My San Francisco Adventure! Part 1

 

Hello! So I'm back from my great adventure up north. I did plan to post each day that I'm there but after each day of fun I was extremely exhausted and went to bed. So that failed... lol.  Now that I'm back home in my comfy seat and on the computer, I am ready to post my experiences and adventure in San Francisco. **BE PREPARED FOR A LOT OF PHOTOS!!  Let us start!

Day 1 07/22/14

My boyfriend and I drove to San Francisco from the OC. We rented a economy car at Avis, (they gave us a Chevrolet Cruze in a dark blue color which I thought looked dark purple with glitter ... named it for our trip the "Eggplant" ) Grabbed a quick fruit&vegetable drink at Jamba Juice, and headed out towards the freeway. It took us around ... 7ish hours to get there including traffic. Luckily  we switched off a couple of times when the one that was driving was tired to get a break (though I only drove like an hour and half ... and my boyfriend drove the rest lol) The drive there was fine,  the driver's seat was not cushioned at all ... as if someone took out all of the cushion on the driver side so it was very uncomfortable to sit and concentrate on the drive when your butt hurt or became numb lol.  As we headed closer towards our destination ... it became super green! There were trees/plants/flowers everywhere which was such a pretty sight to see. We finally got to our hotel destination at around 4:30ish and checked in. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Pleasant Hill (very quiet neighborhood). Our room was included one king bed, a desk, a sofa chair, television, and bathtub/shower, just perfect for the both of us.  It had no view (the view of a rarely used parking lot/backyard) which wasn't bad. After unpacking and putting all of our stuff in the right places we decided to head out and explore/have dinner. So we thought hey lets go to Union Square ! 

To get there we took the BART station from Pleasant Hill to Powell station which is right next to the Westfield Mall. The BART station is just like the subway/metro stations. It was my first time so I was super excited! It is super fast and gets you to your destination in no time . I t was nice to relax and not worry about driving and finding parking and paying parking fees so it was quick and easy (AFTER we figured out how the system worked) transportation.

When we finally got to our destination, we went towards the mall entrance to see whats inside. The mall there was HUGE ... I was just like in an "awe" moment lol. They also had really pretty escalators that went in a semi-spiral up and down. We went all the way up to the top (curiosity got the better of us ) and shopped around. We actually was trying to find a place to eat but because it was almost 9:00 at the time ... we the food court was beginning to close.

That was when Yelp became our go to assistant to search for open restaurants for dinner. When we found a place we liked, we walked there with the GPS. I was really happy that we walked to our destination because we were about to see the different and unique buildings/shops and have a feel for the nighttime environment. It was great and it wasn't cold out so it was really nice strolling. We came across a sushi bar that we liked with good ratings on yelp but there was a line ... 5 other parties in front of us on the wait list. So we walked around to pass the time and two doors away there was this Mexican restaurant that had so many high ratings and compliments that we decided to go in and ask them how the the wait was. There was no WAIT! So we ate there instead of the sushi place. The place was called Calibri. It WAS a little crowded though...  we sat right next two other tables. We were probably  at least a foot away from both tables ... I felt that was just too close because I was able to hear on both conversions ... not that I was trying to be nosy ... lol But anyways to my favorite part ... the FOOD! We got the the fish ceviche, and the lamb shank to share. As an appetizer instead of bread and butter like other restaurants they gave us corn tortillas with  three different kinds of sauces. Our waiter describe each sauce and ... mild, hot, and spicy. When we tasted the sauces they were not at all spicy. They were just 3 different flavored sauces.

 

The "mild" one was so GOOD. I mean it was DELICIOUS! My boyfriend and I added that sauce with our our entrees too when they came out. That's how GOOD IT WAS! In the picture it goes from top to bottom the "mild" sauce is the top and the "spicier" sauce on the bottom one. We asked our waiter what the sauce was and he was it was a mixture of pineapple and mangoes.... no wonder it was so GOOD! *Drools! lol the middle sauce taste like a mole (chocolate spice) sauce and the "spicy" sauce was a green chilli sauce ... kinda like the one from Chipotle. It wasn't too spicy, it just had that heat that warms your tummy ... just like black pepper.

The Ceviche was good with halibut I believe and avocado... was even better with that awesome mild pineapple mango sauce though ... that's my opinion lol and the Lamb shank was delicious, fall off thebone tender and juicy. It was ALSO if I may add SO AMAZINGLY GOOD WITH  THE MILD SAUCE TOO. If I could I would totally ask them for a great big mason jar of this sauce!!

After, we walked back to the BART to head back to our hotel. The buildings and night scene of Union Square was such a beautiful sight.

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