Somehow my first time on the west coast, and I only had a few days to enjoy it. Fortunately, we landed in San Francisco early Saturday morning, about 8 am.
Our AirBnB was able to let us check in early, so we caught the BART to town and walked a few minutes to get there.
I was ready to take advantage of all the veg restaurants the city had to offer, so before long, we were walking 25 minutes to Haight-Ashbury district to grab veggie burgers and fries at VeganBurg.
Pleasantly full, we then caught a shared Lyft to the ferry building, which was alive with activity around the farmers market. Anthony had to keep pushing me along because I was enthralled and walking very slowly.
We didn’t have too long to linger, though, because we had a ferry to catch. We went straight up to the top deck, grabbed a glass of wine, and prepared to enjoy the ride to Sausalito. It was a hot day for San Fran, in the mid 80s, and I was concerned I was going to be too hot sitting in the sun. But as soon as we started moving, I was freezing. Anthony gave me his jacket, and I huddled up in it, enjoying the views of San Fran, Alcatraz, and the Golden Gate bridge until the ride was over.
Since we had already eaten lunch, we weren’t quite sure what to do in Sausalito. We looked online and discovered there were a couple spots left on the last shuttle to Muir Woods that would be departing in an hour, so we booked that, and then went and grabbed some ice cream to eat while we sat and looked out over the water.
The bus to Muir Woods was windy, but not too bad. After around 30 minutes, we arrived, knowing we didn’t have long to explore since the last shuttle back was just over an hour later.
We basically sprinted along the path, trying to get as far as we could. I stopped quickly for a couple photo opps but then hurried on. Once we crossed the bridge and turned back, I realized we had plenty of time left, so we took things slow and enjoyed the beauty of the Redwoods on the way back.
It smelled like heaven, and the weather was perfect for strolling under the canopy of the trees. There’s nothing quite as humbling as standing next to nature’s tallest giants.
Too soon, we were shuttling back to Sausalito. We ran to the ferry back to the city, grabbed some dinner and some drinks, and made it back to our apartment in time to hop in bed.
We grabbed some coffee from Peet’s in the morning, and then at 7:30 am, our tour guide pulled up in a van to pick us up for our Redwoods and Wine Country tour.
There were 11 of us total on the tour. Our guide drove us through town pointing out things he thought was interesting, and then we were crossing the bridge and then driving up to a viewpoint.
We were hoping to spot whales as well, but none showed. The view was a worthwhile stop on its own though.
Afterward, we had a long drive to get to Armstrong Redwoods, excited to have a little more time to enjoy the redwoods than we had the night before. These redwoods are taller and older than the ones at Muir Woods, and since it’s further outside of the city, it’s less busy.
We got there before any other groups showed up, so we got to walk along the trails with no one in sight.
Sunlight was streaming through the trees, casting a different light no matter where we looked.
We had plenty of time, so we got to do most of the trails. We even took a trail that climbed up into the trees for a different perspective.
The group met back up in the parking lot, and then we were driving past grapevines backing up to redwoods. It was truly stunning, and I was wishing we were in our own car to pull over and take pictures.
We arrived at our first winery, Harvest Moon Winery, and they escorted us out back to their patio by the pool.
Wineries in the Midwest are always full of overly sweet wines, so I was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked the wines at this winery. We all got to know each other while sampling 7 different wines, making sure to drink water in-between.
It was a hot day, and Anthony and I decided to purchase a nice, refreshing white, their Gewürztraminer, to take back to the city with us.
The next winery was Taft Street Winery, a small, unassuming place out in the middle of nowhere it seemed. But it was friendly conversation and tasty wines, and that’s all we really needed. I fell in love with the Lodi Zinfandel, a big, oaky red, so we bought that to take back with us too.
Our last stop was the beautiful estate of Kendall Jackson. The grounds were gorgeous, and I almost didn’t want to sit down for the wine tasting so that I had more time to explore.
But then they poured an ice-cold glass of chardonnay, and we all sat down on the patio outside and enjoyed the sunshine.
Eventually, our tour guide was having to push us along back to the van. We had a long ride back to the city, watching cheesy movie clips of the Golden Gate Bridge. We made one more stop for one more view of the bridge and the bay, and then we got dropped off in the Mission District for dinner.
We had dinner at a very busy and very cozy vegan Mexican restaurant called Gracias Madre. It was getting late and chilly, so after dinner, we made the 20 minute walk back to our apartment where we popped open one of the bottles of wine we bought.
The next day was less exciting. Anthony had his work conference, and I had to work remotely. But, I did find this cool company called Spacious that partners with local restaurants (currently just in SF and NYC) that don’t open until dinner-time and turns them into office spaces during the day. This means fast wifi, unlimited coffee and tea, easily accessible outlets for every seat, and a safe place to sit with my work laptop without worrying about it getting snatched. I went to the one closest to my apartment that day, taking a seat at the window so that I could stare out and people-watch while I worked.
Sometime in the afternoon, I heard someone behind me say “Hi Brenna.” Shocked, because I could not think of anyone I knew in San Fran, let alone in a building with maybe three other people in it, I turned around. It was my AirBnB host. “You look surprised to see me,” he said. Uhhh, yeah. Turns out he works for Spacious, and he was my “host” at that location for the afternoon.
After the workday was over, I met up with Anthony at Shizen, an incredibly creative vegan sushi restaurant. The interior was charming, but the specialty rolls were the real stars of the show. They were absolutely delicious. We got three specialty rolls, and the avocado nigiri, and I loved every bite of everything.
We had wanted to go to Twin Peaks to walk around and catch views of the city after dinner, but it was going to take us over 40 minutes via public transport to get there, and I was tired. So instead, we went to the touristy Pier 39 to see the sea lions that hang out there.
Honestly, it was well worth it. We caught a quick look at Alcatraz before walking over to the dock.
The sea lions were funny, funny creatures with their grunting and their barking and their (I think?) playful fighting. They were stretching out under the sun, some of them happily snuggling together while others wanted entire planks to themselves and chased off anyone who tried to hop up.
Smelled awful though. We watched them for quite a while before the cold got to be too much for me. We caught another shared Lyft and went back to our apartment to enjoy our remaining bottle of wine.
The next day I tried out a different Spacious location, near to where Anthony’s conference was. This location was fancier, but also colder and with no people-watching.
From there, I had to catch the BART straight to the airport for my harrowing flight home. I highly doubt that’ll be the last I see of San Francisco, but I’d say it was a pretty good intro.
