A Weekend in San Francisco: Part 1

San Francisco. Santa Cruz. A night in Lower Pac Heights.

I love it. Love it. Love San Francisco. 

This is the internal dialogue that both my boyfriend, Brian, and I have when we leave this cool place. 

We are super lucky to have great friends that live in the city that take us to all of their favorite spots and let us stay with them. 

Prior to this trip I had only been to San Francisco once. The exact same weekend in 2019, actually. That was the only other time I have been to California. Which if you know me and my obsession with the entertainment industry, is a little shocking. Don’t worry, L.A. is next on my list. 

We decided to take Friday off and enjoy a long weekend in SF. Thankfully now that we live in Denver the flight is fairly short.

THURSDAY 10.8

First of all, landing in San Francisco is beautiful. It looks almost like you’re going to land on the water until you catch a glimpse of the runway lights. We touched down in the late afternoon, grabbed our rental car, and we were off. Parking near our friends’ was much easier than I had anticipated in my head. (This had been my argument against renting a car all week. It was totally fine. I ate my words and was SO glad we had the car on Friday).

We walked over to Hayes Valley for dinner. I had such a fun memory of going to A Mano the year prior, so I was super happy to be back. We grabbed dinner at Pepito. You could call Mexican food my love language, so I was happy. I got a quesadilla (with pineapple :) ) in case you were wondering.

FRIDAY 10.9

Brian’s Birthday! Also my personal rental car appreciation day. We left in the morning for a drive down to Santa Cruz. I don’t think Big Little Lies takes place in Santa Cruz, but it may as well have. Major BLL vibes.

On our way we stopped for a drive through Stanford’s campus. Unfortunately, it was all blocked off to visitors so we couldn’t walk around, but we got a nice drive around the outskirts of campus and grabbed breakfast and coffee from the Verve in Downtown Palo Alto. I’ve learned that my not-coffee-drinking boyfriend transforms into very-much-a-coffee-person on vacation. Who knew? This also seems a little counterintuitive, but I’m here for it. 

I LOVE SANTA CRUZ. Woah. Like I said earlier, I had only been to California once and we stayed in San Francisco so I had not yet been exposed to this high-end west-coast beach town but BOY am I so about it. It was so relaxing and exactly what I needed. The ocean feels like my reset button. It’s somewhere I grew up going and it has always provided some major stress relief to me. You know when you go somewhere and you feel like you breathe differently? We walked up and down the coast (no surfers were out, sadly) and grabbed some delicious seafood on the pier for lunch. I also had a very classy glass of Woodbridge Chardonnay in a paper cup. It was everything. 

Now for my favorite moments of the trip: Friday Night. 

We went for dinner in Lower Pac Heights. It was one of those nights that makes you feel like you’re in Europe because you just could not be bothered to hurry through it for any reason. We walked up and down the street looking for a place to eat. The whole street had been transformed by the indoor dining closures. Everywhere has outdoor seating with fire towers (is that what they’re called?) and lights. We ended up at Curbside Cafe. We had a very French waiter that was also very much not in a hurry to serve us- see? European vibes through and through. We got wine. I had risotto. We got free creme brûlée. Perfection. As if that wasn’t enough, afterwards we walked to Salt & Straw for ice cream. If you know me, you know I love weird ice cream with lots of stuff in it. So this was on brand. I got their limited edition Fall flavor with every type of chocolate candy stuffed into it. 

We took our ice cream to Alta Plaza Park. It was a hike that became worth it very quickly. Have you ever walked straight up a hill into a park where people are normally working out while carefully carrying your massive ice cream scoop? Yeah me either until this. The view was incredible. You forget how big cities can feel until you go to one that's significantly larger than the one you live in. We also ran right into a high school party. I can’t quite remember, but thinking ‘it’s probably a great idea to meet at the top of a very visible park late at night to party together during a global pandemic’ probably would have made sense to me at the time too. Does that make me one of those people that starts sentences with “When I was your age?” now? Maybe.

We went to bed feeling very full, very happy, and very ready to spend the next day in NAPA.