San Francisco was our last stop of the three cities we visited in California. After spending a few slow paced, quiet days in the countryside of Napa Valley, we were off to the City by the Bay. We rolled into San Fran, top down cruising over the the Golden Gate Bridge.  We hadn’t seen it yet, so we decided to go a little out of our way in order to drive over it coming into San Fran.  Being on the Golden Gate, suspended so high up in the sky, literally in the clouds, was a great welcome to the city!  Can you guys guess the first thing we did when we got there? Seriously, before you read on take one guess, ready…go!

WE ATE… duh! We had heard that San Fran was home to some of the best Dim Sum, and neither of us had ever had it before if you can believe that! We went to Yank Sing, which is a very well-known spot to the San Franciscans. Now here’s our pro tip that we learned the hard way… they are only open for lunch!  Make sure you check the hours before you go, and we also recommend making a reservation – it was packed in there.  And another pro tip; if you haven’t had Dim Sum before, not all places are the same. Some allow you to look at all the carts and hand pick how many pieces of each dish you want to order.  But here, you got a full order of everything you pointed to (typically 4 – 6 pieces per dish).  So, needless to say, we over ordered… whoops!  Mistakes aside, we would recommend this place; we both really enjoyed the food and it was quite a cool experience to have in a new city.

From here, we drove over to the Villa Florence Hotel to check in.  The location of this hotel was perfect and the room decor was beautiful!  We had such a limited amount of time in SF and we wanted to see so many things, so we dropped our bags off and we were out the door quickly.  We took a cab straight to the Painted Ladies. We reminisced and pretended we were looking at the house that Danny Tanner and the gang were in. We took a few pictures and moved on to Mission Dolores Park. We would highly recommend seeing this park – if we had the time, we could have spent hours there.  It’s on a pretty steep hill, so if you go to the top of one side you can see an awesome view of the entire city.  Great photo opp!

Dinner on our only night in San Fran was at Corridor. We were able to take a nice walk from the center of the city where our hotel was to the restaurant.  We read some reviews online and it seemed to fit with what we were looking for; a laid back, casual spot that wouldn’t cost us a ton but had a great menu selection. We ate, we drank, and we reviewed.  We wouldn’t say it was our most favorite spot, and there are so many other places to check out, so you might choose another spot on the to-do list!

Here’s the blooper reel from the trip:  We head back to our cute little hotel room to pack up our bags.  We were going on an early morning adventure and then heading straight to the airport.  As Lou crams his clothes into his small duffle, the zipper slowly starts peeling apart, completely breaks, and falls off!  BRITT TO THE RESCUE.  This girl is handy, she would have made a great Mrs. Fix it.  She always travels on long trips with her sewing kit and with the help of some safety pins, she manages to sew the zipper back on to the track and get it closed… crisis averted!

We woke up the next morning eager for what would be the highlight of our trip. What we did on our last day was by far our favorite activity.  We rented a GoCar that had a GPS guided tour of the entire city.  You can select from a number of options for your route based on the amount of time and money you want to spend. We picked the 2 hour tour (which by the way, lasts way longer than 2 hours, but oh well).  It took us by Fisherman’s Warf, by Ghiradelli, a spot to view Alcatraz, The Golden Gate Bridge, and finally Lombard Street.  It also took us through the “hip” and “young” neighborhoods, which are less touristy and really give you a feel of what life is like in the city. The tour was so awesome – we both had the biggest smiles on our faces from the beginning to the end. Britt was a nervous wreck for the beginning of the ride, as we’re driving this tiny little thing down the busy city streets, but she couldn’t resist the urge and actually drove for a little while… on a quiet street with no traffic!

We were so sad to leave the West Coast and head back to New York… this is where our Cali vacation ends.  So long California, we will see you again soon…WE PROMISE!