SF: Day 1

The Apple Farm gave us a $5 gift certificate that could be used at their bakery.  I stopped in at 7 a.m., right when it opened, to purchase three muffins for the road: blueberry, apple and bran raisin.  They were still warm from the oven and oh so good.  Then we drove a good four hours to San Francisco. 
Our first stop was El Farolito in the Mission District.  We shared a carne asada burrito.  The place is a bit sketch, but authentic, and a bargain at $6.75 for a burrito that could feed two. 

Our next stop was Ike’s Place, just because we were already in the Mission, so why not?  This time I got a Matt Cain sandwich on dutch crunch to go.  We ate it in Golden Gate Park, (which was freezing, by the way) in front of the DeYoung Museum.  Since we were semi-full from the burrito, I don’t think we fully appreciated the sandwich.  But it was definitely a solid sandwich, and I can see why it has garnered praise from thousands of Yelp reviews.

After our two part lunch, we went to the DeYoung museum.  This place was not as family friendly as I thought it would be.  The docents seemed to be in a grumpy mood.  Here are some highlights:





This is where we were chastised for being too loud.  Didn’t know that you are not allowed to talk while watching other people eat.

Next we went stopped by the Conservatory of Flowers. We didn’t pay to take the tour inside, but the grounds are beautiful.




There was a lovely dahlia garden.

Afterward we tried to check into our hotel room at the Union Square Marriott.  The room was not ready, so we walked around Union Square a bit.  It has changed a lot since I lived in SF ten years ago!  The square itself has been reconfigured, there are parklets on many of the streets, and there were a lot more double decker tourist buses.    

Waiting for D to browse at the Nike store. 
Then we checked into our hotel.  Parking prices in SF are crazytown.  Our hotel charged $54 plus a high parking tax.  We ended up parking 1 block away at the Sutter Stockton garage for $34 for 24 hours.  Still expensive, but a little better. 

By this time, n was beat.  On our way to dinner, he fell asleep in the stroller:

Don’t worry, I propped him back up in his stroller so he wouldn’t fall out.  I just had to snap a pic first.
n slept all the way through our dinner--part one at Freshroll.  It is a new place by the Metreon, and it is like Chipotle for Vietnamese food.  We had two orders of three spring rolls, one with lemongrass pork and one with chicken.  Both were fresh and tasty and it was fun to try the various dipping sauces. 

The Metreon seems to be going through some major renovations.  It is so much lighter and brighter now and there are quite a few new restaurants, a good number of them Asian.  Next we went to the Westfield shopping mall on Market St.  It to has undergone a major renovation, at least their basement food court.  It is SO much better now than when I lived there. 
We ended up getting a plate of BBQ chicken and chap chae at Sorabol, one of our favorite Northern California fast casual places. 

Chowing down.  I think n ate a record amount (for him) of chicken that night. 

We also could not resist ordering a New Orleans style iced coffee from one of the cafes that was selling Blue Bottle Coffee.

It stays light out longer in Northern California, so there was still plenty of daylight during our walk back to the hotel.

On the way back we stopped in at San Francisco Baking Company.  We enjoyed one cookies and cream cookie and one triple chocolate cookie.  A sweet way to end our first day in the city by the bay. 

SLO Children’s Museum and Thursday Night Farmer’s Market

SLO Children’s Museum was actually a last minute addition to our itinerary.  Normally, admission is $8 per person, but on the third Thursday of the month, it is free after 5 p.m.  Since it is right around the corner from the Farmer’s Market, which opens at 6 p.m., it worked out perfectly.
It is a fairly small museum, but it is well done.  This is a musical swing that counts to ten in different languages.



I had these “stilts” as a kid and forgot about them until now.

However, the one thing that the kids like most of all was this red spinning contraption. 


In fact, when asked about their favorite part of the trip, their answer was “the red spinning thing”.

This picture makes me smile because I think n was pretending to fall into the pot for some reason.
Then it was time for dinner.  We walked around a corner and came upon a long line for F. McLintock’s barbecue.

This was the line before the market even officially opened!  Embracing the herd mentality, we immediately got in line.  This many people can’t be wrong, right?  Meanwhile, The Rib Line, which was set up next door, had a guy taunting us for standing in line for F. McLintock’s!  He kept yelling, “Move your feet to the end of the street!”; “With Rib in our name, we must be good”; “Coming here will be the fastest move you’ve ever made from #2 to #1”.  We stood our ground and ended up with this:

#2 combo: Pork munchie, beef rib and chicken kabob; corn on the cob, garlic bread and a cup of lemonade on the side.  It was enough to feed all of us, especially since we had our fill of tri-tip for lunch.  The chicken kabob was surprisingly tasty and juicy—k and n were vying for the last pieces.  I’m still not quite sure what a pork munchie is, but it had quite a lot of meat.

F. McLintock’s is serious about their ‘cue.  The guy taking orders here was also quite loud and put on a show for the crowd.
After eating our dinner on the sidewalk, we walked up and down the street to see what the other booths had to offer.  n said he wanted “something sweet” so we stopped at the Éclair Bakery booth.  We bought a small bag of 6 freshly fried cinnamon donut holes.

Of course, we also had to try an éclair!

Wow, that was the best éclair I have ever had.  The custard was ample and the ganache was nice and smooth.  Next stop: SF!

Cal Poly & The Apple Farm

After lunch we drove to Cal Poly to check out the campus.  D and I both like to visit college campuses for some reason.  There is just something about being surrounded by academia that appeals to us.  Cal Poly SLO has GPS units you can check out to take a self-guided tour.  When you walk by certain buildings, a semi-informative video message automatically pops up.

Nice rec center.

The kids were excited to check into our hotel.  D booked the Apple Farm through Hotwire.   

The Apple Farm is made up of a group of quaint country style buildings.  I have heard negative things about the motel-style building just off of Hwy 101, but luckily we were in the main building, which felt more like a B&B.

Wow, can we say floral overload??  The room reminded me of one of my favorite Gilmore Girls episodes where Lorelai and Rory are trapped in a B&B because they want to avoid small talk.  It was actually quite spacious, with a sitting area off to the side--the perfect place to enjoy the complimentary chocolate chunk cookies.

 

These were excellent cookies, too.  The chocolate chunks were still melty.  Better than Doubletree, in my opinion.

We appreciated the little “extras”.  D took full advantage of the robe and fireplace--haha.  There was a small basket with two small bottles of sparkling apple cider and Hershey’s kisses.  There were magazines in baskets in the hallway too.  I ended up with a Food + Wine issue circa 1996! 

After resting up for a bit we checked out the grounds.

Then we went to the cheese and wine reception.  There wasn’t really cheese, but they did have cheese/onion scones, apple bread, lemon cake and Chex Mix (homemade).  D had a glass of red wine from Paso Robles while the kids and I had sparkling apple cider.

We were ready for a night out on the town….

Here We Go, SLO

No car trip would be complete without someone getting carsick.  In this case, it was k, right about an hour into our trip.  I think this time the Dramamine actually caused her to get sick.  Luckily, I am a quick draw with the plastic bag, and the rest of our trip was carsick-free.

Our first stop was here:

Why did we stop here, in Arroyo Grande?  Because it is owned by my cousin and her husband and I haven’t seen her in years!

That’s Frank, their friendly dog.  It was a short stop, but it was nice to catch up a little.  Erin even gave the kids a few extra keys on a key ring which delighted them to no end.

Our next stop was lunch at Firestone Grill.  Apparently, this place is an institution in SLO.  Even my vegetarian cousin told us we had to try it.

We ordered a large tri-tip salad, side of onion rings and the famous tri-tip sandwich.

Wow, everything was so good.  The tri-tip was so succulent and I liked all the additional flavors in the salad—bacon and blue cheese with the crunchy vegetables (we had to ask for another container of vinaigrette).  D put the sandwich on his list!  It was an auspicious start to our food-filled weekend.