We recently made a quick getaway to San Francisco - a place I used to visit on weekends as a teenager growing up in Sacramento. The city always felt so massive and intimidating back then, but I loved it. And being back as a parent made me fall in love with it in a whole new way. And I’m happy to report that all the rumors you’ve heard that it’s rumbling in flames have been greatly overstated. It’s a beautiful and vibrant place to visit with your family.
Here’s our full itinerary with the hits and the misses. Hopefully it will inspire you to go!
Friday: We took a late morning flight since we couldn’t check into our airbnb until one. We opted for an airbnb over a hotel because we learned that when we stay in cities rather than more rural countryside towns, we need a respite from the energy, and having a place with a living room that we can all spread out and get a little downtime in is pretty clutch. Besides if we got a hotel, we’d have to do a 2 Queen room and one of our children who shall remain nameless does straight-up Jackie Chan Kung Fu in their sleep and basically keeps one of us up all night. Plus, in a city like SF, the hotels are sometimes actually MORE expensive than a rental. So we got a two-bedroom place with two king beds to avoid getting karate chopped in the nose while trying to sleep.
Emily did a lot of research before booking the place, trying to find a neighborhood that wasn’t too far from touristy things, but far enough to feel calm and away from the hustle and bustle. One of my best friends from childhood lives in SF and gave us the green light on NOPA, which stands for North of the Panhandle. It turned out, the street we were on was labeled a ‘Slow Street’ by the city, which meant it was semi-blocked off by barriers to reduce traffic. Talk about a respite from the noise. We settled in, did a quick ‘look through every square inch of someone else’s home’ that you do at an airbnb, and by the time we had our bags put away, it was time for lunch. Luckily, there was a cute little restaurant within walking distance - Nopalita was maybe the best food we had the entire trip. It’s part casual take-out, part sit-down Mexican cafe that had some of the freshest, tastiest dishes I’ve had in a long time. Maybe I’m just starved for good Mexican up here in Portland, but I’d put the Empendada that Emily got against anything I had while living in LA. I got some Panuchos with Pollo Pibil that were dynamite, and the market salad and chips & guac were so fresh it felt like we were visiting some abuela’s home kitchen. They don’t technically have a kids menu, but we ordered cheese quesadillas and rice and beans, which our kids loved
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