Usually, the best opportunity to go on vacation in the year is Easter holidays. It’s because it’s not peak season and we have more or less a whole week to spend. This year we decided to go to San Francisco and cross the activities we wanted to do on our first trip to California.

Day 1:

Just after landing, we decided we could go and take a walk and start seeing something in order not to let the jet lag take us. We walked all the way to Pier 39 and saw the Fisherman’s Wharf, the sea lions, Lombard street and we had dinner at Nara, a Japanese restaurant that we loved!

 

Day 2:

Rain was forecasted for this day, so we decided to do as many things as possible in the morning and spend the afternoon at MOMA SF. Later, Guillem would go watch the NBA playoffs at Oracle Stadium and I would go to get a massage at Thai Orchid. But before all that happened, we started our day having breakfast at Pretty Lady, a dinner nearby our Airbnb in West Oakland. Then we took the BART to Chinatown, which was a very nice surprise. And we had to rush to the Pier 33 because our ferry to Alcatraz was leaving at 11:00. Alcatraz is pretty amazing and it’s necessary to get the audioguide, which is free, in order to listen to some of the most famous inmates stories. After getting back to the pier, we had lunch at In N Out burger and rushed to the MOMA.

Day 3:

We had never been in a U.S.A. university and it was our chance. We went to Berkeley and saw the amazing campus! Everything there looks taken out of a movie: the dinosaur in the sciences building, the classical libraries and the university sports stadium!

Later we did some outlet shopping at Marshall’s and had lunch at Koja. From there we went to Mission Dolores to enjoy the murals and painted walls across the neighbourhood and walked our way to Castro and Haight Ashbury. Our crazy idea came after, when we decided to walk the Golden Gate Park from east to west in order to arrive to the Sunset area. On our way, we enjoyed the park, (we even saw  bisons) but we weren’t strolling, it was practically a race against the sun we needed to win. We managed to see the sunset on the other end of the peninsula, and after that, we had dinner at Dumpling Kingdom. The place is small, not very fancy, but definitely popular! There were lots of people getting in to get their take-away dinner and the owner of the place was always pretending it was somebody’s birthday in order to do a “crema catalana” show.

Day 4:

We had breakfast at the most amazing place ever: Eight AM. The waffle was so soft, airy and juicy I am already salivating. And some of the servings include a side of fruit, which is amazing! From there, we rented 2 bicycles from Basically Free rent-a-bike. That was a great idea because they have a model of business in which whatever money you spend to rent your bike, can later be used (by using the receipt) to get something free from the Sports Basement store they own nearby the Golden Gate Bridge, we even got some sneakers and pants plus refreshments for free. We rode across the Golden Gate Bridge all the way to Sausalito (where we had amazing burgers at Napa Valley Burger) and Tiburón and we took the ferry back to San Francisco just in time to walk around Japan Town, which was a very pleasant surprise and have dinner at Onsen (466 Edie St.). Onsen was a bit too expensive for the food quality and amount.

Day 5:

We woke up very early in the morning to go grab our rented car in Alamo and from there we took the highway 101 to Big Sur. Once the highway starts sinking down, nearby the sea, the weather starts getting foggy and there isn’t much to see. We stopped by San Juan Bautista, Monterey, Bixby Bridge, Big Sur beach and Santa Cruz on our way back. We had lunch at Monterey, which is a very nice area to have fish especially.

Day 6:

We took our car all the way to Yosemite, which took probably 4 hours from our Airbnb at West Oakland. We stopped by to have breakfast at Starbucks and got to Mariposa, where we stayed that night. We checked in our motel and had a pizza at a local pizzeria in Mariposa. Actually, I would recommend to spend the night whether at the only hotel inside the park, camping there or to sleep in one of the Inn’s nearby the park’s entrance.

We did some small trails and drove across most of the park’s entrance area: El Capitán, Yosemite Waterfalls but the Glacier area was closed, but the scenery was amazing.

After we ended our route, we went to have dinner at the Majestic Yosemite Hotel (we booked a table in advanced). We weren’t aware, but there’s a dress-code for the evening required men to wear collared tops and the women long dresses or blouses. Anyway, they did an exception for us and let us in.

WARNING: The road is a bit curvy and you will be descending, so watch the speed.

Day 7:

That day was a Saturday and the entrance was free (which wasn’t an issue because we got out passes from a friend), we don’t know if it was because it was Saturday or because of any other reason.

We decided to go and visit the Sequoia park in Mariposa Grove and it was quite a good decision! We took the Grizzly Giant sequoia trail and it only took us an hour, while all the indications say it takes from 2 to 3 hours. Later we approached the Capitan rock, which was impossible to access by the designated parking areas, so we went and parked just in front of it and took a light walk.

From there, we went all the way back to Oakland and rested from the eternal hours of driving.

Day 8:

We started the day the best way possible: we went to have breakfast at the famous Bob’s Donuts, which was incredible cheap and delicious, we couldn’t be happier about our choice. From there we walked to the Painted Ladies park and saw the scenery, it was actually quite crowded. And to top up, we went back to Japan Town so Guillem could have some of his trip shopping treats.

 

Video summary here: