thanksgiving in san fran

traveling to san francisco is always a treat; we love trekking around the city on foot, peaking in boutiques and window shopping, drinking coffee and people watching.

in order to make the most of our weekend, we departed orange county just before 6:00 am on thursday morning which allowed us to cross the bay bridge by noon.  we were greeted by clear skies and sunshine! 

after locating hannah's apartment and parking our car we couldn't wait to walk around the city for a few hours.  although we searched for a pink vespa reminiscent of snulle, red was the best we could do.  

lombard street is famous for the one block section of hair-pin turns.  the bottom of the block is always cramped with tourists taking photos and we gladly join them each & every time we come to the city. 

this was our first stop at ghirardelli square. what used to be the ghirardelli family's famous chocolate factory now hosts high end condos with views of the golden gate bridge and a square corner by restaurants, boutiques and wine tasting rooms. we had to try the famous hot chocolate and an iced mocha.  mmmmmm!

ghirardelli square viewed from the lawn below.

a few hours later, we finally made our way to the grocery store only to discover they were completely out of pine nuts; the key ingredient in our thanksgiving salad!  

in order to make it to the only store open and stocked with pine nuts calle had to sprint about a mile up hill.  he made it in the nick of time.

we then walked another 40 minutes back to hannah's house on nob hill and began preparing our simple thanksgiving dinner.

  

to accompany our simple meal, hannah opened up one a great bottle katherine hills wine. although nicole had seen hannah a few months ago, calle had lots of catching up to do and we enjoyed several hours of eating, drinking, and chatting.

we awoke friday morning to these bay views from hannah's "flat".

her neighborhood, nob hill, is a fun district about 20 minutes walking distance from union square and is host to lots of restaurants, wine bars, and coffee shops.

after enjoying a delicious breakfast at hannah's house we drove out to sonoma for some wine tasting. this excellent place is called ceja winery and is owned by a latino family. of course i loved it since it offered two bocceball courts! i can't wait to go back in the summer to spend a day of bocce and good wine.

after ceja we drove to napa and stopped at a wine tasting room for more wine. the owner/employee was a somewhat eccentric guy but we enjoyed his company and his stories almost as much as we enjoyed the wine.

on the photo you can see the group: hannah, dan, ben, me & nicole. h, d & b all work at melt water, and ben was a top 20 ranked collegiate tennis player at rice university in texas.

after coming back into the city we had dinner at an awesome sushi restaurant followed by drinks at a speak easy. after quite a bit of wine, sake, beer and drinks, i'm glad we decided not to bring the camera...
saturday turned out to be another beautiful day. since hannah was going to be busy working, nicole and i decided to walk around the town on our own. armed with a fantastic guide book containing a map of the city, we headed out for a full day of site seeing.

first stop was grace cathedral in russian hill which is appropriately called "san francisco's own notre dame".  

nicole on the steps to grace cathedral.

next to grace cathedral is the famous fairmount hotel where we stopped by for some free hot apple cider. the atmosphere in the hotel lobby was very alive; santa claus in one corner, elves in another, kids running around, live music, old people drinking brandy, young people drinking cocoa, and lots of laughter.  we felt anna & christian would love it here, and certainly august would find plenty to do!

from russian hill to china town. this is the famous china town gate, south entrance.

three girls and a monkey in china town.

from china town to north beach and washington square. for some reason i really wanted to visit this statue of benjamin franklin after reading about it in the guide book. well worth the walk!

reading my guidebook on a park bench on the lawn in front of the cathedral where joe dimaggio married marilyn monroe!

at pier 39 with alcatraz in the background.

as always, the sea lions frequented the docks and we enjoyed watching them.

fisherman's wharf, even though somewhat of a tourist trap, is still host to local fisherman coming by each day with their catch. below is a photo of a real original, talking to the crabs as he picked them up from the net and threw them in the boiling water. you can say what you want about fisherman's wharf's authenticity, but i have yet to find a better clam chowder! cotie agrees!

cotie on the cable car!

snulle - this one is for you! we were looking for a pink house for you all weekend and we finally found it! it's located in north beach which has the best italian food in town. at least cotie, i and the author's of the guide book all agreed on this. 

wait! here's another one for you!

finally, we made our way to union square and although we weren't there for the official tree lighting festivities this year, we were happy to stroll through the park as our last stop in this wonderful trip.
driving back to orange county late saturday evening, we agreed whole heartedly that we love san francisco and that hannah is an excellent hostess!