san francisco in may — IT'S HOOVERTIME

The reason for visiting San Francisco in May was a surprise. For a birthday. For a dear dear friend. And he wasn't even surprised. I was more surprised when we saw him....

Brian and I agreed that we'd pack light to be ultra mobile for this trip. Meaning backpacks only. We were only staying for two nights so it seemed possible. And thankfully it was! We left Long Beach early Friday morning to SFO. And apparently we were the only ones that got the cocktail memo on this flight....I felt judged....

We buzzed into the city on BART straight down to The Ferry Building for some wholesome tourist activities: coffee at Blue Bottle, cheese of course at Cowgirl Creamery, perusing the wine selections, buying other delicious snacks, and lunch at The Slanted Door. I've been to The Slanted Door three times now. This place is a zoo. My favorite way to work it there is to go a little on the early end for lunch and sit at the bar. The bartenders are always nice, the raw bar is right there in front of you, and you get to watch them cut ice into cubes BY HAND. Eat: Crispy Imperial Rolls and the Green Papaya Salad, though everything looks so. freaking. good.

We decided to carry on as the tourists do and swing by Fisherman's Warf. But, not to hob nob with the rest of the looky-loos....I wanted to go to the Eagle Cafe. I know there are probably better places out there, but the view is not too shabby - and damn, that was a pretty gorgeous weekend. Right?! Definitely ask to sit outside. Definitely. We got TWO cocktails each and a cup of clam chowder.

Then, with a pretty solid buzz on, we decided to hit up the Musee Mecanique which we both agreed to only spend 5 bucks at....we could have spent much much more. There was so much weird/creepy stuff in there, man. I got the idea, it was cool, and I'm pretty sure I don't need to go back. I recommend it! Also, we may or may not, have broken at least three games during our stay....

We finally decided to check into our AirBnB that was in Outer Richmond near the Sutro Baths and Lands End. I definitely recommend this particular spot. It was nice to feel as if there was more space. The ocean over there is just incredible. We unwrapped our treasures from The Ferry Building and dug in before we met up with friends for Part One of the birthday surprise.

We met at Pittsburgh's Pub. Sketch from the front, sketch from the inside, cash only, solid solid place - would go back again. And this photo below was post surprise....

We stayed up so late, but woke up relatively early with hangovers to little footsteps upstairs (understatement). Seemed like a good enough time to head over to The Cliff House, since it was just so close. We thought it might be interesting to walk through Sutro Heights Park to get over there.....misleading Google Maps bugged us out - at any moment I felt like I was going to stumble upon a hobo abode that really deserved privacy. So we bailed and just walked up the hill next to the beach. The Cliff House was cool - cause it's old mostly. We didn't feel like waiting for breakfast, so we sat at the bar which was cool - cause it's old mostly. Apparently they have these famous Bloody Marys, I mean they bottle their own mix and everything. So, I figured it seemed like a good choice....it was meh. But, you know what was good: THE POPOVERS. No really, just go there for the popovers. Really.

Later we visited my cousin near Pacific Heights. Below is the view from their place.....not too shabby! I'm glad the quick visit was possible: 1. because we got to see family, of course and 2. this location dropped us right next to one of our best dining experiences of the entire weekend. As we left my cousin's house, we wandered down to Chestnut Street and was pretty much just going to pop in wherever something looked interesting. Everywhere was packed and we were hungry. It was late lunch, tail end I'd say (just before 2:30 actually), and we were running out of options. THEN, A 16 showed itself. They had mercy on us and let us in just before they closed up to prep for dinner service. WOW. Really. It's a little Italian place that features Pizza Napolitana - we did not know what we had stumbled upon. They boast many many accolades. Eat: the beet salad (I know it's overdone, but this one is freaking good), the margherita pizza (they give you a pair of scissors to cut it with), and the braised pork meatballs (get some extra bread) - this meal was SO good I wanted to cry.

I guess we planned a little poorly because we ended up having Italian for dinner, but this was a completely different experience. This time we went to The Gold Mirror to keep Josh out of the house so his other friends could set up his surprise birthday party. This place was classic Italian and will not leave you hungry.

We stayed up way too late again and found ourselves with more hangovers in the morning. We snacked on the rest of our picnic spread and packed up our modest pile of belongings. Brian was NOT on board with the next activity, but he was a champ and I think we both sweated out the alcohol that really needed to leave our bodies. We "hiked" through Lands End. And it was uncharacteristically HOT. We had to stop many times up the stairs like an old married couple...we just pretended to be admiring the view.....

Anyway, we made it and decided we deserved a beer. That makes sense right? Also, it was Bay to Breakers that particular day, so getting an Uber or Lyft was QUITE expensive. Walking was our main mode of transportation. So we ended up at the Tee Off Bar & Grill. And it was perfection. Go there. I guess Diners, Drive-ins, & Dives as been there....not sure how that makes me feel, but it was exactly what we needed in exactly the right place.

Then we hopped on a Muni bus and made the long journey down toward a BART station. We walked around and made it to SFMOMA, but were too tired to actually walk through the place so we just sat inside in the AC for a half an hour and grabbed a dinner snack at The Grove Yerba Buena. It's a casual spot where you order at the counter and find a seat sort of place, but the interior was interestingly decorated. It was just right and we finally got on BART to go back to SFO to sit and wait there for our double delayed flight....Kind of a crappy end to a really excellent weekend. Hopefully, eventually I'll forget that part.