in time for dinner at one of our favorite places from our last trip – Tacolicious. Chip has mentioned this restaurant just about every time we talk about San Francisco, so I was really glad we were able to go back and enjoy it all over again. My parents had flown into San Francisco Thursday afternoon, so the four of us had dinner together before Alex and Teresa landed later that night. My mom just about ate a bowl of salsa by herself, which if you’ve tried their salsa, you would understand. It’s some roasted tomato-mint combination and it’s delicious. Chip and I are going to try to recreate it and probably never come close to the real thing. But we will try. Tacolicious actually has some of their other salsas for sale at most William-Sonoma stores right now. We bought some this past weekend and will be having an epic taco night soon.
On our flight to SF
Tacolicious
Can Tacolicious please deliver to Texas?
Now, we had been really excited about our rental home in San Francisco. We found a great spot in Nob Hill that was a perfect space for the six of us…. as well as some super rowdy neighbors below us. How rowdy? We’re talking a party that was just getting started when Alex and Teresa landed a little before midnight and went until about four in the morning. Somehow, I slept through the worst of their music and dialogue but no one got good sleep that night. It wasn’t the experience we were looking for, so we actually decided to stay in a hotel Saturday night. Regardless of our sleepless night on Friday, we had a fun and very full Saturday in the city.
Saturday morning, we took a cable car to the farmers market at the Ferry Building. This is hands down the best farmers market I’ve ever been to. We made our way around the Ferry Building and the stands outside, eating breakfast and more than our fair share of samples (I’m looking at you, dad). And no, I didn’t eat the deep fried mac n’ cheese we got last year (shame, I know).
Foggy ride on the cable car
On the cable car
The Ferry Building
Why, yes, we did have some of these
After the farmers market, we spent some time walking along the Embarcadero. This included some time at Pier 39 watching all of the seal lions.
Posing for the camera
How is this comfortable?
Walking around Pier 39
Pier 39
Mom and Dad at Pier 39
Alex and Teresa
Ready to go on our tour of Alcatraz
More to come on our afternoon at Alcatraz and the rest of our time in California!
the nance familia 