Chinatown

Ferry Building

City Hall and Library

Mission District

Hayes District

The last leg of my March trips was to San Fransisco with Vu, and while he started orientation for his new job, I explored the city on my own.  Our hotel was right on the edge of the financial district, across the street from the old San Fransisco Mint.  There was an Acai bowl truck right behind the mint, so my first day I picked one up and sat on the steps of the mint to enjoy it.  Perfect start to the day and week!  It was pretty close to Chinatown so I wandered around down there, stopped to visit the Palace Hotel and seeing the amazing lobby, before wandering through Chinatown.  I mostly just wandered, looking through the shops and a mandatory stop at the fortune cookie factory.  It was so cool to watch them make the cookies.

I stopped at City Lights Book store and browsed all the little nooks of the store before heading down to the waterfront to the Ferry building.  I tired a few spots I found recommendations for, and got some bread and cheese, and then ate on the benches out on the dock.  Then it started to rain and I got really cold, so I got some some hot chocolate from Blue Bottle to warm up on my way back to the hotel.  I passed some really cool water fountains on my way, I love stumbling onto fountains.  The forecast for the week was a lot of rain, which being from Seattle I am totally good with, and that really helped me because it kept the temperature nice and cool for me.  And it didn’t actually end up raining that much while I was out and about.  After resting a little while at the hotel, I wandered out to explore City Hall and the Library which were close.  That night we went out to get some really good Ramen with Vu and one of his old coworkers that was in town for the day.

On day 2 I started by walking from the hotel to Tartine Bakery in the Mission District.  It ended up being a much further walk than I thought… but the bakery was sooo good.  I picked up a morning bun and then walked up to the top corner of Delores Park to get the amazing view of the city skyline while I ate the bun, which was A.MAZ.ING!  It was so flaky and crispy and sweet, it was so good!  I wandered around the Mission district then headed over to Hayes to see the Painted Ladies.  I loved all the architecture along the way.  And of course that iconic Full House view from Alamo Square Park.  The last thing I did was walk down to Miette for my second bakery of the day, and when I walked past the strawberry gummy bunnies they smelled so good I had to get some of them too.  I was so tired by this point and so hungry for something that wasn’t a pastry, I just got a quick dinner since Vu was going out with his coworkers, and went back to the hotel.