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San Francisco

September 2019

By Kelsi

Another year, another birthday... and another birthday adventure!

(Almost) every year for the past seven years, I've gone somewhere for my birthday. It began in New York City and has since stretched from Spain to China to Texas, and after all this time, one thing remains the same: I go somewhere I've never been before.

This year, I knew I'd have to be close to home because in mid-October (less than a month after my birthday), I'd be in Prague eating, drinking, and dancing with a group of friends.

And despite having a couple things in common with Carrie Bradshaw (a single woman and writer living in a big city with [hopefully just slight] neurotic overanalyzing tendencies and riding the roller coaster of dating men while in your 30s—yikes, that's more commonalities than I thought), I definitely don't have her budget. I pinch pennies so hard that Lincoln poops.

Affordability is not a trait of San Francisco, but flights are less than $150 and under two hours long, so it checked some major boxes. Additionally, it's a city with lots to do, see, and eat. Ding, ding, and ding.

Let's freaking go.

I took fewer photos on this trip than others in the past, but this was due in part to the fact that the trip was barely 48 hours long. Whirlwind(y) trip in SF!

Painted Ladies

Two things I knew about San Francisco before we hopped on our flight:

1. The Painted Ladies are houses, not statues.

2. SF's fog has a name. His name is Karl. **

** I thought this fun fact was common knowledge, so I felt unnecessarily cool for knowing it despite never being there before.

golden gate park

Zheng and I walked for miiiiles inside Golden Gate Park. The morning-Karl had burned off, melting into a perfect sunny day. I even got a little sunkissed (read: burned, I'm pale) on my shoulders.

We browsed the Dahlia Garden, visited Stow Lake and saw "swans" that looked like their brains were on the outside of their heads (Zheng's reaction was the best), and found $20 in the grass!

PS: Who else thinks the Conservatory of Flowers looks like the tent in the Great British Baking Show?

Zheng discovering what dahlia puffs feel like

Golden Gate Bridge

The vast majority of people seem to view this iconic bridge from Crissy Field or viewpoints directly East; I wanted to see it from a different angle, so we went to Land's End. Windy af but also beautiful af. Bonus points for there being like 5 people there (including us).

(A few things not included in this post: our American/dim sum-inspired dinner at State Bird Provisions, the humongous breakfast burritos from Bacon Bacon, Tenderloin's farmers market, our Oakland home-away-from-home.)

Mission: possible

There was so much in San Francisco that we didn't see, but two things that made it feel like we were outside of Seattle included the distinct Victorian/Edwardian (90s-kid translation: Full House-style) architecture and the colorful murals. Seattle isn't overflowing with street art, so when I see it elsewhere, I'm in love.

birthday-eve dinner @ foreign cinema

Thirty-something going on eighty-something, I love all things old and dusty. As far as I'm concerned, dust is a layer of priceless character.

Foreign Cinema is an upscale restaurant in Mission with a brick-lined and covered courtyard where they project old-time movies. We enjoyed delicious cocktails, wines, and dishes to celebrate me becoming one year closer to AARP status.

Birthday breakfast @ La tartine

No better way to start the morning than with coffee, sugary pastries, and a sweet friend.

Not pictured: our hammy Croque Monsieur.

a moment in Chinatown

We'd planned to see the California Street cablecar while walking through Chinatown, unfortunately it wasn't running due to construction or renovations. Bummer. And we didn't have enough time to BART, Lyft, or walk to another one since we were on a time crunch to catch our flight back home.

I'm interpreting this as San Francisco wanting me to come back to see it along with the many other things we didn't get a chance to do during this wonderful weekend away (like the Alcatraz night tour, snapping long exposures of Lombard Street, and eating face-sized donuts at Bob's).