So day 2 was probably our MOST packed day in San Fran! And never mind the fact that I woke up at 4am just SOOOO excited thinking about everything we were going to do and see that day that I barely fell back to sleep before Scott woke up around 8:30;) I just couldn't wait to REALLY start exploring the city:)
Since our first "stop" of the morning wasn't open until 10, we decided to wander around Fisherman's Wharf for a little while (a good time to go, since there was hardly ANYONE around at that hour:)
And our FAVORITE stop of the morning was to see the famous 'sunning' sea lions on Pier 39!!
Along with the landing planes of Maho Beach and the dancing fountain at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, I'm ranking the San Fran sea lions as some of the best FREE entertainments you can ever see! They were HILARIOUSSSS....sleeping, then wiggling around, disturbing their neighbors, both breaking into a fight before flopping back down to go to sleep again;) HYSTERICAL!
As much as we wanted to hang out there all day, our rumblings stomachs told us we needed to move onward;) We caught one of the historic street cars and headed to the Ferry Plaza Market....
Like the Chelsea Market in NYC; the Ferry building houses a foodie heaven, filled with a bunch of specialty shops and an outdoors farmer's market on Tuesday, Thursday & Saturdays....(shame I didn't pack a cooler;)
Our first stop was for a caffeine fix at:
The description we had heard about Blue Bottle was that it was "Coffee brewed for the gods." Quite a reputation to live up to, huh??
But oh my God, no joke, this was the best coffee Ever, ever, everrrrrrrrrrr!!! I was obsessed with it for the rest of the trip ;) Blue Bottles 'claim to fame' is that they only sell fresh roasted coffee, so that "you can enjoy coffee at it's peak." They weren't kidding...this stuff was smoooooooth....
And so pretty, right?? :) Why ANYONE would drink Starbucks anything OTHER than Blue Bottle while in San Fran is BEYOND me. This stuff was just. too. good!
After our brief stint in coffee heaven, we headed inside for some breakfast. And we saw WAY too many tempting treats at the Acme bread stand....
And since we were in 'sourdough country' we decided to split a cheese filled sourdough round. Even better was that we walked outside and got to enjoy THIS VIEW while we ate:
Along with a few friends;) Sharing is caring, right??;)
After that scene got a little too 'Alfred Hitchcock', we headed back inside for one more sample...because, even though it was 10:30AM, you just COULD NOT pass the Scharffen Berger chocolate store (some of the best chocolate ever) without a quick sample:
A cappuccino truffle for him and a fleur de sel caramel for her...mmmmmmm...to die for:)
After wandering around some more, we decided to walk the three mile hike from Ferry Market to the Mission district to one of our MOST anticipated food stops! Since seeing Ike's on Man vs. Food, we had been DROOLING over the INSANE menu; trying to whittle down our choices from the over 100 sandwich options!!! (and let me tell ya: about 97 of them sounded AWESOME!) And after much debate between the "Super Mario" and the "Ex-Boyfriend," Scott decided on the 'Pizzle,' which was chicken breast, bacon, ranch and cheddar on the yummy 'dutch crunch' bread....
...but it was ZERO match for my sandwich. After LONG debate, I decided on the "Jim Rome," which was turkey, red pesto, avocado and cheddar (with my own addition of bacon for good measure;). One bite and I knew I was going to have dreams about this sandwich;) It was OUTSTANDING;) The red pesto just catapulted this thing to excellence...I could cry right now thinking about it;) hahahahahhahahahaa.....
....and even more love: Our sandwiches came along with 'funky fusion' chips (they tasted like cheddar BBQ), OLD SCHOOL RC COLA! and a couple caramel apple tootsie pops for good measure;) WE LOVED IKE'S!!!!!!!!!!!! We seriously could have eaten 2 meals a day here and have been happy! But there were just too many good places to try;)
After lunch, we set off to burn off those sandwiches by hitting some of the hills in our wanderings;) Our next stop was to Alamo Square park (I probably burned off at least HALF of that sandwich just climbing the hill to get into the park alone!)
...and once we were at the top, we got the perfect view of the infamous "Painted Ladies." How gorgeous are they??
And yeah....after more wandering: It was time for another foodie stop;) This time, to one of Scott's finds:
Sounds interesting, right???
How 'bout an Apple pie WITH Chilies, topped with walnut strudel in a CHEDDAR CHEESE CRUST....a la mode, of course;)
The chilies were no joke!
This was definitely an ultimate dish in the "sweet & savory" category! The best bites were the ones when you got the sweet apples, the zip from the chilies, the savory crust and the melty ice cream...mmmmmmmmmm...definitely one of the most unusually delicious things we've tried!
And I couldn't leave without sampling a small taste of their horchata ice cream:) It had that perfect rice milk/cinnamon taste;) Sooo smooth:)
After THAT, it was back to more wandering to enjoy the GORGEOUS Victorian architecture....
...a photo shoot in front of the "Full House" exterior house! ....
...our first ride on the city's WONDERFUL trolley cars....(hanging onto the outside poles, fyi!)
...a stroll down Lombard Street...
....yet another fantastically FREE site that you could watch for hours:) ...
...and then the EXTREMELY steep climb DOWNNNN Lombard and the steep climb back UP to Coit tower (on the right top corner)....
At least the views from the top were worth the climb;)
And after several hours of mountain climbing, we were sooooooooooo ready to take a break and enjoy a relaxing dinner. And I knew we were in for a good meal when we headed to:
I had read about 'Fog City' a lot online, and as soon as I saw their menu: I was HOOKED!!! Fog City looks like an old school diner from the outside, but they have one spruced up menu. I actually overheard a customer ask if they had sour cream and the waiter said "No, but we have creme fraiche. Oh no wait, I have a lovely white wine sauce that would be a good substitute." It was THAT kinda place, despite its retro exterior;)
And apparently this was the day I decided to drown myself in carbs;) Because there was NO WAY that we weren't starting our meal with the 'bread sampler'....
And here's why: The first sample was fresh sourdough with garlic butter & leeks.......OK??? ....
The second was jalapeno cornbread with red pepper jelly...mmmmmmmmmmmmm, sooo good! The subtly sweet jelly went SO well with the spiced up cornbread!
And my hands down favorite (even beating out the garlic bread!:) : The cheddar biscuit with rosemary apple brown butter....OH MY HEAVENS, was this to die for!!!!! The butter was heavy on the rosemary before getting the sweet kick from the apple. Outstanding!
ANDDDDD even though I had just downed 3 versions of carbs AND I swore I wasn't going to eat ANYTHING Italian in San Fran (not when your spoiled by living in the tristate area:) , after I had read about the 'hand rolled pappardelle with turkey bolognese' on the menu, it lingered in the back of my mind all day...so I knew pasta had to happen;)
And oh man, was it soooooooo good. The pasta was cooked perfectly, and unlike MOST bolognese sauces, this one was light and brimming with tender veggies. Amazing!
However, unlike lunch: Scott's dinner totally took the prize for the night:) He had the most TO DIE FOR slow roasted pot roast with roasted fall vegetables:
It was SUPPPER tender and bursting with flavor! Scott had had reservations about this place, but we both decided that this was probably one of our favorite meals of the whole trip. (Probably helped that we walked about 4 or 5 miles to get there and were sooooooooooo very happy to kick up our heels and relax for a bit;)
After our to-die-for dinner, we strolled some more through Fisherman's Wharf and made a stop at "Cupcake Wars" contestant 'Kara's Cupcakes' in Ghirardelli's square for another dessert....
Scott tried the chocolate cake & espresso butter cream topped "Java" cupcake, while I tried the fleur de sel (yes, again:) which was a chocolate cake topped with chocolate ganache and sea salt. These cupcakes were SO moist, they literally tasted like we just got them fresh out of the oven. They were super crumbly under the THICK frosting...just divine.
And after 3 meals, 3 desserts, 13 hours, 15 miles and over 40,000 steps (SOO happy we brought the pedometer...too interesting to read that we burned over 1,600 calories;) : We COLLAPSED;) hahahahahahahaha....it was a fantastic and packed day:) Hope you enjoyed all of the days eats!
PS-I'm still taking pictures of our 'current meals.' I'll share them with you later...but I think the San Fran ones are much more fun than the usual "Monday night salad";) hahahahhaha...Have a great Tuesday!
1 comment:
Wow!! Everything looks amazing!! As I was scrolling through, I would think ooo that looks like the best and the next thing would come and then that would be the best! LOL! :) Can't wait to see the rest!
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