I had an amazing time taking a break from reality and traveling to the bay! That’s right, I had the opportunity to take a day off of work and spend the weekend in beautiful California. I did way more than I anticipated in just a few days, I literally went nonstop! It was also crazy because my friend, whom I was visiting, lived in San Jose, an hour away from San Francisco, so I basically took a mini road trip every day I was there. That didn’t stop me from doing a bunch of things on my bucket list, that I can’t wait to share with you, but I also had some spontaneous moments. The biggest one was finding out that G-Eazy was hosting a club appearance in San Jose a couple days before the trip, and yea it was amazing. So, click below to read all about my trip!
When I first arrived to San Francisco, I had to wait a little while in the airport because not only did my flight land early (surprisingly), but it was rush hour so it was going to take my friend a pretty long time to pick me up. I’ve always heard terrible things about California traffic, and now I believe it. I waited about an hour, and by the time she got there, I was starving. I found this noodle place in San Mateo called Zen Noodle Bar that wasn’t too far away, so we immediately headed over there. It was a quaint little restaurant that was tucked away in a shopping center. I would have never noticed it by just driving by! This was definitely one of those places where everything on the menu sounds really good and it’s hard to decide. I ordered the fried chicken cutlet noodles, which were absolutely amazing. The plate was super filling, and despite being starved, I wasn’t able to finish it. I noticed the noodles also had a very sweet sauce on it, so keep that in mind if you ever order noodles from here!
After, we decided to backtrack and head up to San Francisco. We were both tired, me from flying and her from work, but it was still a Thursday night! My friend heard a ton of good things about this rooftop bar and restaurant called El Techo, to where you even had to wait in a line to get in. I thought, “how often am I going to be here?” and was completely willing to wait. I believe it ended up being a thirty minute wait, which wasn’t too bad but it was annoying because the line didn’t have many people in it and it was just a matter of them letting in a limited amount of people at a time. Strangely, when we got to the top, there weren’t many people up there, meaning they probably form a line on purpose just to build up a hype, but who knows! When we reached the top, the view was pretty cool. The rooftop is in the middle of Mission so there’s a lot of cars going by and lights in the distance. The rooftop is surrounded by a glass protector, so it was difficult to get a decent picture of the view, although I like to think my photos turned out pretty good. I didn’t eat here, but I ordered a pina colada and it was delicious!
The next morning, we decided to get brunch at a restaurant close to Potrero Hill called Plow. It was a tiny restaurant tucked away on a corner, but it had really good reviews, so we had to try it. The wait was probably about an hour though, so it’s vital to get your name on the list and then preoccupy yourself for a bit. We decided to walk around and explore the area a little bit in the meantime. Ironically, the restaurant is right off of Texas St., so a little bit of home followed me there. We walked up the hill on Texas St. and were greeted by one of the most amazing views I’ve ever seen. With a row of houses on either side, we got a full view of San Francisco’s city scape. I took a ton of photos, but I feel like they don’t even do it justice.
After walking around a little while longer, we finally got our table and were beyond ready to eat. I ordered a cup of coffee and the plow, which had eggs, chicken apple sausage, lemon ricotta pancakes, and potatoes. It was absolutely delicious and definitely worth the wait. I loved the variety and although you only got a tiny bit of each portion, I couldn’t even finish the plate because there was so much food.
The number one thing on my bucketlist for this trip was to go to Baker Beach, so right after we ate, we headed over. Baker Beach is the beach that’s on the west side of San Francisco and is known for it’s view of the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. During my last trip, I was able to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, but I hadn’t gotten the opportunity to take photos of it or with it. Parking wasn’t too much of an issue but the walk on the beach to get closer to the Golden Gate bridge was long and tiring. We actually walked across the beach for a bit but spent a lot of time climbing up this wooden ladder to head to a higher point to view the bridge. That itself was a workout because the hill was so steep and climbing in the sand gave us no traction. I had to stop a few times to catch my breath. When we got to the top, we got a few good photos. It unfortunately became foggy shortly after we got to the beach, so my photos aren’t your typical sunny California photos, but they’re still pretty cool. Oh, also, did you know the fog’s name is Karl?
After the beach, we were absolutely tired and freezing. The temperature was about 50 degrees at this point and being so close to the water didn’t make it any better. There was a coffee shop that I found on Instagram that I wanted to try called Home Cafe, and luckily it was only a 3 minute drive from where we were. They’re known for their very colorful and eccentric coffee. I ordered a Red Velvet Latte, something I never thought I would try in my life. They also have many other coffees that include things such as avocado or birthday cake, so it’s definitely a place to try out.
We then headed over to Union Square to do a little shopping. We stopped at stores like Macy’s, DSW, and Nordstrom. The area was a little more touristy than I expected, and I didn’t really find anything I wanted, but the stores were pretty large and interesting to see. Right after, we decided to have a quick dinner at Tratto, which is an Italian restaurant attached to a hotel pretty close to Union Square. The food was pretty good and the ambiance was nice. I got a glass of prosseco and the Bucatini which was pretty filling. We kind of rushed in and out of the restaurant because immediately after, we had to head back to San Jose to go to G-Eazy’s club appearance.
G-Eazy’s club appearance was definitely the most interesting part of the trip. This was the sixth time I was seeing G-Eazy, and it was in his hometown area, so I was pretty excited. We got to Myth Taverna and Lounge, and somehow got in pretty easily. My friend’s roommate was already there and saved some space for us right in front of the stage, so I was pretty excited for G-Eazy to show up. As for the crowd, girls were going crazy. They were losing their absolute minds over him. When he showed up, there was non stop screaming, and he actually decided to give us a performance while he was there. I’ve never seen an artist give an actual performance at a club appearance, so that was pretty gracious of G-Eazy to do. I was really lucky because G-Eazy was literally not even a foot from me at times. He actually also jumped into the crowd and was standing right next to me at one point. Then, while he was performing Calm Down, he grabbed my phone and took a snapchat of himself (definitely check out my insta for the video!). Lastly, I had a good moment moment with him when I decided to put my phone down (for once) and actually just vibe with his songs. I saw him look at me while he was performing Shake It Up, and of course I was reciting every word to it. He headed over to my side of the stage, and then handed me the microphone. I sang the chorus while he vibed with it. It’s one of the most amazing music experiences I’ve ever had, so I had to share it on here.
The next day, we once again drove back to San Francisco and decided to eat at a restaurant I found on Pinterest called the Palm House. It looked like a cute little tropical restaurant with a palm tree grown in the middle of it. It was still foggy and chilly this day, so it wasn’t as tropical as I wanted to be, but the entire concept was still really cute! There were a lot of people who were there just to drink since apparently they’re known for their large alcoholic punch bowls with a signature yellow rubber duck floating in the middle. I enjoyed the experience of going there, but the food and drinks weren’t as amazing as I’d like them to be. Also, I found it strange that they close their kitchen in between lunch and dinner, so since we arrived for a late lunch, we had to wait half an hour to order, since they wouldn’t even give us their dinner menu until right before 5. So my suggestion would be to come here if you’re feeling tropical and want drinks/light snacks.
After lunch, we went over to the Financial District to pick up one of my friends who just moved to San Francisco. One things I heavily dislike is the horrible traffic. It literally took us thirty minutes to get to a destination that was less than a mile away. It got to the point where we just had to park and wait for her to walk over to us because we weren’t moving in traffic. As we picked her up, we realized we were at the top of a hill where many people take iconic San Francisco photos of the building and trolley. We got out and took a few photos and decided to head over to Billy Goat Hill. This hill has a rope swing tied to a tree that everyone swings on and there’s buildings and even twin peaks in the background. After driving up many steep hills, we finally got to the area. The only problem is that the rope broke off and it’s now impossible to swing because the rope’s too short. We however got some pretty good photos by a fence at the top of the hill. The temperature was already in the fifties, so being at the top of a hill did not make it any better, so we were freezing the entire time up there! It was so cold, it literally felt like winter in Texas. All I had wanted in that moment was to have a pair of sneakers on instead of sandals!
We hiked back up the hill to the car and then drove to a mural I had wanted to see that was near by. It doesn’t have an official name, but it’s a flamingo mural on the side of a Cuban restaurant, Media Noche, over in the Mission area. I was really excited for this mural because I’ve become obsessed with flamingos after Flamingy from back in May. (If you don’t know Flamingy, he’s a balloon animal I got made for me). The Cuban restaurant it was painted on looked really cute, and I wish we could have tried it, but we wanted to also head over to Palomino for dinner and drinks!
Palomino is this great little restaurant by the Bay Bridge that apparently many people go to after work since it’s right in the Financial District. It’s actually really close to the Bay Bridge, and we went at night, so we had a beautiful view of the bridge lit up. The only thing was that it was pretty chilly that night, and it was even colder there since it’s so close to the water, so we had to sit inside. I ordered a Roma and Mozzarella pizza which was really delicious and paired it with a Long Island tea. One thing I noticed in San Francisco, is that in their drinks, they pour A LOT of alcohol in them. To the point where you taste the alcohol more than an actual drink. I’m not sure if I just hit a bunch of places that decided to do this, or maybe I just got lucky, but it was a common theme throughout the trip. Another thing I liked about Palomino is that the restaurant feels very upscale, but the prices don’t match that. Actually, arriving there, we all felt that we were completely under dressed. But the restaurant is just really nice.
One last thing I had to do was to finally get photos with the Bay Bridge. I’ve gone across it so many times, but I’ve never gotten the tourist picture with it. We walked across the street to find a pathway and railing close to right under the bridge. We asked a few women passing by to take a few photos, and they turned out really good! As we were walking back to the car, I also ran into Cupid’s Span, the cupid bow modern art installation, that I’ve been wanting to see for awhile (as the huge art nerd that I am). On the way back to the car, we figured we wanted to stop at a bar before heading home, so we decided to head over to Polk Street.
The last day, I didn’t have much time to explore since my flight was scheduled to leave at 4. Since I was staying in San Jose, we decided to just got get brunch and shop around a little in San Jose. We first went to Village California Bistro. It had a really cute set up in an outdoor mall that was beautifully kept. Unfortunately, the wait was pretty long, so we ended up waiting between 30 minutes to an hour to be seated and then the service we had wasn’t too good. As for food, I ordered my goto, a mocha and French toast. The mocha was pretty good, and the French toast was beyond filling. The only thing I questioned was that the strawberries that came with it were definitely frozen and from out of a bag. I didn’t really care for that, but I didn’t complain.
We shopped around a little right after, before heading off to the airport. On the way, I had to stop at my guilty pleasure; In N Out. I’m not sure why or how, but I think In N Out is so much better in California, especially their milkshakes. Maybe it’s just a mind thing, since I know I’m in California when I get it over there, but I believe it’s much better.
After I got back, I faced the 100 degree heat of Texas weather and immediately wanted to die, but I’m so thankful for such a great trip and mini vacation!
xx,
Rachelle
