Eating California

OK we went from over 700 photos to just over 200. It was really hard. & you'll have to see Facebook to see all of them because otherwise this post would be entirely too long but this'll be a summary of everything we did and of course, the best places we ate...

SAN FRANCISCO: 

We had a stressful morning trying to get to California...there was a big flood and our first flight got cancelled...so we went to an airport an hour away to catch the next one...then it got cancelled...and then the one after it got cancelled...and then we got onto a plane without boarding passes and got to North Carolina...where nobody knew what to do about us not having boarding passes...to then they had Rick on a flight and me on a different flight 3 hours later...that wasn't going to fly...we ran across a really, really long airport and I ended up getting the last open seat on the same flight as Rick. We finally made it to San Francisco - hours later than expected but we made it.  

My smiliest of friends, Darianne, picked us up from the airport and she was like instant sunshine and excitement. We were STARVING so naturally...

...when in California

we had to take a detour on the way to D's place to take pictures of this beauty

We kept it pretty low key and roamed the neighborhood - mostly a cute little bookstore (Green Apple Books) and this palace...

I know...this looks disgusting...but it's blueberry cheesecake goodness.

Day 2 we went to Alcatraz, went to an indoor farmer's market...

we roamed around the streets...lost...and finally found a place to eat. It was delicious. 

After lunch we walked to Coit Tower, Lombard street, took a picture on a cable car, Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39, Ghirardelli Square (we do not recommend their ice cream, we hated it!!!), & met up with D for a Thai dinner: 

tourist trap to the max

Boudin's sourdough...supposedly world famous. It was decent but we wouldn't go out of our way for it.

Kings Thai Cuisine #2 -- YUM!

If you're craving Chinese/Thai/Asian anything check out the inner Richmond area. You'll find this cuisine on almost every corner. Speaking of food, Day 3 was food tour day! We went to the San Francisco Mission district -- listen up for where to eat, these are San Francisco gems my friends.

a stop at Clarion alley to view all the street art

^ Craftsman and Wolves - caramelized hazelnut financier

^ Falafel...voted the best in San Francisco...we wouldn't go back for it

^ Taqueria Cancun -- not a fan of the taco options we got on the food tour. Had we been able to order anything I think we would have loved it. It was very authentic! (coming from a girl who know's her Mexican ;)

and they have this..which speaks to my heart 

^ OK, listen up, DELFINA has the best pizza we have ever had in our lives. 

We never knew pizza until this day. 

^ Tartine Bakery...the place that's too cool to have a sign. Locals are always lined up there & they all know what it is. Toasted Almond and Coco Nib Rochers in the photo to the left were terrible. It was dessert and I didn't finish mine. If you know me, that says A LOT. That being said, what Tartine does know how to do is SOURDOUGH bread! Incredible. Their's should be the world famous sourdough.

^ If you go to Delfina for pizza you'll have to go down and across the street to Bi-Rite Creamery. WOW. Wowee Wow Wow. We got balsamic strawberry and cookies and cream. 

I'd get those flavors again. 

our food tour friends :)

After our food tour and ice-cream detour with new friends, we had to get down to business. As in, we had to go buy our house. [much more on that in a later post on what we learned about buying a house] 

Afterwards - 

The Painted Ladies (not to be confused with the Full House house..who knew?!)

Union Square

& oh yeah....we went back to Tartine bakery and Delfina for some sourdough and more pizza. 

IT'S THAT GOOD!!!

& what's a meal without dessert...Mission Pie..I'm not big on pie but I approved. We probably wouldn't go back at night time, the area was a little sketchy. 

banana cream pie! YUM!!!

Day 4 we hiked.

place over the bridge in San Rafael. Go with somebody and share. The portions are HUGE.

ended up on Earth.

After our hike we drove down the mountain - not recommended for the easily car sick (I got sick) - we went to China beach, the Palace of Fine Arts & surrounding area, the Full House house, and out to dinner.

everything was so huge!

A wave organ...we think it was broken...

They've painted THE house.

best hostess ever, Darianne! Love her!!!

^ dinner at Sushi Bistro. We loved the sesame chicken & crunchy veggie roll! 

Day 5 we hit the road to LOS ANGELES. After picking up the rental, making a pitstop at the beautiful Oakland temple and to see my cousin Claire, we made our way to Big Sur. The pictures speak for themselves...but we may have ridden the whole way with our jaws dropped. Holy beautiful. 

I was REALLY sad because we didn't get a picture of ourselves with these beautiful scenes in the background. There are SO many places you want to stop but you think "well we can't stop at ALL of them so we'll wait a minute"...and then all of a sudden the terrain changes drastically...it's still pretty but it's not the cliffs and water you imagine when you think of Big Sur. If you're going to take this drive, stop everywhere you want! & take a lot of pictures! It was an incredible drive but after the terrain changed and the road got SUPER curvy we kind of couldn't wait to get off. (I got car sick and Rick was over the curvy road driving - but we still recommend going this route if you're driving down!) 

We got onto the 101 and headed to Santa Barbara for some lunch. Rick's reaction driving into Santa Barbara, "Everything is so perfect! what is this place?!" --

^ Cousins recommended Romanti Ezer for lunch and whoa! Their taquitos/flautas were on point.

We drove through Malibu. Unimpressed.

After tons of traffic we were ready to get to the hotel and just relax.
Day 6 we tried to get to the Ellen show - unsuccessful - so we did some sight seeing.

See the Hollywood sign wayyyy on back there?

Griffith Observatory. Unfortunately it was closed for the day.

TCL Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Blvd.

With Matt Damon's star. His man crush.

We went to the Jimmy Kimmel show this night but NO pictures allowed! For real.

Day 7 started out with some pretty sweet architecture at the J. Paul Getty Museum - and some more at the Los Angeles temple. 

we loved all the travertine tile

neat tree at the Los Angeles temple

Following that we headed to a farmer's market...which was a total tourist trap. So we went across the street for lunch. Then Rodeo drive [where we found out the bank left my name off some documents and we'd have to redo it all! HA!], Beverly Hills, and Greenspan's Grilled Cheese for dinner.

^ gourmet grilled cheese & house-made sodas...yes please.

Day 8 our dreams came true and we went to the Price is Right!!! We may or may not have tricked some of y'all with a Facebook picture that looked like we won at the big wheel...that was just a green screen...apparently we are far too boring to get picked by producers. It was still a blast shouting out "higher!!!" "lower!!!" and random prices. If not for the Price is Right, we wouldn't mind never going back to LA again..we kind of hated that city haha. 

a quick "lunch" across the street from the Price is Right.

After eating, we headed to our final destination - SAN DIEGO. My birth place. Our first stop was Grandpa Gerwien's house (when my mom moved to the United States she lived with a couple and they became like parents to her) and then we all headed to one of my favorite restaurants:

pan fried noodles & EXTRA fortune cookies!! They are dipped in white chocolate.

After a good night's sleep we were ready for our DAY 9 whale watching tour...

...about 10 minutes in I lost it. as in the contents of my stomach. 7 times. [the San Diego Whale Watch crew was incredible at taking care of the sickly and the narration throughout the tour was relevant/interesting. They really make an effort to get as many sightings as possible and make sure everybody enjoys the ride.]

Rick caught some action though:

whale there on the right-ish

My stomach needed a refill so we found Carnitas Snack Shack. a MUST GO. 

Bacon ketchup, that is all. 

Again, what's a meal without dessert? Extraordinary Desserts was...extraordinary. Especially the Roasted Strawberry Buttermilk ice cream. We had to ask for some berry sauce for our scone but it was still good. We REALLY wanted to go back here for seconds but time didn't allow it.

Balboa Park helped us kill some time before meeting up with the Franks at World Famous for dinner.

On day 10 more of our dreams came true at the San Diego temple! Everything about it was celestial.

we met up with more family friends and toured the area to check some more things off of our California bucket list.

Hotel Del Coronado

Ponce's was recommended to us on the whale watching tour so we went and had delicious enchiladas!

Lunch and site seeing with Laura and Yolanda! Yolanda took english classes with my mom and was there when I was born

Mount Soledad Veteran's Memorial

La Jolla Cove. Beautiful but STINKY. 

the cause of the stink

Our last stop was to see Grandpa Gerwien again before heading to dinner at Kim & Ben's house with all of the Franks. 

The next morning it was back to reality. We had such a blast. California is a delicious state and it was so nice to see friends and family the whole way down the state. We are SO blessed to have been able to enjoy such a vacation!