San Fran Weekend
After a heavy week of work in Toronto, Mom and I met at the airport on Thursday afternoon to fly to San Francisco for a long weekend together. Air Canada got us there safely and we arrived at the amazing Fairmont in downtown San Francisco around 9pm.
I know, I know, lah-di-dah the Fairmont.... but we were able to get Friends & Family rate through a good friend of mine and then with Mom's President Club status, we were upgraded from to a two-bedroom little suite for a ridiculously affordable price. The weekend was off to a great start!
Our first day took us in the complete wrong direction down towards the water, or so we thought... San Franciso is built as a hill basically with the Fairmont being at the top. I think we didn't realize this and headed down to what we thought was the direction of the wharf but it was actually down the other side... No big deal, we found a nice place for breakfast then kept going toward Union Square where we caught a hop-on- hop-off tour bus to see some sights. We did the whole loop on the bus and it had started to spit so when it stopped at our starting point in front of Macy's, we thought we might as well go indoors and do some shopping! Later in the day, we made it down to the wharf and had some amazing seafood at Scoma's - a restaurant recommended by the concierge and that had its own receiving dock for fresh fish to arrive daily and I certainly will never look at canned crab the same way again.
Day two had us returning to the shopping district in the morning and then my cousin Matt who lives in San Hose came and picked us up and we spent the afternoon with him. We went across the bay bridge and got some snaps at the lookout spot then continued on to Sausilito (translates to "little willows" I believe) then back to the city for dinner. The rain started late in the afternoon and we actually experienced a San Francisco thunderstorm as we were getting back to the hotel (apparently this happens about 3 times per year). We dined at the Fairmont's restuarant and Matt headed back to San Hose afterwards.
Sunday had us up and at it early as we were picked up for our day in Sonoma Valley with a tour group. We chose to do a small group with a guide rather than a large bus tour and we chose Sonoma Valley over the more tourist heavy Napa Valley. Our guide Mitch was fantastic and had actually spent part of his childhood growing up in Haliburton Ontario... small world. The day included a visit to Muir Woods where you find the enormous redwood trees, then we went to three different wineries and for lunch. The group was made up of three couples (young, middle-age, and older) and one girl travelling alone from Montreal. The wines were pretty awesome and we had a beautiful sunny day.
Monday was spent travelling back - with losing 3 hours it makes for a full day of travel. We arrived in Toronto in time for Mom to catch the early Robert Q to Woodstock and I stayed at the airport until 10:30 for my flight back to Ottawa.
A great weekend with Mom!
I know, I know, lah-di-dah the Fairmont.... but we were able to get Friends & Family rate through a good friend of mine and then with Mom's President Club status, we were upgraded from to a two-bedroom little suite for a ridiculously affordable price. The weekend was off to a great start!
Our first day took us in the complete wrong direction down towards the water, or so we thought... San Franciso is built as a hill basically with the Fairmont being at the top. I think we didn't realize this and headed down to what we thought was the direction of the wharf but it was actually down the other side... No big deal, we found a nice place for breakfast then kept going toward Union Square where we caught a hop-on- hop-off tour bus to see some sights. We did the whole loop on the bus and it had started to spit so when it stopped at our starting point in front of Macy's, we thought we might as well go indoors and do some shopping! Later in the day, we made it down to the wharf and had some amazing seafood at Scoma's - a restaurant recommended by the concierge and that had its own receiving dock for fresh fish to arrive daily and I certainly will never look at canned crab the same way again.
Day two had us returning to the shopping district in the morning and then my cousin Matt who lives in San Hose came and picked us up and we spent the afternoon with him. We went across the bay bridge and got some snaps at the lookout spot then continued on to Sausilito (translates to "little willows" I believe) then back to the city for dinner. The rain started late in the afternoon and we actually experienced a San Francisco thunderstorm as we were getting back to the hotel (apparently this happens about 3 times per year). We dined at the Fairmont's restuarant and Matt headed back to San Hose afterwards.
Sunday had us up and at it early as we were picked up for our day in Sonoma Valley with a tour group. We chose to do a small group with a guide rather than a large bus tour and we chose Sonoma Valley over the more tourist heavy Napa Valley. Our guide Mitch was fantastic and had actually spent part of his childhood growing up in Haliburton Ontario... small world. The day included a visit to Muir Woods where you find the enormous redwood trees, then we went to three different wineries and for lunch. The group was made up of three couples (young, middle-age, and older) and one girl travelling alone from Montreal. The wines were pretty awesome and we had a beautiful sunny day.
Monday was spent travelling back - with losing 3 hours it makes for a full day of travel. We arrived in Toronto in time for Mom to catch the early Robert Q to Woodstock and I stayed at the airport until 10:30 for my flight back to Ottawa.
A great weekend with Mom!