Quick Trip to San Francisco

At the end of last November, I stopped home in Southern California for a few days to meet up with my mother and sisters. The four of us then jumped on a shuttle plane up to San Francisco for a quick and easy holiday-within-my-holiday. We took off with no plans and no agenda, which in my opinion is the best kind of holiday.

When we arrived, we hopped into an Uber and our chatty driver whizzed us through the city on a mini tour on the way to our hotel. 

We hadn't eaten since early in the morning, so we asked our driver to take us to a good restaurant. He brought us to a dim sum place which I don't think even had an English name. Apparently a typical wait time for this place was over an hour, but our driver was Chinese and knew the owners. After some haggling, we got moved up to the front of the line. We only waited for 10 minutes… during which time we tried to ignore our grumbling tummies and enjoy the unusually warm San Fran sunshine. What came next was a frenzy of ordering pretty much everything on the menu, rapid Chinese, and plates being thrust in front of us. Unfortunately I was overtaken by hunger and excitement and didn't snap any photos. I can tell you though, even though I've never had dim sum in China, I've tried places all over California, as well as in Seoul, Tokyo, Paris, Sydney (on a yacht!), and London… but this was the best dim sum I have ever had. By far. My mom has had dim sum in China and many other places, and she agreed wholeheartedly.  

We hopped back into our Uber and headed towards our hotel. With a pit stop on the way to see the Golden Gate Bridge. The view turned out to be a lot more photogenic than we were. Sorry Mummy, no Christmas photo here. 

We checked into where we'd stay for the next few days: the Fairmont Heritage Place, Ghirardelli Square. This residential suite-style hotel is housed in the building that is crowned by the famous Ghirardelli Sign that overlooking the Bay and Alcatraz. It's a pretty touristy area, but nice to walk around, and the views are indisputably breathtaking. (It's also walking distance to the Relais & Châteaux member restaurant, Gary Danko, which my mother likes to visit when she's in SF. Which is a lot.)

The door to our two bedroom suite:

Did I mention the fire pit on our private terrace? 

Inside was cosy and easy on the eyes too. I wish I had photos of the top of the line kitchen and sitting room, which had surround sound and a gas fireplace.

The rest of the day I walked around Ghirardelli Square and met up with a friend for dinner before falling into my squishy bed… see the rest of my trip tomorrow, there's a lot of eating and pretty views involved!