Exploring San Francisco

I can't believe how lucky we are that we're so close to one of the greatest cities in the world - San Francisco! Whenever we need a dose of culture, great food, or some actual weather (I need a little fog in my life!), we jump on the Caltrain or drive and we're there in an hour.

Our first time into the City as locals, we had to play the tourist card. We started our morning at Hog Island Oyster Co. in the Ferry Building. After a spectacular lunch of oysters, cod sliders and mussels, we walked over to Chinatown. Since it was a Sunday, there was a great street festival going on as well. We wandered around, ate an egg tart, watched the performances, had a Chinese Mai Tai at Li Po Lounge and checked out a local temple before we wandered back to the Caltrain station.

I've always thought it would be great to do a food tour in the place you live, so you can actually revisit the places! So our next trip into SF, we booked a tour in the Mission with Foodie Adventures. Before we joined the tour though, we walked around the Mission - the oldest building in San Francisco (and what the City was named after).

The food tour was an absolute blast - we explored 7 family-run businesses all throughout the Mission District. We booked our tour with Foodie Adventures, which was a great choice. My favorites were the coconut bun at Kings Bakery and the huaraches from La Palma. Now we have tons of places to revisit next time we're in the area.

 

My favorite thing to do is have a picnic in front of the Painted Ladies and then walk along and see all the amazing Victorian Houses.

Next up, we actually booked a night in San Francisco with the pup! We started our day at the Presidio, walked around the Palace of Fine Arts and ate lunch at  Crissy Field before we headed back to our hotel.  Fisherman's Wharf isn't our preferred location, but we had booked a stay at the Sheraton because they are super dog-friendly.

After watching the end of the Aggie game, we all walked over to Ghirardelli Square to try one of their famous brownie sundaes - YUM!

After an exhausting day, Indy was ready to sleep while we went on our night tour of Alcatraz! This was such a fun way to experience the island. Our ferry took us on a more scenic journey and we had the whole island to ourselves. We had audio guides, so we were able to explore at our own pace. 

I won't ruin anything for anyone who hasn't been, but they went into a lot of detail regarding the conspiracy of the prisoners who escaped. The creepiest part for me was being in those solitary confinement cells. I seriously got chills in there!

Our last morning, we drove over to Lands End and hiked around to see the Sutro Baths, the Labyrinth, and let Indy swim a bit. This is definitely an area that we'll be back to explore more.

After that, we made the quick drive home. What a fantastically beautiful weekend in SF!

So yes, we've now ticked all of the "tourist" boxes and are ready to dive deeper into more of what the City has to offer. We have many more trips planned and we're always looking for recommendations. 

High on my "Must-See" list are:

Conservatory of Flowers

Japanese Tea Garden

DeYoung Museum

Hike the Greenwich Steps to Coit Tower

Eat all the baked goods (Mr. Holmes, Golden Gate Fortune Cookie, Tartine)

What else do we have to do?

{Dog-Friendly} A Fall Day in Half Moon Bay

What better way to celebrate Fall than with a day out to Half Moon Bay - basically Fall Central here. As soon as you drive over the mountain, the pumpkin patches and corn mazes greet you. We chose to stop at Farmer John's Pumpkin Patch because of their reputation for being so dog-friendly. They had a water bowl set up and dogs were allowed everywhere! They even had a Bernese Mountain Dog gathering happening as well.

We wandered around the patch, said hello to some big fluffy dogs, and grabbed some unique pumpkins to decorate our mantle at home.

Next up, we drove over to the Coastal Path near the Ritz Carlton - Half Moon Bay. If you get there early, you can grab a free spot along the road (which we were able to), otherwise you'll need to park in the RC's parking garage.

It's a quick 3.5 mi walk in between the golf course and the cliffs and it was stunning! Half Moon Bay is known for being foggy, but we had tons of sunshine the whole day. Indy loved swimming at the beach for a while and we wandered around the Ritz Carlton's grounds so he could dry off afterwards.

Next up, we drove over to Sam's Chowder House for a delicious (and dog-friendly!) lunch before letting Indy swim in the water a bit more. 

We also stopped at a winery on the way home, but it's not really worth mentioning. Sadly Jason and I agree - the most disappointing winery we've been to in California.

Half Moon Bay is only 30 minutes away from our house and I can tell you that we'll be back many times. October is the craziest of all times to visit, but it wasn't too terrible. However, we also look forward to exploring the town a bit more when it's a bit sleepier!