Top 10 Parts of the San Francisco Trip

Top Favorite Spots in San Francisco

1) City Lights Bookstore. I love an independent bookstore, and this was no exception. I browsed around for a while, and even ventured into the upper poetry room, where I read a little Siegfried Sassoon in honor of my father-in-law and his Great War class in London.

2) The Chihuly glass exhibit at the de Young museum in Golden Gate Park. I took about 50 pictures. It was breathtaking.

3) In-n-Out. We went twice. It was delicious both times. Christmas in Las Vegas cannot come soon enough.

4) Biking across the Golden Gate Bridge. We rented a tandem bike and took a two hour ride along the shore and then across and back over the bridge. The view was spectacular, as expected. Also, it was downhill on the way back.

5) The fortune cookie factory in Chinatown. It was just so cool to see how they were made. When I pointed to the alley it was down, Bart asked if we were going to get mugged. Thankfully, we didn’t.

6) The Farmer’s Market. Cue the choir of angels – it was that good. I’m still drooling over the green olive dip, the peanut butter cookies, goat cheese, and the green tomatoes dipped in rosemary salt. We also ate probably half a pound of peaches. A lovely Saturday morning with Merrick and Philip, that reminded me of London.

7) Staying with Monica and Brad was one of the major highlights of the trip for us. Bart had never met either of them and I’d never met Brad, but I felt like we’d been friends for years. They kindly drove us to and from the BART station several days in a row, fed us some delicious meals, and took us on a little tour of the east bay. We also all went out to breakfast on our last morning there, where I had, no joke, the best pancakes of my life.

8) San Francisco Public Library. It’s gotten a bad rap for poor design and such, but I thought it was lovely and the children’s section was beautiful. I loved the display of Harry Potter books in all kinds of languages. And, really, any library with many skylights can’t be all that bad in my opinion.

9) The Sea Lions at Pier 39. I think Bart could have watched them all day long. We even went back a second time on Monday morning to watch them, Bart loved them so much.

10) Alcatraz was very cool (and expensive). The audio tour was great and the history was just so interesting. I don’t think I’d rush right back to do it again, but I’m glad we made it out there.

This is in no particular order! We loved it all!