We did it! 500 miles of California; and it was bloody beautiful. I have holiday blues, for sure.
Our first stop was San Francisco. The weirdest thing is I had absolutely no expectations of San Fran... out of everywhere that we'd booked, it was the place I'd thought about the least. So, my verdict? It blew my mind.
WHERE TO STAY
We stayed in Noe Valley which is a really quaint and safe area. It's also close to the Mission.
WEATHER
Everyone had warned us about the unpredictable weather and how it could be sunny one side of the city, and then cloudy and cold the other side so we had made sure to pack some hoodies and long sleeve tops. We didn't bloody need them, did we! We were so lucky with the weather; hot and sunny every single day that we were there.
PLACES TO VISIT
So it's super hard going to a new city and trying to figure out where to go. We wanted to do some touristy stuff, but also wanted to do 'as the locals do'. We were lucky enough to have a friend that had moved to San Fran who recommended us some places. Here's where I'd recommend...*
HAIGHT STREET
Definitely make your way to Haight Street if you like vintage shopping! There are plenty of cool thrift stores and if you walk to the end of the street you come across Amoeba Records where, if like me you are an Empire Records fan, you can live out all of your Sugar High dreams.
GOLDEN GATE PARK
If you carry on walking to the end of Haight St, you get to the entrance of the Golden Gate Park. Do not be fooled; this park is huge! We spent about two hours walking through and only covered about half of it. But, it's insanely beautiful. We came across the Japanese Tea Gardens (which you have to pay to get in which we didn't do, cause you know... we're tight), baseball fields, bowling greens and, my personal favourite, the lake. We rented a rowing boat for an hour for about $20! Definitely do this; it was one of my highlights. Nb. Don't try and row the boat simultaneously with a friend; it doesn't work and you will row yourself in to a hedge full of turtles.
PORK STORE CAFE
If you're looking for a good, old fashioned American breakfast then Pork Store is for you. There are plenty of options for meat eaters, vegetarians and vegans. I had the veggie huevos rancheros and Steph ate the eggs Benedict and we were both very happy customers. Really cool, quirky place. Go.
ALCATRAZ ISLAND
Book tickets in advance if you want to go to Alcatraz! I'm so, so glad we did! I'd heard mixed reviews about Alcatraz but I found it incredibly interesting. We were lucky and went when there was an Ai WeiWei exhibition on. They'd opened the hospital wing for this, which I think was the best part. Plus you get to go over on a boat and see the city from a distance!
PIER 39
There are sea lions! What more reason to go? After we saw them, we took the cable car down to Union Square. We queued for about an hour, but we met a really cool woman from Texas who told us never to marry a cowboy and how to make the best BBQ sauce. And the ride was cool too. Stand on the outside.
CHINA TOWN
This was pretty much heaven for me as I have an obsession with Chinese stores. I bought some cool chopsticks, which made it worth it.
LOMBARD STREET
We had the coolest Uber driver who took us on a mini tour of some cool San Fran spots, and along the way we stopped at Lombard Street which has 8 hairpin turns because otherwise it would have been too steep to go down! It was, you know, cool and stuff. We had a photo.
MUIR BEACH AND MUIR WOODS
Oh. My. Freakin'. God. This was one of my favourite parts of the trip. We drove out of the city for the day to Muir Woods, which we heard had beautiful redwood trees. Along the way, we stopped roadside and took in the views from the top of the mountains. We also accidentally found Muir Beach which was just dreamy. It's a pretty small and quiet sand beach. After fighting some people for a car space, we then hiked around the woods for about two hours and it's really breathtaking and we spotted a deer!
SAUSALITO
On the way back from Muir Woods, we took a detour in to the little marina town of Sausalito and had pizza and took a walk. Highly recommend!
ST. FRANCIS FOUNTAIN
We found this little gem of a cafe on one of our last days and I loved it. Take note, you have to write your name down on the sign outside in order to get a table which we only realised ten minutes in to being ignored as we stood outside wondering why we were invisible. The guys who worked there were so, so friendly and topped up my coffee so many times I wanted to marry them all. I highly recommend the vegan blueberry pancakes! One of the guys also recommended a cool comic book store to us in the Mission which we headed to after brunch.
DOLORES PARK
This is a really cool park where everyone hangs out in the Mission. That's all there is to say really.
TWIN PEAKS
Visit Twin Peaks in the night and in the day. I had two totally different experiences from doing so. When we went at night, we could clearly see a cloud of fog lingering above one area of the city, while the rest of the landscape remained clear. When we went in the daytime, it was our last San Francisco activity we did before we left and it was breathtaking. It has nothing to do with Twin Peaks the TV show, by the way. Sorry.
And there we have it! Part 1 of our California adventure! Go to San Fran, be prepared to walk up hills from your nightmares, get confused over whether the guy over there is a babe or a homeless person and use Uber Pool lots!
*All of the places listed are in photos above!
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