California Dreamin'

Exactly one month after visiting California for the Robinson / Liu wedding, David and I were back in the Golden State.  David was attending Dreamforce in San Francisco, so I flew in on Thursday after work to meet him for the weekend.

The entire city was over-run with Dreamforce participants.  More than 100,000 people came into San Fran for the massive Salesforce conference.  It was so large this year that most hotels were completely sold out or had quadrupled their nightly rates to cash in on the crowds.  To combat the lodging issues, Salesforce partnered with Celebrity Cruises to dock a cruise ship at Pier 27 for conference attendees’ accommodations. 

It was insanely crowded everywhere we went.  I love San Francisco, and have fond memories of visiting with David shortly after we got married.  Aside from our honeymoon, it was our first vacation together as a married couple.  That being said, I will never visit during Dreamforce again.  David will be on his own.

We stayed in the heart of the city, at the Westin St Francis in Union Square.  The St Francis is a historic hotel that’s hosted presidents, actors and actresses, and even Queen Elizabeth.  After I arrived on Thursday night, David and I met up with one of his colleagues at the hotel’s Clock Bar.  I ordered the fruity Shirley cocktail, named after Shirley Temple, who stayed at the St Francis in the 1930s.  After just that one drink, it was off to bed as I needed to be up at 5:00 on Friday morning to prep for a meeting.

While David attended the last day of Dreamforce, I worked from the hotel.  We met up for lunch at Marlowe to commemorate National Cheeseburger Day with one of the city’s best cheeseburgers.  The Marlowe burger is topped with cheddar, caramelized onions, bacon, and horseradish aioli.  The flavors were very good, and very rich.  So rich, in fact, that we didn’t eat anything else for the rest of the day. 

After finishing up our work, we walked down to the Embarcadero via Market Street.  We strolled through the Ferry Building, perusing the various shops and restaurants, before heading to Pier 39 to see the famous sea lions.  We watched them swim around the pier, and were entertained by their constant arguing over prime sleeping spots on the docks.  I could’ve watched them all day, but the smell eventually drove us away!

On Saturday we visited Muir Woods.  Last time we were in San Francisco, we took a couple of day trips to wine country and Yosemite, so we didn’t have time to do Alcatraz or Muir Woods.  On this vacation, we made time to do both.

We arrived early Saturday morning to avoid the crowds, and be able to hike comfortably before the day got too warm.  The woods were beautiful, and the trees provided so much shade from the sun, that we stayed cool the entire time.  

Muir Woods is a vast redwood forest purchased in the early 1900s by William and Elizabeth Kent, and later donated to the government to protect it from destruction.  The Kents named the woods after their friend and conservationist, John Muir.

Coastal redwoods are the tallest trees in the world.  The tallest recorded tree to-date was discovered just within the last decade and measures 379 feet … the same height as a 37 story building.

David and I hiked along the paved pathways for a couple of hours, admiring the stunning scenery.

Before we headed back to the city, we had lunch at the Muir Woods Trading Company.  This small gift shop and café were recently featured on the Food Network’s ‘The Best Thing I Ever Ate.’  Chef Tyler Florence claims the rustic grilled cheese and organic tomato soup at the Trading Co. is the best grilled cheese / tomato soup combo anywhere in the world.  So of course, we tried it for ourselves.   Under the canopy of trees, with the weather a bit chilly, this was the perfect lunch to warm us up.  The sandwich, made with triple-cream Brie cheese was melty, crunchy, and chewy all at the same time.  The soup was the perfect accompaniment.

Once we crossed back over the Golden Gate Bridge, we met up with my cousin, Jenelle.  She’s lived in San Francisco for years, and loves it.  We were able to spend a couple of hours with her, seeing her place and then heading to a nearby bar to watch the UT vs California football game (David and I were definitely the only Longhorn fans in the bar).

Comparing this photo to our blog profile picture, we haven't aged a day! ;)

Later that evening, we met up with Connor Jay and Kenia.  Connor Jay and David have known each other since high school, and the couple visited us in London a few years ago.  We had dinner at Stone’s Throw, near crooked Lombard Street, an American restaurant featuring sharing plates like Puffed Potato and Egg with cauliflower mousse, chives, and crispy chicken skin.  We all shared the Summer Squash and Heirloom Tomato Salad to start, as well as the Puffed Potato, and then Connor and I both ordered the Brentwood Corn Ravioli with ricotta, mushrooms, and truffles.  For dessert, the four of us split the Peanut Butter and Jelly donuts. 

Before we met up with Jenelle and then Connor Jay and Kenia for dinner, we had to stop by Ghirardelli for a couple of famous hot fudge sundaes!

We still had a lot of catching up to do, and David and I wanted to give Connor Jay and Kenia more advice for their upcoming trip to Tanzania, so we headed back to the Union Square area to Hotel Zelos and their rooftop bar, Dirty Habit.

Sunday morning, we boarded a ferry and headed out to Alcatraz Island to tour the infamous prison.  We spent enough time on the Rock to learn about the daily lives of the criminals locked up, the many attempted escapes, and only two successful ones.

Alcatraz was also home to the West Coast’s first fort and lighthouse, was occupied by Indians of All Tribes for a year and a half, and hosts many protected seabirds.  It was nesting season while we were there, so there were a ton of ‘off-limit’ signs to protect the island’s habitat.

One of the most interesting parts of the tour was visiting the isolation wing of the penitentiary.  A guide explained to us that extremely dangerous prisoners were kept in this cell block, and the vilest were confined to the cells at the end.  Those cells had double-doors, meaning no light or sound could get into the empty, concrete chamber.  The prisoners were stripped and because of this, could not lie down to sleep on the floors.  If they did, they risked catching hypothermia from the cold, bare floor.  So they learned how to sleep standing up.  The guide locked David and me inside a pitch-black cell for all of one minute, so we could try and experience what it would have been like for those prisoners confined to the worst isolation.  It was unnerving, but we reminded ourselves that only the worst of the worst were sent to Alcatraz, prisoners that could not function at other federal penitentiaries.  And the worst of the worst of those were the ones that ended up in isolation.

After escaping The Rock, we met up with Connor Jay and Kenia again for lunch in the Marina.  We picked up a few gigantic Italian sandwiches from Lucca Deli on Chestnut, a neighbourhood favourite since 1929.  Then we walked to the Palace of Fine Arts for a picnic on the picturesque grounds.  Once we were finished chowing down, we headed to the airport to fly back home. 

David is traveling so much this Fall for work, that this was just the first of many trips I will be tagging along on.  San Francisco was so fun that it made me look forward to our other weekends away even more!