Thursday began much like Wednesday: By grabbing our car and heading off to yet ANOTHER of our most anticipated 'food stops' :
{Commence drooling now}
Dynamo Donuts claim to fame is their Bacon Apple Maple donut, so we couldn't tear into that one quick enough to give it a try! :)
Loveeeed the salt from the bacon along with the sweet maple frosting! You just can't go wrong with bacon. On anything...even donuts;)
Our next sample was the caramel drenched fleur de sel with a light coating of salt on the bottom..mmmmm, sweet & salty heaven:)
And I KNOW, prepare to be disappointed: But our joint VERY favorite of the bunch was the vanilla bean:) This thing just ooozzed pure vanilla beans and fabulousness....
As for the 'leftovers,' we used EXCELLENT foresight and saved them for the next mornings breakfast:) More Dynamo Donut deliciousness coming tomorrow;)
After THAT, we headed off to one of my most anticipated "non food" sites;) Scott said he was surprised I was even able to SLEEP the night before because I had been SO excited FOR MONTHS about going to:
Muir Woods is over the Golden Gate bridge and at the end of an EXTREMELY winding & twisting (heart stopping) road. Getting there is CERTAINLY half of the adventure. And if the road doesn't blow you away, THESE certainly will:
Now I wouldn't peg myself as a 'nature girl' by any means, but things like this will have me singing Mother Nature's praises in an instant;) You can't even IMAGINE how HUGEEEEEEEEE these Redwood trees are. It's hard to explain or comprehend, but I'll let these pictures do the talking...
Oh, did you miss me in that picture?? I'm in there! That will give you an idea of how you really measure up in the world;)
Absolutely breathtaking!
Now here's my Major tip #2 of this trip: If you plan to make a trip to Muir Woods, rent a car and go EARLY!!! We got there around 8:30am and maybe saw about 8 people walking almost the entire trail. About 3/4 of the way back, however, the circus came to town:
It changed the ENTIRE vibe of the place...it went from total peace & silence to the center of the ring in an instant. Take my advice: GET THERE EARLY! It's soooooo worth it! I was ready to get out of there once the buses showed up. I didn't want the chaos they brought to disrupt my "peaceful/nature loving" state. hahahhaahhaah:)
After yet ANOTHER heart stopping trip back up that winding road (always fun to ride on the passenger side...nearest to the CLIFFS!), we headed into downtown Saulsolito to a pretty little restaurant right on the water, appropriately named "Fish"...
"Fish" was cafeteria style with picnic benches and no frills, but their menu was ANYTHING BUT 'picnic' food. They use nothing but local ingredients, sustainable seafood & organic produce, which = Love! :)
Despite the name, my land lover again found the one NON-Fish item on the menu: The cheeseburger, which he said was really, REALLY good and happily scarfed down:)
But it was nothing compared to my pick. Well, actually Tyler Florence's pick for the Reinvented Classics "Best Thing He Ever Ate": The DUNGENESS CRAB ROLL:
Now this whole trip, I tried my hardest to "practiced what I preached" and to eat only until I was full, usually about half of my meals and have just a few satisfying bites of the thousands of treats. This crab sandwich though, didn't stand a CHANCE:
In the most bizarre turn of events: It actually reminded me of a cheesesteak;) Weird, right?? I guess it was the flakiness of the (super sweet) crab mixed with all of that luscious butter from the roll...it was OFF THE CHARTS (and "Fish" had THE BEST french fries too...although I DID try to leave a few of those on my plate;) hahahahahaha
After lunch, we trolled around Saulsolito for a bit more...but unfortunately, Thursday afternoon was when the rain clouds rolled in (THANKFULLY, the ONLY time though!) So instead of hiking through the Saulsolito hills, we headed back to San Fran to drop off our car and happily took the cable car from Fisherman's Wharf to Union Square:
And from Union Square, we headed to one of San Fran's 'not to be missed' attractions: Chinatown! The largest one outside of Asia!
And after trolling the souvenir shops and street markets, we found our best little gem of the day off of the beaten track and down an alley way. No, FOR REAL:
Seriously, blink and you'll miss it...but your nose will lead you right to:
The Golden Gate Cookie Factory was the TINIEST little store with three women tirelessly making fortune cookies as the hot iron pans rolled around.
Cable car to Chinatown: $5...
Photo of woman rolling cookies: 50 cents...
Free samples of warm, fresh fortune cookies hot of the presses:
Priceless:)
We loved, loved, loved this place! A must see if you're ever in Chinatown;) Just keep your eyes up for 'Ross's Alley' and your nose tuned into COOKIES!
I'm chalking this up as one of my OWN "Best Things I Ever Ate....In an Alleyway" :)
And yes...there was still one more stop to be had:) This time to Mee Heong Bakery on Powell Street. They were suppose to have the best coconut cream buns in the city...and I guess it was true since they were already sold OUT by the time we got there!!! Travesty;) So we split a pineapple bun instead...
And yet ANOTHER great bargain: 35 CENTS! :) Make that the "Best thing I ever Ate: Under 50 cents" :) hahahahahha
After our eats and a brief wander around the "Little Italy" section in North Beach, the rain began to come down in BUCKETS so we thought it was a sign to head back to the room to relax for a bit. HOWEVER, not before traversing about 3 HUGE hills just like this one....
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I passed out in the room for a couple of hours before I even realized I was tired;) hahahahahaha...(guess those 4 AND 3AM mornings had finally caught up to me;)
After we woke up, we realized we were still pretty full from our lunch. So we figured: Why not combine dinner & dessert into one and try out a couple of the ice creams shops we had on our list! Our first stop: Humphry Slocombe...
Slocombe's was ALSO featured on the 'Totally Unexpected' edition of "Best Thing I Ever Ate" for it's proscuitto ice cream. And even though they weren't selling it that day (bummer), we still managed to get a pretty slammin batch of flavors to choose from (Mint & Black Pepper, anyone??):
I had the cinnamon brittle and Scott & I both got the fluffernutter with peanut butter (yum!)...but Scott definitly got the hands down winner of the night: Blue Bottle Vietnamese Coffee. It was just like the coffee itself: the ice cream was soooo smoooooooooth! Best coffee and best coffee ice cream ever:) (and I'll add that the small sample of BROWN BUTTER ice cream I had tried was OUTSTANDING...should have got a scoop of that too:)
I wish this place was around the corner from my house because I would love to sample EACH of their incredible flavors! (why, oh why, weren't they serving Malted Dulce De Leche that night??:)
Next we headed to the 'line stretched up the block' Bi-Rite Creamery:
Bi-Rite had another CRAZYYYYY list of flavors:
...which is why NEITHER of us could narrow it down to less than 3 flavors each (and no-for the record, I went back to my "good habits" and didn't even come CLOSE to finishing ANY of these...I just wanted to try them;) I had the:
- Brown Sugar ice cream with ginger & caramel swirl
- Toasted Coconut
- And my favorite of the three: The Ricanela's- Cinnamon ice cream with snickerdoodle...yum!
And Scott's trio of choice:
- Coffee Toffee
- Salted Caramel
- Malted Vanilla with Peanut Brittle and Chocolate
The Bi-Rite flavors were super intense, but Slocombe's SUPER creamy subtleness just won us over. Both were great, but if we're pickin a winner: It's Humphry Slocombes straight across the board:)
And after a 5 scoop "ice cream dinner", we walked the nearly 5 mile hike back from the Mission district all the way to our hotel in the Marina, while enjoying the Victorian homes all lit up....
And another set of a zillion hills;) hahahahhahaaha...
And that's a wrap on LAST Thursday;) Hope you guys have great plans for THIS Thursday! We're "themeing" it out tonight with some GREEN pesto spaghetti for dinner and an Irish Creme Cupcake for dessert:)
Have a Happy St. Patty's Day everyone!
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