WEDNESDAY:
Matt's mom was incredibly kind and gracious in coming out to take care of Benjamin while we were gone. This grandmother doesn't need any begging or cajoling, she jumps at the opportunity to spend time with the little man, and we can't thank her enough for that. We're SO beyond blessed to have such a wonderful Mimi in Benjamin's life. He loves her dearly (and is often found wandering around saying her name if he's seen her picture). So, to make the "hand-off" easy, she flew into Denver that morning a few hours before Matt and I were to be flying out. We met at the airport, enjoyed a little breakfast, and made the hand off. (Unfortunately, though, our flight was delayed!)
So, after landing later than we expected, and then realizing that the reason I got such a steal on a rental car was because it was located off airport grounds, we didn't end up getting to our hotel until much later than planned (remember, there was an itinerary to follow!). (Sidenote, we used the rental car company Payless which had really terrible reviews online... but at 1/3 the price of Hertz or Avis, we couldn't pass it up. And in the end, we didn't have any trouble with them other than how stinkin' far away they were from the airport. They even credited us some money back for returning the car early. A 5 day rental for $165 - that's unheard of in my book!)
At any rate, we had to skip the cable car ride that I was looking forward to taking... but we had dinner reservations to get to, and we couldn't miss those. So, after checking in at our hotel, we walked through some shopping and toward the water on our way to dinner. Thanks to a recommendation, we decided to splurge on a fancy dinner at Boulevard, and it was everything we heard it'd be! We pretty much licked our plates clean. (Classy!)
After dinner we took a stroll along the water and got to see the beautiful Bay Bridge up close before Matt had to head out for his Everton game.
(This blurb about the game, and accompanying pictures, brought to you by Matt himself!):
After an amazing (and I do mean amazing) dinner at Boulevard and a short walk under the Bay Bridge, I made a quick change on the street into my Everton gear and headed towards AT&T Park. I had purchased a ticket for the Everton supporters section, which ended up being great seats, and it was surprisingly filled with a lot of "real" fans (as in they grew up in Liverpool and supported the Toffees since childhood, as opposed to somewhat randomly picking a team to support well into their adult years). I stood next to an older guy from Liverpool and his son who basically structured their California vacation to coincide with the game. I was close to the field, with a great view of the action, the atmosphere was great, and the weather was perfect. Everton scored first and our section went wild, a small taste of what it's probably like to be at Goodison Park (their home stadium) where I hope to watch a match someday. I managed to pick up a few chants/songs as well and even ran into a few folks from Denver who made the trip out! The Blues conceded a late goal to tie the score at 1-1, and based on the rules of the International Champions Cup tournament, it went directly to penalty kicks rather than ending in a tie. Juventus had a chance to win it with their superstar (Andrea Pirlo, a legend of Italian soccer and one of the best midfielders of all time) taking the last penalty, and in a fitting ending, he pushed it wide left. Tim Howard (the US national team's goalkeeper as well) ended up making a great save to end it and hand Everton the win and chants of "USA-USA-USA" erupted. All in all it was such a cool experience to see my team, talk to some of the hardcore fans and come back with a win to boot. I never played soccer past elementary school growing up and didn't pay much attention until probably the 2006 World Cup, but I have to say that it's become my second-most favorite sport behind only baseball and my beloved Twins. And maybe I had Anglophile tendencies already (I mean, everything British is automatically cooler right?) but I probably didn't anticipate that I would love following the EPL this much, but there's also a really cool and growing community of people in Denver that get up early on Saturdays to watch their favorite team that is fun to be a part of. It was just awesome to finally get that experience in person. 
While Matt was at the game, I had grand intentions of grabbing a drink at a cute bar or window shopping or something fun, but all I really wanted to do was sleep. But as luck would have it, I passed a City Target on the way back to the hotel, so I of course had to stop in. You can take the girl out of the Target, but.... you can't really take the girl out of the Target. :) At least I was able to stock up on some goodies for our wine country adventures.
THURSDAY:
In the morning, we checked out of our hotel room early and stopped for breakfast nearby at Mo'z Cafe. It was super cute inside and we had a delicious breakfast, big ones to keep us full for our first wine tastings!!
And with that we hopped in the car and headed north. The weather could not have been more gorgeous! Too bad our bay cruise wasn't this day, you could almost see for miles, which is unheard of in SF!
We planned a stop at the Muir Woods National Monument, and I'm SO glad we did. It was gorgeous, quiet, and quite something to see. It was really great doing it on a Thursday, because we felt like we got a lot of space to ourselves. I can only imagine how crazy it must be to go on a weekend. It was chilly though! Not much sun passes through those big trees, we weren't quite prepared for that :)
Then it was on to Wine Country!
SATURDAY:
After leaving Sonoma, we headed south with the plan to make a stop at Battery Spencer for some views of the Golden Gate bridge and the city of San Francisco. Unfortunately, our plans turned out to be a bit disappointing thanks to the super heavy traffic and the foggy/cloudy day. But, we did enjoy the little drive and could imagine the views being stunning without all the clouds!
Then it was back in the city to check into our hotel (Le Meridien in the financial district, thank you Priceline), take a quick nap (yes, I had to, still had a bit of a stomach bug), and then we jumped in a cab to head to uber-touristy Fisherman's Wharf. We probably wouldn't have headed that way except that I thought taking a sunset cruise around the bay would be a great way to see the city and bridges... and in theory it certainly would have been great except that we were surrounded by thick fog and clouds all evening!!
We boarded our boat and off we went in the freezing winds and low fog. It was quite funny, because we were totally unprepared for such cool temperatures and threw on any layers we had. As a result, I look pretty awesome in the pictures from the cruise. :)
 |
| it was obviously a beautiful day for a cruise (insert sarcasm) |
Heading toward Alcatraz (the tours to/at Alcatraz book up WAY far in advance, just FYI, we missed them all):
And other beautiful shores:
SUNDAY
On our last day (insert small tear), we woke up early to make the most of our remaining hours in the city. We drove over to Lombard Street to beat the crowds and drove right down the "crookedest street in the world", with no wait. It was funny. And too short to get many good pictures :)
Then we headed over to the Mission District to grab breakfast. It was recommended to me to try Tartine Bakery, but the lines were literally a block long when we drove by. I assume it's worth it, but we didn't have time to spare :) So, we took a second recommendation I was given and stopped at Toast. YUM. We had a short wait (we barely beat the Sunday brunch crowd thankfully!), had a super awesome waitress who gave us some great recommendations for the day, and enjoyed the food (and my delicious mimosa that was all champagne with a splash of OJ!). Definitely recommend this spot.
After breakfast we decided to drive around a bit and head towards Golden Gate Park...
With a small detour to see the Full House opening credits house!! We were most certainly not the only people that do this, but I was pretty glad we made this stop :) Ahhh....everywhere you look!
After seeing that Golden Gate Park is a nightmare on the weekend (i.e. FULL of people and no places to park), we decided to stop at Amoeba Records (for Matt, of course) before heading back to the Mission District.
Back in the Mission, we stopped by a "beer garden" of sorts that was recommended to us by our waitress. It was awesome to check out, but Matt and I felt WAY too un-hipster for this place. I mean, if you want to learn about how to be a hipster, you should check out this place :)
Then we stopped for lunch at Papalotes (thanks to another recommendation of course), and it did not disappoint! Though, I've heard that most Mexican food in the Mission District is awesome, so I don't think you can really go wrong :)
With that, we headed off to spend the last hour at Delores Park, where we got to enjoy the awesome sounds of some young guys playing songs on steel drums. They were incredible. Playing everything from Eleanor Rigby, to Call Me Maybe, to bands I hadn't even heard of. With the gorgeous setting, the fun music, and all the people, it was a great way to end our time in San Francisco.
And then we headed home to see our Benjamin Willys, of course!!
