SF: Day 1

The Apple Farm gave us a $5 gift certificate that could be used at their bakery.  I stopped in at 7 a.m., right when it opened, to purchase three muffins for the road: blueberry, apple and bran raisin.  They were still warm from the oven and oh so good.  Then we drove a good four hours to San Francisco. 
Our first stop was El Farolito in the Mission District.  We shared a carne asada burrito.  The place is a bit sketch, but authentic, and a bargain at $6.75 for a burrito that could feed two. 

Our next stop was Ike’s Place, just because we were already in the Mission, so why not?  This time I got a Matt Cain sandwich on dutch crunch to go.  We ate it in Golden Gate Park, (which was freezing, by the way) in front of the DeYoung Museum.  Since we were semi-full from the burrito, I don’t think we fully appreciated the sandwich.  But it was definitely a solid sandwich, and I can see why it has garnered praise from thousands of Yelp reviews.

After our two part lunch, we went to the DeYoung museum.  This place was not as family friendly as I thought it would be.  The docents seemed to be in a grumpy mood.  Here are some highlights:





This is where we were chastised for being too loud.  Didn’t know that you are not allowed to talk while watching other people eat.

Next we went stopped by the Conservatory of Flowers. We didn’t pay to take the tour inside, but the grounds are beautiful.




There was a lovely dahlia garden.

Afterward we tried to check into our hotel room at the Union Square Marriott.  The room was not ready, so we walked around Union Square a bit.  It has changed a lot since I lived in SF ten years ago!  The square itself has been reconfigured, there are parklets on many of the streets, and there were a lot more double decker tourist buses.    

Waiting for D to browse at the Nike store. 
Then we checked into our hotel.  Parking prices in SF are crazytown.  Our hotel charged $54 plus a high parking tax.  We ended up parking 1 block away at the Sutter Stockton garage for $34 for 24 hours.  Still expensive, but a little better. 

By this time, n was beat.  On our way to dinner, he fell asleep in the stroller:

Don’t worry, I propped him back up in his stroller so he wouldn’t fall out.  I just had to snap a pic first.
n slept all the way through our dinner–part one at Freshroll.  It is a new place by the Metreon, and it is like Chipotle for Vietnamese food.  We had two orders of three spring rolls, one with lemongrass pork and one with chicken.  Both were fresh and tasty and it was fun to try the various dipping sauces. 

The Metreon seems to be going through some major renovations.  It is so much lighter and brighter now and there are quite a few new restaurants, a good number of them Asian.  Next we went to the Westfield shopping mall on Market St.  It to has undergone a major renovation, at least their basement food court.  It is SO much better now than when I lived there. 
We ended up getting a plate of BBQ chicken and chap chae at Sorabol, one of our favorite Northern California fast casual places. 

Chowing down.  I think n ate a record amount (for him) of chicken that night. 

We also could not resist ordering a New Orleans style iced coffee from one of the cafes that was selling Blue Bottle Coffee.

It stays light out longer in Northern California, so there was still plenty of daylight during our walk back to the hotel.

On the way back we stopped in at San Francisco Baking Company.  We enjoyed one cookies and cream cookie and one triple chocolate cookie.  A sweet way to end our first day in the city by the bay.