San Fransisco, Here We Come!!

Sheraton Hotel at Fisherman's Wharf

As a graduation gift, Bill's parents gave us a surprise trip to San Fransisco! We left on Thursday evening and returned home on Monday afternoon. It was a great time to just get away and enjoy the beautiful city of San Fransisco! Sawyer spent the weekend with Papa Steve and Nana Kathy and hearing about their weekend, I'm not sure who had the better time! :)

As you can tell, this is our hotel room that was really fun-the entire hotel was decorated in a very relaxed 'beachy' theme. We were in the most perfect location possible~we were two blocks away from fisherman's wharf, Pier 39, there was a grocery store across the street, tons of little cafes, fun restaurants, and of course-the water!

* Friday *

Friday morning we slept in since we had gotten to the hotel after midnight the night before and we were pretty exhausted! We explored the neighborhood, got some breakfast and tried to figure out how we were going to fit everything in and have a relaxing weekend all in one! We hit up a candy store right near the wharf that had every sort of sugary treat that you could imagine!

We went to the famous Boudin sourdough bread factory and restaurant. You can always enjoy the delicious sourdough bread from Boudin in your grocery store, but seeing where it''s made and smelling it fresh is a whole different story! We were able to see as they were preparing the bread from start to finish and then watch as they put it in these wire baskets that were on a sort of conveyor belt and traveled around the bakery, into the store, past the cafe and back again! It was so neat! They also had all these different kinds of animals made out of bread that were just so darn cute! It was a good thing Sawyer wasn't with us, we would've spent next month's mortgage on sour dough alligators...

We headed over to Pier 39 to see all of the sea lions basking in the sun light and barking up a storm! The last time I saw a sea lion was when we went to Sea World when I was like nine, so it was crazy to see just how big and......weird looking they are up close! We thought it was hilarious how they just flopped around and rolled all over the place!

We walked up to Coite Tower (now that's a hike!) and went inside-the murals were beautiful! This is us outside of the tower-we just could get it in the background of our shot! :)

We headed back down to Fisherman's Wharf for lunch and must have looked at about forty places! It was so hard to decide where to go because everything looked SO good! We finally landed at "Wipe Out" and decided to wait even longer for a table out in the sunshine. Bill got fish and chips and I had a salad topped with grilled salmon.....soooo good!
That night we walked all over the place, still taking in the sights, had a waffle cone and ended up going to a movie! It was the perfect first day in San Fransisco!

*Saturday*

We got kind of a late start to the day because we couldn't quite figure out what we wanted to do, if we should rent a car, if we should rent a scooter, if we should ride bikes.......oh the dilemmas!!! We settled on renting bikes and riding across the Golden Gate bridge to a little city called Sausalito!

There were so many places that we passed while on our bikes that just screamed, "Stop and take a picture here!" It was all gorgeous and the views were incredible!

The Golden Gae Bridge!!! (and me!)

Halfway across we stopped to take a look down and enjoy the spectacular view! That is a LONG way down......

We walked around Sausalito and meandered around all the cool little antique shops and art galleries-really fun stuff that was selling for six times what it's worth :) We had heard from a few locals that a really great place to eat was Scomas. It was right on the water and if that's where the local people eat, it must be good!

This was some of the best seafood Bill and I have ever had! We had a seafood platter to start off with-and we had our first raw oysters and clams!!! wow.....we liked the clams....but the oysters must me an acquired taste :) Bill got the "Lazy Man's Stew" which was a bucket load of seafood in a spicy tomato and white wine broth with a garlic Parmesan toast. I had Parmesan crusted butterfly scallops in white wine sauce, lemon green beans and scalloped potatoes.
IT WAS SOOOO GOOD!!!!!!

Thought we might get asked to leave because I threw one little piece of bread in the water for one of the sea gulls and an entire fleet of them came out of the wood work to see if there would be more mana coming down....they were squawking, and diving and swarming....it was crazy!

As we were walking along the boardwalk, we saw this little old guy that would take all sorts of different rocks and balance them one on top of another just right so they would stand up right! He said that he placed them in such a way that they would sway together even in the wind blew or shifted directions! It looked fake but they say that he's there everyday and builds different piles each time with whatever stones he finds!

We opted to take the ferry boat back across since it was going to be two miles uphill back to the bridge and that just didn't sound like a fun plan. While we waited of course we had to get ice cream in huge waffle cones! But we were so into eating them that we didn't even take a picture of them!

There were a hand full of other people that thought two miles up hill and then another four wasn't what they were up for.....

That night after we took our bikes back to Bay City Bikes we walked by the wharf and found a cigar shop. Now Bill isn't a smoker but every once in a while he likes a good cigar or pipe. So we found one that he wanted and just hung out by the pool that night!

The weather in San Fransisco was a little bit more chilly than in Omaha, it was in the 60's most of the time but the sun was shining so it didn't feel too bad. Int he evenings though, it did have a bite in the air so it was great to sit by the fire pits and warm up! We met a really nice family from Iowa that was in San Fransisco as a college graduation trip for their son too!

* Sunday *

We decided to take a Napa Valley Wine Tasting tour!! We were able to visit three different vineyards and taste wine all day! As well as seeing the beautiful country side of Napa Valley!

The first vineyard was so pretty and was actually being set up for a wedding that was taking place there that evening! I'm sure that bride and groom had a gorgeous wedding and paid a pretty penny for it too!

The second vineyard that we went to was the Madonna Estate. There they gave us a more extensive tour of the grounds and barrel rooms and gave us just SO much information on how wine is made and all of the different elements that it takes to produce award winning wine.

We sampled about twenty different wines that day...can you tell? :) Just kidding!

Beautiful vineyards

For lunch we stopped in a little town called Yountville. It was nestled in among the vineyards and just a picturesque setting! We had lunch at a little cafe called Napa Style owned by the Food Network Star Chef Michael Chiarello! He also as another place right across the courtyard called Bottega that is an Italian place!

This was inside Nappa Style, it was a great little shop where you could find everything from fine crystal wine glasses to homemade artichoke spread...too cute!

Waiting for our lunch!

We decided to eat outside and enjoy the gorgeous Nappy Valley weather! It was a whole lot warmer in the valley than on the coast for obvious reasons!
Bill had burnt himself the day before on the bike ride the day before so he was darting from one shaded area to the next.

Bill got the Spiced Chicken Panini~grilled chicken rubbed with his signature toasted spice, olive oil braised potato, arugula and sherry vinegar on a ciabatta roll. I got the Forever Roasted Pork Panini~slow roasted heritage Duroc pork, Fontina cheese, mostarda di frutta on a baguette! Yummy!!!

On our way to the last vineyard we passed the number one restaurant in America called The French Laundry. (Heavenly music crescendo now). We would have gone there for lunch~twelve courses, twelve different wines and only $1,200!!...but there was a six month waiting list....shoot!

The last vineyard that we toured was Sutter Home. They have a great story of how they got started and we decided that we couldn't come home without a few bottles of wine from Napa Valley so we bought some there and a great bottle of olive oil dipping sauce.
We had such a wonderful day in Napa and if you ever have the chance to go-take it!

That evening we asked the concierge at our hotel where we could go for some good Chinese food. He told us there was a place about two blocks from the hotel on the wharf...we asked him where HE goes for Chinese and he told us, The House of Nan King in China town.


We took his word for it and walked through Little Italy and into the heart of China Town. We spotted the place and were surprised to see it was this little hole in the wall! But it was PACKED! Arriving in the nick of time, we were seated immediately. It was the kind of place that if there were a couple of empty seats at your table, they would seat another couple with you! They also must have run out of matching water glasses, because they brought Bill out this gallon size glass of lukewarm H2O.....what they lack in class they triple in character and deliciosity I tell ya'! As I was sitting there trying to take it all in, I was scanning the walls and saw all these photos of celebrities that had come there! Everyone from Rachel Ray to Keanu Reeves to Jennifer Aniston! This place must be worth it! We hadn't been seated five minutes before a huge line of people started forming out the door and up the sidewalk! So we knew we were in the right place!

We were not quite sure what to order because everything that everyone else was getting looked amazing, so we decided on a few things and just as we had predicted: Party in our mouths!!!!!!!
*Garlic fried fish with Chinese veggies

* Crispy pork & veggie dumplings in a hot & spicy peanut sauce......We'll never be able to eat regular pork dumplings ever again without turning our noses up at them!









*Beef lettuce wrap filling: grilled beef, sweet onions, pineapple, GARLIC, green onions, tomatoes zucchini, in a secret sauce that God himself must have passed down to the owner...








*Chinese veggies: bok choy with sweet onions, chilies in a garlic sauce that was just a literal EXPLOSION of taste...unlike anything else you've ever put in your mouth....it was just so good....by stomach is groaning here in my office as I write about it......

The entire meal and experience was amazing at The House of Nan King and for sure make a stop there if you're ever in San Fran.

On our trek back to our hotel, we went through Little Italy again and just had to stop for some coffees at one of the street side cafes.....we asked a few burly Italian men at the table next to us to take a picture and the guy that volunteered, was giving us all this direction of how he wanted the shot and where he wanted us to sit and all that....it was pretty hilarious when I looked at the pictures later the night only to discover he had his finger in the top left hand corner of all seven shots that he took!!! HAHAHAH!!!

We stopped my the most crocked street-Lombard Street on our way back just to say that we had been there :) You can't see it very well, but it's up there! It was an AWESOME weekend getaway that we'll always be so thankful to bill's parents for giving us!