A few weeks ago we flew out to San Francisco for a vacation! I had been to SF before (my older brother lived there at one point), but my husband hadn’t. We knew we wanted a mix of city and then outdoorsy vacation, so SF seemed like a great place to start our trip.
Saturday
After landing and dropping our bags at our Airbnb we headed down to the Marina and Blue Barn Gourmet for a late lunch. We weren’t the only ones with that idea – it was super busy! But our sandwiches were delicious so I see why they’re popular! I got the Barn BLT which was amazingly delicious and had the best aioli, and my husband got their Rooster which he loved.
My travel outfit – great on the plane and then perfect for exploring! Jacket // Similar Scarf // Shoes // Sweater // Pants // Purse // Sunglasses
Then we walked down to the Presidio and explored by the Golden Gate. On the way we walked by the Palace of Fine Arts which was much larger than I’d imagined! I was glad we had an umbrella handy because it would randomly rain all day! Unfortunately it was also windy – classic! – so it wasn’t super helpful 🙂
We continued to explore and then went to a Starbucks to grab some tea and warm up. By this point we were pretty exhausted from traveling and walking so we took an Uber back to our Airbnb and hung around. We stayed in the Glen Park neighborhood and our host recommended grabbing Pizza at Gialina’s down the street. It was super yummy and perfectly low key for a quiet night!
Sunday
The next morning we woke up and grabbed breakfast at another neighborhood spot, the Destination Baking Company. My pain au chocolat was delicious! We hopped on the BART and took it down to the Ferry Building. After grabbing some coffee at Blue Bottle – what an amazing Americano! – we walked along the piers towards where our Alcatraz Cruise would start.
Walking behind the Ferry Building, coffee in hand!
Great view of the Golden Gate from Alcatraz.
I can’t say the ferry ride was my favorite, but at least it was only 10 minutes! It was so cold on Alcatraz – you’re really out there in the wind and it’s hard to stay warm. But it had great views of the city and the audio guide tour was educational and interesting. Alcatraz was definitely the most touristy thing we did! You can find more information on getting to Alcatraz, tickets, and tours here. After we got back we headed towards Pier 39 (main tourist spot) and immediately turned around once we saw the crowds. I would much rather explore neighborhoods and get off the beaten path than battle insane tourist crowds.
La Traviata in the Mission
We continued to walk around and then took the BART back to Glen Park and relaxed. After doing some research on Yelp we decided to head into the Mission for dinner. You might be thinking we got Mexican food, but we actually got Italian! There was an Italian restaurant with great Yelp reviews in the Mission and pasta sounded amazing. La Traviata was such a hole in the wall and our dinner was great. You know you’re going to get authentic when the waiters are old Italian men!
We really walked a ton and explored our 36 hours in San Francisco. Those hills really get you!36 hours was the perfect amount of time for us – we could see what we wanted before heading up to Napa and Tahoe. It was a beautiful city to explore and I can see why people love living there. I’ll be sharing what we did in Napa and Tahoe in the upcoming weeks, so be sure to check back!
