San Francisco, Part II

Something to know about me is that I'm an early riser. I like getting up before or with the sun, especially when I'm on holiday. This is probably a result of my major FOMO on any ounce of my holiday. It shouldn't come as a surprise then that I woke up at the crack of dawn, tossed on a jumper, and stepped out onto the terrace to see the infamous San Francisco fog wrap the bay in a hazy pastel shroud. 

It was a bit chilly, but as luck would have it, I had the nifty fire pit to keep me warm as I read my book, waiting for the others to wake up.

When the sun rose and everyone was ready, we ducked into a car provided by the hotel. Our driver showed us down the zigzags of Lombard Street…

… before dropping us off at the Mulberry store. This was a treat for my mom and sisters, because living in Los Angeles, they only shop Mulberry online or on trips to New York, San Fran, or Europe. 

The store's top floor had been completely transformed into what could only be described as a magical wonderland for the Christmas holidays. Scattered around the maze-like setup were photo booth cameras for patrons to use. We had fun with the cameras and printed out way more polaroids than what was probably appropriate. 

After giggling our way through the wonderland, having pretend tea and flower cakes, we made our way downstairs and did a spot of shopping. 

My sisters got handbags, I got an obnoxiously brilliant Christmas jumper, complete with a fair isle print of badgers, ladybirds, bees, and mushrooms. It's at home in LA and I don't have a photo of it with me, but this is it. 

At the recommendation of a Mulberry sales associate, we hit up Michelin starred SPQR on Fillmore for lunch. It's a tiny little spot, so we all packed in at the bar. I got a homemade pasta that had the most authentic texture. Of course, I reached over and tasted everyone's dish… they were all intricately layered with flavour. My favourite part of San Francisco is the amount and variety of top-notch restaurants. I could be totally content to just restaurant hop the whole time I'm there. Which, to be honest, is basically what we did.

For dinner, we went to Aziza, a cracker of a Moroccan restaurant - the first Moroccan restaurant ever to receive a Michelin Star, I might add. The interior was dark and romantic and transported me all the way to Marrakech. The food was mindblowingly flavourful. I will definitely be returning. We sipped guava and cucumber cocktails and chattered over far too much food for a few hours, until we slipped into an Uber and tumbled into our beds, still buzzing over dinner. 

The next day, we went to Chinatown. My sister wanted to go to some tea shop, which happened to be closed, so we didn't stay long. I’ve never been a big fan of Chinatowns anywhere. I guess I’d just rather go to China.  

We meandered down the street towards downtown, stopping in Old Saint Mary's Cathedral, the oldest Catholic church in SF.   

We walked through downtown without much of a plan, stopping in a shop here and there. 

There are a lot of holes in the photo documentation of this trip, because I wasn't planning on blogging about it. The day we left, we met up with one of my best friends, who is studying at University of San Francisco. She kindly took us around campus and the halls where she lives. Which is this… kind of like California's answer to Hogwarts, eh? 

Until next time, SF… I promise to take better photos when I see you again.