Sips and Trips: San Francisco

It had been a few years since I'd been to SF. I was excited about the prospect of making new memories in a city that I loved to visit. The only two big things on the list were to see the church where my parents were married, 41 years ago, and to be at the boat on time for our tour of Alcatraz. Other than that, the plan was to wander and stumble upon all kinds of great architecture, tasty food and thirst quenching drinks.

Friday night we ended up walking from the hotel in Union Square to the very italian North Beach neighborhood. Dinner at a small family run restaurant was the perfect way to end a long week. The food was definitely authentic and the paired wines were very tasty.

I almost thought I was back in Italy.

We got an early start on Saturday morning, finding breakfast at a cute little Greek place on the way to the St. Dominics.

The exterior of the cathedral was gorgeous. It's got Notre Dame's buttresses and the windows and detail work were amazing.

Here's where Mama Mary walked down the aisle. Standing here took my breath away. It was amazing to thing my parents were married in this phenomenal place. The cathedral was very traditional - it was also huge! It felt like we were in a church in France or Italy.

I chuckled a bit as I stood taking this picture. I remembered a story my dad loves to tell about the priest that married them. With my dad's limited English and the priest's strong Italian accent - my dad thinks they may not really be married because he couldn't really understand what the priest was saying.

From there, we shopped a bit in some funky neighborhoods, and then started the trek up a hill, down a hill, up a hill, down a hill....finally arriving at the top of Lombard Street.

We stood at the top for a while then decided to venture down to the bottom. I can't believe I've not been here before. From here it was time for a break. We headed into Chinatown and found some great Dim Sum.

After lunch we headed back up, up, up the hill and many, many stairs to Coit Tower.

Great history, really great views!

After a festive evening of great wine, amazing food and the best ceviche I've EVER tasted at the Slanted Door, we were up not so early for our boat ride to Alcatraz. It was a bit of a rush to get out the door and down to the Wharf (and desperately try to find some food to soak up the many glasses of wine consumed the night before). We boarded the short boat ride to the rock - it was a gray morning, but the boats were out.

The Alcatraz tour was so interesting. You can wander around the island looking at several of the outbuildings. Once inside the prison you get an audio tour of the facility with recounts of fights, day to day life, and a very detailed tour of each prison area.