When Jace broke my phone at the end of last year, I lost a lot of my photos, and haven’t been to an Apple Store yet to recover them. But thankfully I found these gems saved in my email! Back in October when Pam was visiting I was given suite tickets to the last Giants game of the season – fan day! The view was amazing and we enjoyed all kinds of perks in the company suite. Part of fan day were games and freebies and first game certificates for the boys. Such a beautiful day and a great game. Jace was full of brotherly hugs and photo bombs too. Such a lover that one. Glad I was able to treat my sister to a little fun in the city. We even got to run the bases after the game!
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San Francisco
Last week I finally got to take advantage of some of the perks that come along with Rob’s job: free tickets to the Giants! We made the drive up to San Francisco for a date night, starting with dinner at 21st Amendment Brewery, watermelon fermented beer, and then the game! Watermelon might be my favorite fruit in the whole wide world, so when I heard that 21st Amendment had a watermelon beer, I was all over it. I don’t know what I was more excited about, the watermelon beer or the awesome seats at the stadium. Probably the beer {haha}. I mean, come on! They put a watermelon slice on my mug! They had me at the slice. It’s a wonderfully delicious, summer beer — perfect for the warm night we had in San Fran. Very light, just like I like it. I had to buy a 6-pack to take home with us. Can’t wait to pop one open on the beach. Dinner was great. We couldn’t stop talking about Jace. At one point we started laughing at each other because he was all we could talk about. It was a much needed date night, even with the traffic and angry homeless people. Highly recommend this brewery — especially their Hell or High Watermelon beer ;)
{Rob got us shirts for the game – what a sweetheart.}
{Giants won!}
Since we were planning on eating more than sleeping on our baby moon {and because we wouldn’t even be at the hotel for more than 24 hours}, I wanted to find a hotel that was semi-cheap {Travelzoo discount – yeah!}, centrally located and a little retro. We decided on the Vertigo Hotel in Nob Hill, and now I can’t stop saying “equilibrium”, hahaha. Definitely go for the Deluxe King – super comfy. I enjoyed all the orange tones, the street view, Hitchock’s ‘Vertigo‘ playing on repeat in the lobby. . . too fun. We felt safe and didn’t break the bank. It was a win-win.
{woke up to a beautiful Sunday in the city!}
On our way home from our baby moon, we stopped at Baker Beach to take in the ocean air and views of the bridge. What a gorgeous beach. We sat and listened to the waves, snacked on raspberry popcorn and some Guirardelli sea salt carmels and talked about all the great food we ate. By the the end of the trip, we had mapped out our next, 5-year plan and got a little closer to deciding on a name for baby boy {!}. A great weekend in my books.
{so beautiful}
{me & my poncho find from Haight street}
{it was the most perfect baby moon}
We decided last minute to take a baby moon! We had considered Mendocino, Cambria, San Luis Obispo, Big Sur or Tahoe, but I really didn’t want to sit in the car for longer than 2 hours with my big belly, so we decided to go up to the city for a night. We haven’t been to San Francisco together since we’ve moved here; we’ve always gone at different times with other people, so we thought we’d go back to where it all started {we honeymooned to San Francisco those 6 years ago}. Looking back, we literally ATE our way through the different parts of the city that we hadn’t experienced yet together. So, this blog post is dedicated to all the great restaurants we ate at — in which we all highly recommend! Starting with Nopa, just north of the Panhandle.
Nopa came highly recommended to us, and was also #1 on the San Francisco Eater 38. When I went online to book a reservation, they weren’t accepting reservations until the first weekend in February. But that didn’t stop us; we showed up right at open, ordered some refreshing cocktails and ate brunch at the bar. Table or not, it was amazing. We’re still talking about how good the food was. I highly recommend the custard french toast or the soft egg scramble plate. Lots of ‘foodies’ here for sure.
After brunch we took a stroll through Alamo Square since it was so close {until I got a cramp, hahaha}, and jumped back in the car to avoid the light rain.
That night we planned dinner at Capannina in the Marina/Presidio district, also another recommendation. The restaurant was packed {which is always a good sign}. Service was incredible; they even hailed us a cab after dinner. All the tables are close to each other, making it extra romantic {and a little tight}. They also give you an entire loaf of bread just about. Rob ordered the squid ink and scallops, and clam linguine and I the tortellini. Very italian; just what I wanted!
Before we taxied back to the hotel, we stopped to Ghirardelli Square by the wharf to share a Mint Bliss sundae. It was heaven in a bowl. Also picked up some chocolate-covered blueberries to enjoy at home.
Our foodie tour ended in Laurel Heights at Ella’s for brunch on Sunday. It was a bustling morning of families and friends talking over coffee and sticky buns. I ordered the freshly squeezed blood orange juice, and meyer lemon hazelnut risotto pancakes and Rob the fried egg breakfast sandwich. Good breakfast food always makes for a better day if you ask me. If we lived in the city, I think we’d be here every weekend. Loved the atmosphere and brunch menu!
And I mustn’t forget the surprise gift basket Rob had waiting for me in our room upon our arrival, packed full of local, San Francisco treats. Not sure if you’ve heard of The Gifted Basket before, but they did an awesome job with our snack basket. Rob called before our arrival and asked that they put together a bunch of salty and sweet snacks for our “baby moon”. It was so fun going through all the items they included in our basket. Almond biscotti, chili lime tequila tortilla, cranberry carmel popcorn . . . and so much more! I’m not good with surprises at all, so of course I started crying and couldn’t stop {plus my preggo hormones are on overdrive lately}. It was so thoughtful of Rob to get us snacks for the room, and not just m&ms, but snacks from around San Francisco{!}. Perhaps my creativity is rubbing off on him ;)
Overall, it was a tie between Nopa and Ella’s for me. I’m pretty sure our baby boy weighs close to 10lbs now, after this baby moon. We literally ate the entire time. It’s certainly what we love to do! Good thing we did a lot of walking and sleeping to burn it all off, ha. Did you take a baby moon? What did you do?