1 Week in San Francisco

It’s been nine months since I was last in San Francisco. That’s the longest I’ve ever been away from the City by the Bay. But I just spent 1 week in San Francisco, and I made the most of it. Here’s how.

There’s nothing quite like landing at SFO. That’s not least because the runway goes right out into the water and I always feel like the plane is going to magically grow pontoons and glide right into San Francisco Bay.

But more than that, I love landing at SFO because it’s home.

The golden hills in the distance, the beautiful and highly underrated Bay Bridge to the east, and the city skyline all start to pull at my heart, reminding me that all this time I had left it in San Francisco.

As the plane descends, I realize I even miss the ugly “South San Francisco the Industrial City” sign that’s so big it can be seen from ten thousand feet up.

And the Bank of America Building, where I spent two long years working on the 44th floor.

And the Port of Oakland, that mass of buildings on the other side of the bay that makes driving across the Bay Bridge less inspiring than driving across its International Orange rival to the north.

The purpose of my journey home was to attend a wedding of two friends from my boyfriend’s kickball team (yes, you read that right), but I was lucky enough to have 1 week in San Francisco to do and see a bit more while I was in California.

Before I tell my tale, though, I have to make a quick digression in order to honor my current home city, London. I have to talk about the weather.

San Francisco Weather

I always thought San Francisco’s terrible weather was the city’s worst-kept secret. The torrential rains in winter, the thick fog in summer, and fall, that terrible tease, with its few short weeks of warmth that give way to chilly November nights.

Speaking of nights, no matter how warm it gets during the day, the temperature drops 20 degrees every night, such that tank-top-and-skirt weather becomes snow-boot-and-North-Face-parka weather in the span of about 15 minutes.

Worse yet, the temperature a mile in any direction from our little peninsula is guaranteed to be 20 degrees warmer on any given day.

It’s so extreme that my mother, who lives just 30 minutes south of the city, has to call me to ask what kind of clothing she should wear when she comes to visit.

But I was wrong about non-San Franciscans knowing this strange quirk about my city.

Despite the famous claim that “the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco”, Londoners always seem to think I was crazy to leave “sunny” SF to move to rainy London. Not so.

Well, not until this week in San Francisco. Maybe the fates were doing me a favor after making me endure the coldest weather London has seen in centuries the day before I left. Or maybe it was just pure luck.

Whatever it was, I was fortunate enough to enjoy 75+ degree weather (non-Fahrenheit people, that’s 24+ C) every day I was there. Now that’s what I call a nice welcome home.

Ok, enough with the weather talk.

New Openings in San Francisco

This being my first trip to San Francisco in nine months, everything in the city seemed new to me.

And not just in the sense of seeing it for the first time. I mean really new. New restaurants, new shops, new friends, new buildings downtown.

But the night I arrived I stayed true to a vow I made to eat Mexican food or sushi for every meal during my time at home, and I headed straight for an old favorite.

A friend picked me up from the airport and we had fish tacos at Pacific Catch, my favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurant in the Marina. Its wasabi bowls number among the best foods in San Francisco.

The next morning I discovered it wasn’t just I that saw new things. My family dog—the giant 90-pound (41-kg) beast that he is—sniffed at me disinterestedly as if I were a new acquaintance instead of an old friend. I need to come home more often.

Dentist in San Francisco

Later that day my 1 week in San Francisco continued as I went to the dentist. (Yes, I wait until I go home to go to the dentist. You don’t have to watch Austin Powers to know why.)

My dentist is the most high-tech human being on the planet, and there’s always something new in his office.

The first time I laid eyes on a CD was in his office, and the first time I experienced the thrill of a new electronic plaque-removal device was in that same place.

Good-bye old scraper thing; hello whizzing, screeching, water-gushing, teeth-cleaning gizmo!

The new device was thankfully the only new thing I discovered at the dentist (no cavities for this lady!), but he still made sure to tell me I was staining my teeth from drinking too much tea.

And to think I barely even drink a fifth of the “moderate” five cups a day recommended on the PG Tips box!

Football Party

That evening I went to a party at a family friend’s house to watch the Florida vs. Oklahoma game. I love American football, but I haven’t watched a single game since I moved to London.

The football season was almost over, and the rankings and players were all new to me. Luckily, the fresh Dungeness crab we had for dinner was my old favorite. Gotta love that California crab.

Day Trip to Wine Country

The next day my itinerary for 1 week in San Francisco took my boyfriend and me across the Golden Gate Bridge and up to wine country. I just can’t go home without making a day trip up to that beautiful region.

We skipped touristy Napa and grabbed some tacos al pastor for lunch at a taqueria in Sonoma (so far I had eaten Mexican food for all but one meal!) on our way up to Healdsburg.

We didn’t really have a plan, so we drove around Russian River and found three new wineries to try. Our first stop was Twomey, where the friendly staff gave us extra tastes of all the wines.

We then went to De La Montanya, where we decided that the owner, who photographs female members of his wine club (as well as his wife) in boudoir attire for the labels of many of the bottles, might be a bit eccentric.

After that we headed up to Jordan, a huge fortress-like estate on top of a hill overlooking the valley. The staff looked at us like we were day laborers when we showed up without an appointment.

However, as the tasting room was all but deserted (January isn’t exactly high season), they were more than happy to take our money and give us a sip of two of their wines.

We loved the Cabernet Sauvignon and got a bottle to take home with us.

Dinner in San Francisco

Dinner that night was nothing new, but as Zushi Puzzle serves up the best sushi on the planet, I have to mention it anyway.

From live scallop to Kobe beef, from the giant Sales Force Roll to the butterfish-smothered Butterface Roll, we reveled in the amazing fruits of Chef Roger’s labor and wondered why we ever bother eating sushi in London.

Wedding in San Francisco

Saturday was wedding day. When normal people know they have to fit into a dress later in the day, they usually don’t eat much earlier in the day.

My plan to act accordingly was foiled when I went on a sample-binge at the Ferry Plaza Famers’ Market, met a friend for orange cinnamon French toast at Ella’s, then subsequently ran into my boyfriend, who was on his way to our favorite Mexican place in San Francisco.

My regular stomach was stuffed to the gills, so I found some spare capacity in my “dessert stomach” and devoured half my boyfriend’s giant taco.

Good thing my dress had a loose-fitting waist. Too bad I had a terrible stomach ache for the rest of the afternoon. I think I have a serious gluttony problem.

The wedding was another new experience for me. I had driven by St. Dominic’s Church in San Francisco a million times, but had never been inside. It was a beautiful church for an equally beautiful wedding.

Afterwards we went to the Irish Cultural Center out in the Sunset for the reception. It was great to catch up with old friends, make some new ones, and dance until jet lag wouldn’t let me dance any longer.

Sunday in San Francisco

On Sunday my boyfriend left town, so for the first time during my 1 week in San Francisco I had some free time on my hands.

I went to a post-wedding brunch, had lemonade (too hot for tea!) with a former coworker at The Grove in Pacific Heights, then went for a girls’ night out with a childhood friend.

California Academy of Sciences

Monday morning my mother came to visit and we went to the California Academy of Sciences, where we saw everything from an albino alligator named Claude to a mock-rainforest and a planetarium.

It was definitely an improvement on the old aquarium they had there when I was a kid.

More San Francisco Restaurants

I met another former coworker for lunch at Mixt, one of the best places to eat in San Francisco’s Financial District.

He told me there are so many new people, teams, and procedures in our group at Goldman that I would barely recognize the place. It was hard to believe so much had changed since I left.

For dinner I got back on track with my Mexican food vow and met a friend for margaritas, guacamole, and some good chilaquiles. She told me lots of news about friends of ours from childhood and caught me up on her new job.

On Tuesday my 1 week in San Francisco continued as I met a friend from Brown for lunch at Zuni Cafe, one of my favorite restaurants in the city.

We caught up on alumni news and I found out he’s working at a startup with a friend of mine. Small world.

After lunch I took a quick stroll through Hayes Valley—one of my favorite neighborhoods in San Francisco—before heading to the de Young Museum to see an exhibition.

That night I went to the third general meeting of the year of the Spinsters of San Francisco, an organization that I’m an inactive member of but still try to stay connected to.

I was surprised to see how few faces I recognized, but I had a great time meeting new people and going out for drinks afterwards.

On Wednesday I had an early-ish lunch with two of my former co-workers from my hedge fund days. We caught up over sandwiches at Blue Barn, a little restaurant that was new right when I left San Francisco.

San Francisco Zoo

Wednesday afternoon my mother came up again and we went to the San Francisco Zoo, a place that I overdosed on as a child and refused to go back to for about fifteen years.

But I couldn’t refuse a trip to the zoo with weather as warm as it was.

To explain: the zoo is in the Antarctic micro-climate zone of San Francisco, which means it’s foggy and freezing there even when the rest of the city gets its rare day of warmth.

The grounds and buildings had been completely refurbished since I was last at the zoo, and the whole place seemed new.

It was fun to see a lot of the animals I had just seen in on safari in Namibia, as well as some lemurs from Madagascar and tigers from India.

Berkeley

In the late afternoon my itinerary for 1 week in San Francisco took me over to Berkeley to have bubble tea with another friend from Brown who recently moved back from London and started a new job that week.

Our lives have been strangely intertwined since we graduated from college, and we somehow manage to meet up serendipitously whenever we travel through each other’s home cities.

La Mar Cebicheria Peruana

Back in San Francisco, I met up with another friend for dinner at La Mar Cebicheria Peruana. I had read in Conde Nast Traveler that it was run by an up-and-coming Peruvian chef and that the food was world-class. I had to try it.

My friend and I spent so much time talking that the waiter had to come back three times before we even ordered wine, which was a Monterey Pinot Noir. The server said it was their sommelier’s own blend, and it was great.

When we finally ordered food, we got two ceviche dishes to start, one halibut with onions and pepper, the other tuna with avocado and cucumber. Both were excellent.

We were less impressed with our main courses. My friend ordered lamb at the suggestion of our server and didn’t care for the giant mass of meat they brought to the table.

I ordered Alaskan Halibut on a bed of yucca. The fish was dry and the yucca bland. We should have stuck with the ceviches.