Hello my Friend! Let’s go to San Fran…my third favorite place ever (behind Telluride and Chicago). We always have an amazing time with Janet and Kelly and this time was no exception. Last Memorial Day we were all in Vegas, but this year we decided to head to Cali to see the girls. They have been remodeling and redecorating their house and I couldn’t wait to see it! It is amazing by the way! So modern and sheek–it should be in a magazine! This is also going to be a mega blog fyi….
Once again, I was perplexed at what to pack. We always luck out when we’re there and have amazing weather, but it’s crazy because in the city where it would be in the 60s, in the 70s near their house in Walnut Creek and the 80s by the wineries. So…I strategically over-packed (surprise, surprise) and we were off. We had decided to drive to Orlando to catch a direct flight to San Fran (how in the hey is there not a direct flight from Tampa to San Fran…dumb). We enjoyed the pool at the Hyatt at the airport and then strolled around the airport before dinner. I got a hat made for the game (CW was smart and told me to get it embroidered with “Kays” on the back and side and now it’s one of my favorites). We had a super early flight, but it got us out there before 11am, so it was definitely worth it. K&J picked us up and we went straight to AT&T Park for the Giants game. We had never been to that stadium and it was gorgeous out (we knew we were in the city when we saw the sign that it was $50 to park, geez). The girls got us seats in the Club (gracias!) and we hung out like no time had passed (well, guess it had only been 3 months since we were together in Telluride)….love that about them…we pick up right where we left off. It was great weather in the sun and I made sure I got the garlic fries (thanks for the tip Dollie, they were delish). After the game we went back to Walnut Creek and I was craving some margs. Fantastic. We called it a night and looked forward to the next day. We always try to celebrate each other’s bdays, so this was my time. My bday is in June, so the gilrs said it was going to be “my day” and we were going on a road trip. Yay for me! We packed up some munchies and headed out. The best thing about Cali is you have so many options of where a road trip can take you. They know how much I love the wineries, so I figured maybe that was the destination, but once we passed the exits for Napa and Sonoma I was stumped. A tad disappointed, but intrigued.
We passed a sign for Healdsburg and it triggered something, so I asked Jan if there was a winery or something there that I had heard of. She kind of blew me off and changed the subject. Rude. In a roundabout way, we pulled into the most adorable, perfect little town ever–Healdsburg!! First stop, Wilson Winery!! Eureka, that’s how I’d heard of it. Ahhhh….CW and I were so excited to be there. I had to get a pic of the discreet volleyball on a shelf that looked like “Wilson” in the Castaways movie. Then I couldn’t get the “Wilsooooooonnnn….” out of my head, thx Tom Hanks. Lovely. Another great day, we tasted some wines and just chilled out on the couches on the patio to take in the scenery. We made some stops at Seghesio Winery before pulling up to our amazing little hotel, H2. Sooooo modern and cool in the middle of this picturesque town. The restaurant there is called “Spoon Bar” and we noticed later that night the “fountain of spoons” on a wall outside. The entire thing was made of little spoons that moved when the water hit them. Of course something like that is in this town. We dumped our stuff in our rooms and I was a very happy camper. We came upon a great outside lunch place, strolled around the town, Jan and I shopped (I bought the greatest rose gold bracelets and a cool wine bottle coaster for Tammy) and we lost Kel and CW. Not shocking. Those two were seperated at birth. They could be twins (and they kind of look alike with the dark hair) who knows where they were off to. We found them down the street coming out of some old-school candy shop. CW had bags of candy and was so thrilled. Jan and I decided to check it out ourselves. It was like being in a movie, well, in fact, Willy Wonka was playing in a corner with seats in front of it that you could sit and watch. They had Candy Land games from like every year lining the walls and the amount of candy in this place was overwhelming. Perfectly cool in this little town. We played a little pool (ok, CW and Kel did) and watched the Lightning game. The girls had made reservations for dinner and this swanky restaurant, Scopa, (it’s so cool that they don’t even put their name on the outside of the building, if ya know-you’re cool I guess). There are maybe 8 tables in the whole place and the waitstaff rock. We walked in and they knew exactly who we were, I guess because they make their reservations methodically and none at the same times. It was THE most amazing food (and boy did we eat a lot) and Jan picked the wine, which was fab (Rockpile). Those girls are such good wine-pickers…must be living in wine country. We were kaput after dinner and relieved to realize this was only our 2nd day. Yahoo.
We headed out the next morning, walked around the town square art show, went to the cute little farmer’s market and I decided I could totally live in this little Healdsburg. On the road again, we agreed to stop at Mauritson (the winery that makes the wine we had at dinner the night before). It was starting to rain, so our winery day was cut a little short. We stopped at BR Cohn (so odd that there’s a pool in the back of the winery, they probably have cool parties there) and then had lunch in downtown Sonoma. I was a little bummed it was down-pouring since it was my first time in Sonoma, but I’m sure there will be more trips there. We got back to the girls pad and watched movies cuddled up on the couch in front of the fire. Ahhhhh….
I was chomping at the bit the next morning (I was up at 6am) because I knew we were going to the city. My favorite!!! I was like a kid. We took the Bart (train) into the city and went right to the Pier/Embarcadero. That market area is beyond incredible. I could spend hours in there, the cheeses, breads, it definitely plays with your senses. No rain was in sight today so we were off to Hog Island. We had been there with the girls a couple years back and we had not stopped thinking about it. We waited for a great table outside and enjoyed grilled cheese (still amazing) and clam chowder (not sure if you remember my blog about that back then…I was expecting something like Campbells soup and out came these clams with eyes). We laughed at it just like the last time and I passed on the clam chowder. We wandered around the piers and stopped at Pier 23. The view was beyond stunning. We sat outside, got excited when we saw that there was going to be live music and took it all in. Again, it was about then that I realized I could totally live there and do that every weekend. But, we had city to see people!
I was glad I had worn proper shoes, because we trekked it up some major San Fran hills checking out the neighborhoods. Wow, I would be a skinny minny if I lived here. We stumbled upon a crazy garden right in the middle of some streets and stopped in our tracks (and perfect timing bc I could use a break for a bit…pull out the camera). Gorgeous. We walked through China Town, heard some music coming from somewhere and dropped in to listen (the sign made it seem like there were naked girls there, so I was a little hesitant in the middle of the afternoon, but it was normal–I’m guessing that maybe at night it gets a little racy). We enjoyed a fab dinner at Lark Creek Steak in the city before moseying back to the train. Why does every meal we have there seem over the top good? We were leaving the next day so K&J showed us a great little place for breakfast and we laughed and got sentimental about when we’d see each other again. Oh, don’t you worry girls….we’ll be back as soon as possible…or see ya in the big T my friends.
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