Read Part 1 here about our week in Mexico. From Mexico, we flew up to San Francisco for another week of honeymoon bliss.
Flights to San Francisco: $397 + $31 baggage fees
We arrived at SFO late on Sunday evening and caught a cab to the Argonaut Hotel ($58 cab ride). I had scored four nights (Sun-Wed) through Hotwire for $742 including taxes, fees, etc. After checking in, we headed out to explore Fisherman’s Wharf and to find a pizza place (because that was the one food that wasn’t done well in Mexico!). After pizza ($28), we wandered back to our hotel, soaking in the new sights and sounds.
Monday
We explored the city like the tourists we were, map in hand. We headed to North Beach and stopped at Caffe Trieste for breakfast ($15). We wandered through Chinatown, up Nob Hill and through the financial district. We walked all over the place. Even though we bought 3-day MUNI passes, allowing us unlimited use of public transport ($36 for two), we found that SF is very walkable and it was a great way to get an overview of the city.
All that walking made us hungry and we went to Butterfly ($30) for lunch. We wish we wouldn’t have. It was merely mediocre in my opinion. For dessert, and a pick me up after the lunch let down, we got a sundae from Ghirardelli ($9). I know that is a total rip, but we were on our honeymoon so rational thought doesn’t count and it was a very good sundae!
On Monday night, we loaded onto a boat for the night tour of Alcatraz. ($66 for 2 tix). It was incredibly foggy on the bay, so we didn’t even see the island until they parked the boat next to it, but in a way, that added to the ambience. It was pretty creepy. The Alcatraz tour was Awesome and we highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. We didn’t get back from the tour until about 10 pm, so we stopped at In-N-Out for a late dinner ($11). It was my first time at In-n-Out, and I have to say, I was a bit disappointed. We also stopped at Walgreens to grab some bottled water and snacks. ($11)
Tuesday
We hopped a street car and headed to the Ferry Building to check out the Farmer’s Market. It was fun and Bird bought some coffee and fruit ($8). Funny story: Bird wants a peach. I go to buy her said peach and it costs me $3. I told Bird it better be the best peach she’s ever had. I think it may have been, but it still wasn’t worth $3.
We took a bus and headed for the Castro and the Mission District. We stopped at Haight/Ashbury for about 2 minutes until we realized we didn’t care about hippies. We care much more about Full House so we went to Alamo Square.
In the Mission District, we had lunch at Pancho Villa Taqueria ($22). This was Bird’s favorite meal of the whole trip (better Mexican food than Mexico).
After lunch, we headed back towards the hotel and stopped off at Coit Tower. We paid the $10 ($5 each) each to take the elevator to the top for the view. It was underwhelming and not highly recommended.
In the evening we took a bus out to the Golden Gate Bridge and we finally got to see it. There was a brief break in the fog for a few hours and we took some pictures and hiked around.
The hiking was awesome. We hiked the bluffs overlooking the Pacific and ended up at Baker Beach. It was an amazing time. As the sun set, the fog rolled in and we didn’t get a photo-op, but we got those in Mexico.
From the beach we caught a bus back to the city and we hopped off to have dinner at Yukol Place Thai ($29). We walked back to the hotel and called it a night.
Wednesday
We were up early (730ish) with the intent to rent bikes ($54) and ride across the bridge to Sausalito. We wanted to beat the crowds and we did, but that’s because they were probably smart enough to wait for it to warm up. It was foggy and cold. We warmed up quickly by biking up all the hills and crossed the bridge in a thick fog. This was a great experience and one we recommend, but it was a bit sad to be biking through the fog.
But what a difference geography makes. We crossed the bridge, headed down the hill into Sausalito and were bathed in glorious sunlight. It’s the strangest thing. We wandered through Sausalito, admiring the beautiful homes and eventually stopping at a deli for lunch ($21). We did some shopping and bought ourselves a nice little San Francisco Christmas ornament ($24). It seems like a lot for a Christmas ornament, but again, it’s just one of those things that hopefully we’ll have forever and it will be such a fun memory. We decided we may try to get Christmas ornaments on all our vacations. It will be a fun tradition.
From Sausalito we opted to ride the ferry back with our bikes ($16). It was a fun way to see Alcatraz and the city since our boat ride on Monday was in a total fog.
To reward ourselves for the bike ride, we got another sundae ($9)! The rest of the afternoon we just killed time wandering the wharf and then headed back to our hotel to get dressed up for our big night out. We had reservations at First Crush and tickets to Wicked (my wedding/birthday gift to my wife). Dinner was very good, not necessarily the greatest $104 meal I’ve ever had, but very good. And of course, Wicked was AMAZING! We loved it. After the show, we had a very romantic cable car ride back to the hotel. It was just us and the driver and we snuggled close against the late night chill (Bird and I did the snuggling, not the driver). It was a perfect way to end our time in San Francisco. The next morning we were renting a car and heading to Sonoma.
Thursday
We checked out of the hotel, but left our bags at the front desk. The plan was to walk to the rental car place and then drive back and get our bags. We stopped for breakfast again at Cafe Trieste ($20). We stopped at City Lights bookstore and browsed around. We stopped in Chinatown and bought some t-shirts ($12). Then we picked up our car and drove it back to the hotel, making sure to drive down Lombard (crooked street) on the way.
We grabbed our bags and we were gone. We took Hwy 1 up the coast hoping for a very scenic drive. Instead, we got fog. We arrived in Santa Rosa in mid-afternoon and stopped at the 5th St. Grill for burgers ($23). We drove to the Armstrong Redwoods Reserve and hiked around the giant trees. It was lovely.
As night began to fall, we left the park and headed for our hotel. One night stay at the Fountaingrove Inn ($99 – I got a deal on TravelZoo). After checking in, we ran to the grocery store for a few things ($7).
Friday
We checked out of our hotel and headed for downtown Sonoma. We ate breakfast at the Sunflower Caffe ($23) and then wandered around town. We stopped at a photographer’s studio and ended up buying a print ($44).
Then it was time for winery tours. Our first stop was at Benziger because I had heard they had the best tour. And it was awesome. $30 for two tickets, and I think it was worth it. We rode through the vineyard, stopped in the wine cave, and learned about the crush pad.
The price of the tour also included a tasting. We bought a bottle for us and one for Bird’s parents ($52). The next place we stopped at was Kenwood. Bird did a tasting here ($5). Kenwood was kind of underwhelming after coming from Benziger. Our third and final winery was Buena Vista. As we walked in, a kind stranger handed us a 2 for 1 tasting coupon. After the tasting, we ended up buying a bottle and they didn’t charge us for the tasting ($30 for a bottle). As the afternoon turned to evening, we found ourselves back in downtown Sonoma. We had dinner at The Red Grape ($53) and then headed for the airport.
One of the reasons we chose the car rental place that we did is because they allowed us to pick up in the city but drop off at the airport. There was a $30 fee for that convenience but it was well worth it. Total car rental cost including extra fee and gas was $109.
I had booked us the redeye back to Minneapolis, so we had a while to wait at the airport. I bought a book and we finally bought some sourdough bread ($40). We went 4 days in SF without ever eating sourdough–shame on us. And shame on me because airport books are ridiculously expensive. I only brought two books with me (The Maltese Falcon, East of Eden) and I had finished them both. Sidenote: East of Eden is my favorite book I read this year and in my top ten of all time. I LOVED IT!
Flights home – San Francisco to Minneapolis: $249 + $40 baggage fees
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Hope you had a great honeymoon. It seems you only went over budget a lil’ bit. I spent a summer in SF and it was fun. I think its a great place to visit and way too expensive to actually live there.
Hi Jane, thanks for the comment. Yes, went over a little bit, but luckily I’m not a very strict budgeter so it’s not too big of a deal. And yes, I can’t imagine the cost of living out there, not quite sure how people do it.
As a proportion of the total you spent, your overage is not that bad. I did a terrible job of setting a budget for our trip, and although I think we came close, it’s really hard to budget for a place you’ve never been to before! SF is known for being expensive, but I think sometimes it’s hard to even predict that high of a COL!