After moving home, I’ve had the urge to go on more trips due to the fact that I feel trapped on a small island. Since working full time, PTO is hard to come by and planning a quick getaway is even harder since travel time is easily 6+ hours to any destination other than Hawaii. I decided to take advantage of the long weekend and booked a trip to San Francisco for Thanksgiving weekend.
Flying from Hawaii is expensive, so any chance I get to take a cheap trip, I’m on it. Luckily, I have a bunch of friends in SF and was able to secure free housing for the weekend.
Day 1:
Day one started off with a late afternoon flight on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I booked two one-way basic economy fares on Alaska and United Airlines which was around $450. Going there, I rode Alaska airlines whereI got a free upgrade to an economy plus seat! Beware: if you choose to fly basic economy, you cannot choose your seat and are limited to carry on only. Seats are issued at the gate most times. Since I was traveling alone, I didn’t mind the terms for the cheap fare. I landed late Wednesday night at SFO where my friend, Patrick, picked me and my boyfriend up (we flew separately). Although we were tired, I was starving and ready to eat all the city offers. We decided to drop our bags at home and got some bomb Mexican food in the mission.
Day 2:
To start Thanksgiving Day, we met our friend at his apartment in Chinatown. The weather was gloomy and chilly. We decided to get dim sum nearby for breakfast and I dozed off for a morning nap. The boys started to prepare Thanksgiving dinner - turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing - all the fixings! We spent the rest of the night stuffing our faces, drinking wine, and hanging out like old times. Like always, I was the first to fall asleep on the couch!
Day 3:
The next day, we started off the morning grabbing by a quick breakfast and then headed for Sonoma for wine tasting! Our last minute planning had us leaving the city late, stopping at Chik-fil-a for lunch (a must on my trip), and resulted in a somewhat chaotic full day. We lucked out with sunny skies but unfortunately the vineyard plants were dead in the middle of fall. Our first stop was at a Sonoma Winery that allowed for family picnics. You buy the wine up front, and you can bring your own food and soak in the sun. After that, we tried to go to other wineries, but were unlucky as many required reservations to go in. We ended the day at Oxbow Public Market to snack and get our last fixings of wine before heading back to the city! I would HIGHLY recommend planning ahead if you plan to go wine tasting. Winging it with a big group of people will likely lead to a poorly planned day…but nevertheless, we still had fun drinking in Wine Country. For dinner, we stopped off at one of my favorites in the city, Souvla. A must try is their greek yogurt froyo with baklava toppings!! At night, everyone got back together and went to a few bars before calling it a night.
Day 4:
We caught the bart into the city for my last full day to eat and explore the city! But not before stopping off at Trader Joes to get my fix of groceries and unnecessary snacks! I picked up $100 worth of goods - truffle cheese bites, penguin gummies, new pasta sauces, falafel mix - to name a few. Oh how I’ve missed Trader Joes! If only I could’ve brought home some frozen and fridge goods to Hawaii too…
I’ve gone to SF before, but always with my family. I feel like I’ve never gotten to explore the trendy parts of it so it was fun to walk around the streets and pop in to small boutiques and restaurants. The weather was pretty overcast and rainy but didn’t ruin our fun. For lunch, we went to Barzotto for pasta. While the food was 100% instagrammable, the food itself was a 5/10. I bookmarked it since it was recommended by a blogger I follow, but honestly not worth the hype. Along the way, we also stopped for tacos by the bart station, then went back to Patricks’ when it started to rain. For dinner, we headed back into the city and met up with a bunch of our other friends for dinner. We got a table at A Mano fairly quickly with a big party. For dinner, I split the fried risotto balls with Patrick - one of our fav Italian dishes. And for the entree, I split the mushroom pizza and a braised meat pasta with my boyfriend. The food here was fresh and I liked their freshly made pasta! While the prices are expensive, you pay for the atmosphere and location of the restaurant. It’s certainly a cute date-night place to hit! For dessert, we had to stop off at Salt and Straw. I got too excited and took a pic after devouring the first layer! They have different classics than the LA stores, but luckily had their classic honey lavender flavor which I had to get. We went over to my friend, Haley’s apartment to end the night.
Day 5:
I had a half-day left in the city before my flight so we tried to make the most of it. For breakfast, we stopped at Tartine in the Mission. I got the smoked salmon toast which was delicious but expensive, like everything else in SF. After eating, we went to the SF Modern Art Museum, explored all the floors, and ended at Tender Greens for a late meal (I took mines to-go for the plane ride). It felt like a short-long weekend and I was sad to leave. The trip was definitely last minute, and a bit hectic so I didn’t get to see everything I wanted to. It was a nice reminder of all the things I missed in LA - friends, food, city life, etc. The weather wasn’t ideal, but I’m hoping I can go back again and explore the city more! Hopefully under sunny skies the next time!
A big shoutout to all my friends who hosted, visited me, and planned activities for me during this trip! You know who you are :)
This post is long overdue, but I finally had the time and motivation to write about it during this lockdown. I’m hoping I can see all my friends and share more adventures soon!
