San Francisco!

Where to go for good coffee in SF

Recently, Jon and I took a long weekend trip to San Francisco.  One of my friends from high school had moved there relatively recently and the city was showing the same musical we did in high school, so we thought it was a good time for a little mini reunion.  It was the first time I'd seen any of them in about 8 years, so it was really good to get back together.  All in all, there were nine of us for the weekend: Jon and I, Kenneth (Portland), two from Logan, Utah, three from the Idaho Falls area, and the one who is living in SF.

So we dropped off a sad Gromit at the Trainer/boarder's house and hit the road for Seattle.  We knew we were in for a long wait after we arrived.  Our plane landed at 2pm and the Idaho/Portland/Utah people didn't land till around 7/8pm.  Unfortunately, what we didn't realize until about 7 was that we were at a different airport from everyone else.  People had forgotten to mention they were flying into the Oakland airport, while we thinking about how all our activities were in SF, had flown in there.  Nevertheless, the fact wouldn't have changed much, and after a long ride on the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), we met up with the group in Pleasanton, the nearby city where Sarah's in-laws live.  We spent the night there, in their immensely gorgeous house, rehashing and playing games and catching up, before getting an early start (10AM) out to the city. 

 

Our hotel luckily had our rooms ready early and were nice enough to let us check in ahead of schedule, so we dropped bags and then hit the streets.  Kenneth had gotten a recommendation for a great coffee place nearby, so we were determined to make that our first stop.  Unfortunately, except for the three of us, the rest of the group wasn't as excited about the coffee, so when we finally found the place, they then decided to split up and head straight to Chinatown.  We thoroughly enjoyed our hand-made, individually prepared cups of goodness and baked delights and had some nice sibling bonding time before meeting back up with the rest of the group where we had lunch.  From there, we wandered up to Coit Tower for a nice view of the city.  We made the trek by foot back to the hotel and relaxed a bit and debated about our dinner choices before getting some highly rated hot dogs (they even had veggie dogs, so Kenneth, Jon and I were easily convinced).  Then it was showtime!  The theatre was just around the corner from our hotel, and for the next 3 hours we relived our high school drama fun (and were given a surprise or two by a few of the changes they had in their version).  It was good.

The next morning we made our way to the bridge.  We took a bus to get there, and walked around a bit and partway across it before making the 4 mile journey from the bridge to Fisherman's Wharf.  It was actually an awesome place to do a 4 mile walk: view of the bridge the whole time, beach and water on one side, green rolling park grass on the other, and lots of opportunities for people and dog watching all around.  We had lunch at the famous Boudin's Bakery- known for their sourdough, and then the big group headed to their Alcatraz tour while Kenneth, Jon, and I fed the pigeons some bread that I had stashed from the restaurant and laughed at the silly sea lions.  We power walked back to the hotel, and after the group got back, dinner was had, after an only slightly strenuous selection struggle.  We had brunch together at a nice place with  crepes the next morning and then we headed our separate ways.  Good city, good friends, great weekend!