Cali Day 5 & 6: Cambria and SF Giants Game

Last California post, which it should be since we left for this trip a month ago yesterday! Plus I can start posting the other fun stuff we have been doing!

In case you missed the other California vacation posts:

Day 1: San Fran - Alcatraz

Day 2: San Fran - Chinatown, Dolores Park

Day 3 & 4: Monterey/Carmel

Day 5: Hearst Castle

After touring the Hearst Castle, we drove on to where we stayed for the night in Cambria. Cambria is a tiny seaside town that we decided is mostly a place for retired people! We stayed at a little mom and pop hotel called the Sea Otter Inn. It was nothing fancy, but clean and charming. It was located right across the street from the ocean.

 

We had our own little patio garden.

There were beautiful flowers all over the grounds.

It is fitting it is called the Sea Otter Inn because right across from it there were all these sea otters bathing on the rock.

Crazy squirrel! There was a board walk along the water that we walked along. There were tons of squirrels and they were quite friendly.

Pretty beach cottages

We walked along the water then decided to go into town and find somewhere to eat. We found a Mexican place called Las Cambritas.  It was pretty good.  We tried to find somewhere to get ice cream after dinner, but every where was closed by 6:00 pm! This is when we decided we were in the land of old people and there was not going to be much to do after dinner. We decided to drive to a nature reserve and walk a little more along the water before it got dark.

 

Self timer pic! This was a feat to accomplish!

We woke up early and drove back to San Francisco in the morning.  We stopped at an In-n-Out and Eric was very happy.  When we got into San Francisco, we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge.

We went to a place called the Marin Headlands where we had heard you could see great views of the bridge.  This was as close as we could get. The road was closed for construction. It was a great place to view the bridge and the city.

Eric relaxing in out hotel. We stayed at Kensington Park Hotel.  It was really nice and we enjoyed the hotel except for being woken up at 1:00 am by our neighbors in the room next door who would not go to sleep! I swear they stayed up all night. We had to call downstairs like three times.  It was horrible!

Giants game! We headed down to the stadium area early to walk around and have some beers at Public House.  

While we were at Public House, I "checked in" on facebook and Eric's coworker Jamie wrote me that I had to try this beer. She and her husband had just been there a couple of weeks before. I ordered it and am so glad I did! It is called Hell or High Watermelon and it was so good! Unfortunately they do not distribute in Texas. I am on a mission to get more of this beer!

It got pretty packed inside.

Inside the stadium with the Bay Bridge in the background

They had so many different food choices inside the stadium. Here is Eric's bratwurst.

It was a beautiful day! Not a cloud in the sky! We sat on the side overlooking the bay.

The Giants played the Minnesota Twins and got killed!

 Made a new friend! There was a group of students from Singapore who were studying at Stanford (smarties!). I chatted with him throughout the game. He was fun!

And that's it! We had a great time at the game, had a beer at a pub near the hotel, and went to bed (although we did not sleep - see above!). The next morning we had an awesome breakfast at Sears. Not the store! Sears Fine Food. So good! Then we were off to the airport. We had an awesome first anniversary trip! We really enjoyed our time in California (and the weather!) and will definitely be going back to explore more. My vote is for Napa!!  Thanks Eric for a great trip! Love you!

Cali Day 2 & 3: San Fran as the locals do it

Our second day in San Francisco, started with me going on an 11.5 mile run (not planned!) and Eric sleeping in. I started out just going to run a few miles, but just kept wanting to get closer to the Golden Gate Bridge. Before I knew it, I had run 6 miles and was at Crissy Field which is right under the bridge. The temperature was perfect for running and the scenery kept me going. I thought that I would probably end up taking the street car back to the hotel, but I ended up just running all the way back. I have to say I was very impressed that my body was able to run so far, but I definitely give credit to the awesome California temperature. It was a beautiful run and I am so glad that I did it. Who knows, maybe one day I will run the San Francisco Half Marathon! Here are some pictures from my morning run.

Starting off my run near Union Square

 Self-portrait!

Ghiradelli Square 

 

 Pretty houses overlooking the bay

Getting closer!

 

Doggies playing on the beach

After my run, I was starving! Eric loves going to Chinatown in every city he goes to, so he was looking forward to going there in San Francisco. He looked up some restaurants and read good things about the Oriental Pearl Restaurant. The food was delicious! We ordered hot tea and some Pork Dumplings Shanghai Style dim sum to start with. For our meals, Eric ordered Beef Stew with Curry Sauce that was cooked in a clay pot and I ordered Spicy Braised Chicken.  They were both excellent! I definitely reccommend going to the Oriental Pearl.

After lunch, we stopped in a Chinese bakery.  We tried the melon cookie and surprisingly, it was very good! I was a little nervous I must admit!

After Chinatown, we headed over to the Mission District to Delores Park.  I can't remember where I read about this park, but I had heard it was a fun park to go to, take some beers and food, and sit down to enjoy an afternoon of people watching. 

We went to Bi-Rite Market nearby, which was a super cute miniature Whole Foods and got some beers, bread, cheese, and strawberries and headed back to the park.

It was an eclectic crowd at the park. These people were definitely enjoying themselves. People were just lounging around, drinking beers, listening to music, talking amongst friends.  It was fun to hang where the locals are and just take in the environment around us.

Mission High School

After a relaxing afternoon at the park, we went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.  We went to Delfina Pizzeria in Pacific Heights. It was a tiny, cute little restaurant and while we had to wait a little while to get a table, it was worth it!  We started with an amazing appetizer of fresh stretched Belfiore Burrata cheese (similar to Mozzarella) and had the Salsiccia pizza which had housemade fennel sausage, tomato, bell peppers, onions, mozzarella on it. After dinner, we headed to the Marina District, which is a young, trendy area, to check out a bar we had heard about, The Tipsy Pig.  The bar looked cool, but was packed, so we went to a pub next door and had a beer or two before heading home for the night. 

The next morning, we woke up early, went to breakfast at a little diner near the hotel and got the rental car to head out of town.  Before leaving, we drove down Lombard St., which is the crookedest street in the world.  It was pretty cool to drive down. The street had beautiful flowers all along it.

One last stop before getting on Highway One - The Painted Ladies across from Alamo Square Park. These are the houses featured in the Full House opening credits. I loved Full House as a kid so we had to see them!

After this, we headed down Highway One, along the coastline, to Monterey. Beautiful drive!

You find Day One here.