7 Days in San Francisco

Every six months I find an excuse to travel back to San Francisco. Sometimes the excuse is work, sometimes it’s family or friends, sometimes it’s holidays, and sometimes it’s something that brings together any number of those elements. Which is why I just spent 7 days in San Francisco.

In this case it was the wedding of two friends of mine, which happened to be the day before Easter, which happened to be somewhat close to my birthday, which happened to be six months from my last visit.

My boyfriend and I flew out to California last Friday for a whirlwind 7 days in San Francisco with family, friends, and—this being me and this being San Francisco—food.

Food in San Francisco

I’ll start with food if for no other reason than that I ate so much of it I almost agreed to my boyfriend’s idea of a 2-for-1 gastric bypass.

Our culinary adventure began on Saturday morning with a trip to the farmers’ market at the Ferry Building, one of my favorite places in San Francisco.

From old classics like the fantastic Blue Bottle Coffee, the adorable Miette patisserie, the yummy St Benoit yogurt, the earthy Far West Fungi, and the excellent Primavera, to new shops like Mariposa, we had ourselves a breakfast feast.

The Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market set the tone for the rest of our 7 days in San Francisco, during which time we roamed the city grazing on the unfathomably delicious food.

We had sushi at Zushi Puzzle, ahi poke Wasabi Bowls at Pacific Catch, great gourmet take-out from Gregoire in Berkeley, delicious small plates at Terzo, and cheeseburgers at the oh-so-Californian In-N-Out Burger.

Wine Tasting in Russian River

Growing increasingly aware of our narrowing arteries, we also focused on red wine.

The devastating lack of good California wine in the UK made us all the more excited to go wine tasting in Russian River to try some of our beloved Pinot Noirs.

Starting our day trip at Merry Edwards Winery, one of my favorite wine producers, we sipped our way to Iron Horse Vineyards, then back down to Lynmar Estate Winery.

By that time we’d purchased twelve bottles of wine and had to stop ourselves before we needed to find a storage unit.

Wedding in San Francisco

Speaking of stopping, I’ll stop talking about food and wine, and say I was happy that between meals we were able to spend our 7 days in San Francisco with friends, family, and former coworkers and classmates.

The wedding we attended was of a former coworker of mine from Goldman who married a former coworker of my boyfriend’s from Google. We both got to catch up with friends and colleagues we hadn’t seen in years.

Bars in San Francisco

In addition to the wedding, we enjoyed several nights of drinks with friends at places like The Tipsy Pig in the Marina and La Bodeguita del Medio in Mountain View.

Gavin Newsom even showed up to one happy hour. Well, he showed up to give a speech to a group that was meeting in the same wine bar, but I think it still counts.

Baseball Game in San Francisco

We also caught up with family in several unique locations, including the Giants vs A’s baseball game on the first of our 7 days in San Francisco.

My mom, brother, boyfriend, and I wrapped ourselves in blankets and braved the freezing San Francisco weather to watch what was my first Giants game in years.

We only made it to the 5th inning before we couldn’t feel our faces or our feet, but it was still nice to be back at the stadium.

Filoli

On a much warmer day my mother took me to Filoli, a mansion house near where I grew up that I had somehow never managed to visit before.

The extensive gardens were in full bloom and the stately home was so European that for a minute I couldn’t remember whether I was in California or back in Britain.