West Coast Story

I’ve been back from California for a day now, and I must say I’m suffering from a little post-vacay depression!

I flew out of San Francisco Monday afternoon.

Said goodbye to the California landscape and quickly saw the snow-capped mountains!

 

I sat next to an adorable elderly gentleman who offered to take my picture. Said he hadn’t used a camera in 40 years!

My body is all kinds of screwed up from the three hour difference between Eastern and Pacific time. Not to mention, Daylight Savings happened while I was away. Ohyes, and my calves are screaming from walking the hills, and my back is effed from lugging around a heavy hiking bag!

Le sigh. I think it’s time to relieve some of the finer moments of California :)

The Foodbuzz Festival ended Sunday morning with a farewell brunch, leaving us a whole day to explore the city. Unfortunately, this was the only day it rained!!

Suki and her boyfriend were nice enough to bring Holly and I on our own little driving tour of San Francisco.

First stop, obviously, were the Full House houses. Err, I mean the Painted Ladies.

LOVE the Victorian houses in San Francisco. I oohed and aahed over the architecture there the whole time.

The next most important touristy stop? Trader Joe’s!

We don’t have Trader Joe’s in Canada, so we went to an area in San Francisco dubbed “Trader Joe’s Heights.”

My suitcase was already bursting with Foodbuzz swag goodies, so I couldn’t get much. Just what I could fit in my arms! (details of what these goodies are to come in another post)

Afterwards, we stopped by Baker Beach to get a spooky view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

San Francisco is known for being a foggy city, so I felt this view was actually quite appropriate.

Suki is a fellow Star Wars nerd, so we stopped by Lucas Arts to see a Yoda statue. “Size matters not…”

The bridge is nice of look at, but of course I also wanted to go over it!

We’d originally planned to walk it on Sunday, but the weather kinda of nixed those plans. So we opted for the dry car instead :)

More gorgeous views of the bay!

Going to California made me miss living by real water. I grew up next to the Atlantic Ocean, and these Great Lakes here in Ontario just don’t cut it.

I miss the ocean!!

The rain stopped long enough for us to wander around on the other side of the bridge, which is a really cute and upper class beach town called Sausalito.

We conveniently stopped next to an excellent burger joint in Sausalito just as we were getting hungry.

A no-frills kind of place, with a simple sign saying “Hamburgers” over the door. Hamburgers Sausalito is just burgers, fries and pop. My kinda place.

Plus, the Soup Nazi was here!!

I got a lean burger with everything but mayo.

Ohyeah. Even after eating amazing food all weekend, sometimes nothing hits the spot like a burger!

We wandered for ice cream after, stopping at a place called Lappert’s.

I was too full for a bowl, but still asked for a taste of a flavour I couldn’t pass up…

Date ice cream!! I am obsessed with dates (second favourite sweet only to chocolate). It was a pretty frickin’ good bite.

Tour guides!

Our last stop on our San Francisco tour was Ghirardelli Square/Fisherman’s Wharf.

We received a lot of free chocolate over the course of the festival, so none of us felt the need to buy any at the store.

But that didn’t stop us from swinging through just to get the free chocolate they hand out to everyone who walks through the door!

Peppermint marble chocolate.  Do I even have to say it was good?

Fisherman’s Wharf, while touristy, was still a neat little area of the city with tons of shops, and of course great food!

Be it real crab…

…or sourdough crab ;)

I didn’t know this before, but San Francisco is famous for its sourdough bread. We stopped by the famous Boudin Sourdough to check it out.

The one thing I regret from my trip is that I didn’t get chowder in a sourdough bowl. We ate so much over the weekend that I really just could not fit it in my tummy. Just another excuse to go back!

And of course, to buy this hat too ;)

Growing up near the ocean, I’ve seen my fair share of seagulls. But the ones at Fisherman’s Wharf were the biggest I’ve ever seen. Twice the size of the ones in the Northeast!

We did a quick drive-by of Lombard Street. I still have memories of driving down it when I was a kid – and the crowds of tourists were out of control!

 

Now that I’m home, it’s strange to think that I just spent a whirlwind weekend in California.

I have a sneaking feeling I’ll be back on the West Coast soon enough though. Besides, there’s that sourdough chowder bowl I still have to get ;)

My other Foodbuzz Festival/San Francisco recaps:
California Dreamin’
The Bakery That Changed My Life
All Good Things Come To An End
A Food Lover’s Paradise

 

Question of the Day: What American city is at the top of your list to visit? I know everyone wants to gallivant around Europe and such, but I think there are so many cool places in the States I still have to visit! Top ones include: DC, Austin, Boulder, New Orleans and Seattle.