Our flight was delayed, but we finally landed at SFO on Friday night. We took an Uber to our hotel and ordered some food using Uber eats! The Lauren Inn is a perfect boutique Joie de Vie hotel, situated in the quiet Presidio neighborhood. Check in was a breeze and they still had cookies available when we arrived late at night. Our room was on the second floor and we had a beautiful city view. It was clean, the furniture was modern (they have marble!) and the beds are so comfortable. I had the best sleep after walking around the city all day!
FOOD TOUR
San Francisco is a melting pot of cultures. We got to experience Edible Excursion’s Japantown Tour with our amazing tour guide, Alice. In the span of 3 hours, we walked around Japantown learning about the history and culture of the district. We stopped at several restaurants to taste some popular dishes. Seven stops later, our stomachs were full and happy. We got to eat bowls of steaming ramen and swirls of green tea soft serve ice cream. If you want to read more about the tour, here is my recap blog post.
CABLE CARS
After our food tour, we Ubered to the Cable Car Museum. It’s funny that we’ve been to San Francisco so many times, but never really understood how the famous cable cars work. At the Cable Car Museum, you can watch the giant wheels turn the cables that run through the city streets. It’s a quick visit if you want to dive into SF history and nerd out on mechanical engineering! The best part is that admission is free and it takes less than half an hour to go through the whole thing.
Since we were heading to Union Square right after, we decided to take a cable car to complete our museum experience. It cost $7 to hop on and off and you get a souvenir ticket. All the seats were taken on our car, but I got to stand on the side and hold on to the railing! I didn’t realize how thrilling it was to ride so close to the edge, especially going down the steep San Francisco hills.
UNION SQUARE
We hopped off the cable car and explored Union Square. If you have time to shop, this area of the city is filled with big brand stores. We walked around and popped into The Lark, a small bar near Union Square, to try their specialty drinks.
We were getting hungry, so it was time to head over to Sushiritto on Kearny. We got to sit down with Peter, the owner of Sushirrito, and talk about the story of the restaurant and what’s to come. We decided to try some new rolls, since we always order the same thing, and cheered with some sake. Sushiritto is a San Francisco gem, and if you need a foodie reason to come visit, here you go. Their ingredients are top quality and once you taste them, you’ll understand why customers keep coming back for more!
After our dinner, we decided to get some Boba Guys, only a few minutes away. I definitely recommend getting the Matcha Latte with boba! Their boba balls are absolutely perfect and sweet, but you can customize your drink however you want. With boba in hand, we ventured off to Chinatown to do some window shopping and photoshoots. Pro Tip: if you want some picture perfect spots, go to the street with all the lanterns, there shouldn’t be many cars driving through, and the colorful staircase with food names painted on each step.
FILLMORE STREET
Woke up bright and early to walk to Fillmore street from our hotel. Only 10 minutes away, we ate at this cute breakfast spot called Jane. There we had a super healthy breakfast and yummy lattes to start off our day right. My favorites were the Dragonfruit Smoothie Bowl and the Egg White Sandwich. I loved their to-go coffee cup designs, especially the blue floral print.
After breakfast, it was time to check out and rent a car to drive to Livermore for Amber and Duy’s wedding. We had an amazing time in San Francisco, there’s always something new to do every time we visit.