Stay-cation

Dave had quite a few business trips when he first started his job. It made for a few very lonely weeks, but on the plus side he racked up quite a lot of points at a pretty sweet hotel.  We took advantage of these points and spent the weekend  in San Francisco.

Our hotel- The Omni

On Friday we walked around Union Square which is always fun. It was also Chinese New Year and so I thought it would be neat to check out Chinatown. I had pictured Chinese lanterns galore, Chinese dragons roaming the streets, gongs going off, etc. I think this vision somewhat resembled a faint memory I have of a Chinese New Year’s parade in elementary school. It was quite the opposite. Everything was closed for the night and there were only a few Chinese lanterns. I was a bit disappointed, but maybe my expectations we a bit far fetched.  On Saturday, we woke up and had breakfast in bed. This was quite nice I must say (especially because I didn’t have to wash the sheets afterwards from the muffin crumbs that were all over).  We decided to walk though Chinatown again because it was on our way to our next stop. It was a bit more festive during the day and had quite a fun atmosphere.

We continued on to Little Italy. I really liked Little Italy. There were so many quaint Italian restaurants that looked delicious.  I had read online about a hole in the wall pizza place that literally had thousands of great reviews. We went there for lunch and it lived up to my expectations. It was really good! Our next stop was a walking tour on Telegraph Hill. I had heard about San Francisco walking tours and thought we should check one out. There are a ton of them and each walking tour highlights a different landmark, historical feature, or tourist attraction in the San Francisco area. There were many that sounded appealing- from San Francisco Victorian mansions to Nob Hill, it was hard to decide on just one. The tour we went on covered Telegraph Hill and Coit tower. Our tour guide was excellent. She told us unique and funny stories of the history of Telegraph Hill, showed us where Mrs. Ghirardelli lived until her passing, pointed out the oldest inhabitable building in San Francisco, and much more. It was such a fun way to get to know this part of the city. These are some of our pictures from the tour. The views from Telegraph Hill are spectacular and we were lucky to have a very clear day- no fog at all!

The steps in this picture are in front of a row of houses and the foliage is their shared backyard/ garden. It was really pretty. We were there when the mailman was delivering the mail and the poor guy had quite the trek to get to everyone’s front door.

There were many sailboats in the bay

Alcatraz in the distance

I pretty sure Dave was having a good time despite his fake smile.

This somewhat resembles a senior photo. Classic.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at Ocean Beach. It was a gorgeous day. It was in the high 60’s/ low 70’s. Days like this make me so happy I don’t live in cold Utah anymore.

 

The sunset was beautiful, but it sure did cool off quickly once the sun started to go down.

Dave’s silhouette