Day 1: Exploring San Francisco

Every year for my birthday I plan a trip to visit a place I've never been before. This year was... San Francisco!!


 San Francisco has always been on my top list of places to visit and since 'Charmed' was one of my favorite tv shows (based in San Fran, of course!) it made all the sense to make it a reality.  My trip was for 3 nights and 4 days, from Thursday night to Sunday night.

Day 1.....

I should first mention my trip was with my friend and coworker Maribel. We started by landing at San Francisco airport (ugh, horrible plane ride thanks to motion sickness!).

 We grabbed a taxi to our hotel, Hotel Nikko. This was recommended by my other coworker, Cristy, and I couldn't thank her enough! Gorgeous, comfortable hotel in the heart of Union Square!

We walked Union Square for little bit and had a nice glass of wine and a small dinner at Scala's Bistro located in the Sir Francis Drake Hotel.

Union Square

We walked back to our hotel and called it a night.  We had much to do the next day. 

Our morning started off in the North Beach area that is considered the Italian neighborhood of San Francisco. We decided to check out Mama's Restaurant which is well known for their amazing breakfasts. It was an hour wait but well worth it. The food was delicious and just cooked with alot of love.  I had eggs benedict with a hollandaise sauce and seasoned potatos, as well as a french toast sampler that was too rich for its own good. And to wash it all down, I had their lemonade sangria that was absolutely delish!

 So now that my tummy was full... we were off to our next destination which was next door... the St. Peter and Paul Cathedral church. This chuch finished constuction in 1926 and is a well known landmark and active church in the North Beach district. It's very beautiful and worth the visit.

So off to my right, I noticed a large 210 ft tower up this steep hill, Telegraph Hill, which I soon learned to be Coit Tower. This is an art deco tower built in 1933 by a wealthy heiress, Lillie Hitchcock Coit.  The tower now houses 19 murals drawn by over 26 different artists.

We decided to walk to the tower... OMG! I thought I was having an asthma attack I was so out of breathe... but the view and the experience was worth it!

Looking back on my walk up to Coit Tower.

Coit Tower

We made it to the top of Telegraph Hill.  The view was so worth it!

The joy to going up is knowing you must come down.  We now started our descent downhill to Pier 39 to check out the fun stuff.  There's tons of shops down by the pier, all the tourist tours, Ghirardelli square, and of course a view of the bay, Alcatraz, and Golden Gate Bridge.

Welcome to Pier 39!

Ghirardelli Square

Beautiful flowers down by the pier!

Looking out from the pier at the ships

 So after spending a good amount of time at the piers we decided to head back to the hotel.  Our feet were killing us and we just needed a break.  Since walking back was not an option... we decided to take a trolley back to Union Square!

 The ride back was pretty fun, scary, and scenic all at once! These hills in San Fran are no joke and I don't know how the locals do it on a daily basis. The trolley drivers were a lot of fun and friendly... in fact they let us skip the ridiculously long line to ride back into downtown. :)

We stopped at our hotel lounge called Anzu Restaurant & Bar.  It has a nice relaxing feel to it and I immediately ordered a cucumber martini and their mac n cheese which was creamy and one of the best I had.

After we had drinks and dinner we headed to our hotel room to relax and take a quick nap.  Lets just say we didn't wake up until midnight and completely slept away the rest of our evening! Lol I was exhausted but you know what, it just gave us the much needed rest for our Sonoma Valley tour the following day.

Day 1 was a success and alot of fun! Stay tuned to learn of Day 2 which includes our Sonoma Valley tour, meeting up with friends, and partying in the Castro district!