GIRLS-GET-AWAY: SAN FRANCICSO

Helloooo, I can't believe it has taken me so long to post this trip! And it seems extra weird now because this was a summer trip and just last weekend I was in NYC loving some drizzly fall weather. Just a week ago I was having lunch in the village with family and friends. Time really does fly when you're having fun!

A girls trip to SF is a must for me and my daughter at least once a year, and sometimes twice.  San Francisco is amazing, there are so many things to do and see.  When it's a girls trip it's all about neighborhoods, architecture, food, taking pictures, shopping and more food, did I mention food?!? When it's a trip with handsome we'll do things like the Science Museum, Alcatraz, Golden Gate Park and a ferry ride over to romantic Saucalito.  There really is something for everyone.

We like to go in the fall but this time it was summer and it was a three-some, including my sister who was visiting from NY. We decided to hop in the car very early on a Friday morning and head up the coast. The drive from LA - SF on beautiful highway 1 is about 8 hours. However, add in potty stops for three girls, Starbucks addictions, photo opps, roadside cow obsessions and the traffic, once you get near the city, and it took us about ten hours. Still, you can't beat the scenery.

We checked into Hotel Carlton in the late afternoon. We stay there a lot, it's special to me because I stayed there on my very first trip to CA when I was 22 and also when I was pregnant with my daughter.  It's such a quaint hotel in the neighborhood of lower Knob Hill. It also seems to be within 3-5 miles of all our favorite spots and neighborhoods and it's very residential so there is street parking, an advantage over Union Square or the Wharf area where you're forced to valet park at about $35 a day. I rather spend that on food!  We settled in for maybe 5 minutes before we were off and running. We headed to the neighborhood of North Beach which is the Little Italy of SF and to one of our favorite restaurants, Rose Pistola. Then to one of the many little bakery's for an old fashioned Italian Eclair, (my sugar quota for a week!), when in Rome...

Since it was summer instead of fall we noticed it was more crowded everywhere we went.  I wasn't expecting it but should have realized that because it was summer there would be lots of tourists. I felt a difference in the people too, the residents that we normally find so friendly seemed to be a bit cranky, I guess when your usual morning workout up the stairs in Pacific Heights has tourists getting in your way taking photos (me) it could get on your nerves a bit. Last visit we climbed the stairs, this time we were saving ourselves for the 400 secret steps behind Coit Tower known as Telegraph Hill and a walk up and down Lombard St., San Francisco's crookedest hill. The Telegraph Hill steps wind through beautiful homes and apartments and is home to a big colony of wild parrots and there's lots of gardens and even bee keeper boxes along the way.  What amazes me is that people live on this hill, we saw a guy carrying a TV up the stairs. Oh and if you leave the house and forget something, yikes!

There's something so magical about San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge it's always our first stop bright and early Saturday morning.  It doesn't matter how many times we visit this spot at Crissy Field it's always like seeing it for the first time.  And we had never seen it eaten up by Carl The Fog before! Carl is what San Francisco peeps call the fog, I guess when something is around so much you kind of have to name it.

 

We added a new restaurant to out favorites this trip, Belga, what a great spot for brunch, delicious, health oriented and adorably chic, loved the gray and yellow outside, the inside was more sophisticated and woodsy.

We also added Tea at The Fairmont hotel this trip, something we had never done before. It was very similar to Tea at The Plaza in NY, (that' a girls tradition for us) just without Eloise.  The staff was extremely accommodating to some of our dietary restrictions too. 

Dinner in China Town is a must as well, there's a lot to choose from but we always stick with our very favorite Oriental Pearl.

On Sunday morning we had to go to our all time favorite Jane on Filmore for breakfast before leaving. And then when we headed out of town we made a stop at Moss Landing for great local produce, just picked fresh fruit and veggies at insanely cheap prices.

 

Happy Travels!