Day 6 - Carmel by the Sea

We arrived in Carmel at the Vagabond’s House Inn and it was truly a magical little spot.  It was dark, the trees and courtyard were all lit up with twinkly white Christmas lights, it couldn’t have been a more perfect spot for us.

Randall was so nice and welcoming, and gave us great tips on the town and helped up make reservations at Demetra for 9:30pm so we were able to check-in, bring our luggage up to our room, and get ready to go out for dinner.  Our room was really really cute.  It had a very ocean breeze/cape cod-ish décor and feel and we couldn’t help but think our mom would have loved it. 

It had a fireplace (which we DID need to use here),  cute views of cottage rooftops that you might not expect to enjoy as a view but it was really very sweet.  Again there were some nice amenities in the washrooms – bathsalts..first time I’ve seen that somewhere, and even makeup wipes and organic soaps!

Upon check-in Randall showed up our room where he pointed out that there seemed to be a birthday card on the table, and we looked over to see a handmade birthday card and champagne sitting on ice waiting for us as a birthday gift for jen – SO AWESOME. 

This entire trip I’ve been really impressed with the level of service and friendliness we’ve received.   If there is anything I would suggest to travellers is that when you ask, and you shall receive.   In most places I made a point to note that it was my sister’s birthday trip and ask if they could provide anything special, and at no charge, most of them did!

We arrived just a few mins late to our reservation at Demetra (a greek/Italian restaurant).  A very small restaurant but such a tuscan warm feel and décor and we were made to feel like they had been expecting us as special guests.  There was music, dancing hugs, and oh yes, great good too!  Jen ordered a gyros salad, and I ordered the chicken brochette platter – and both were very tasty.   It was a really great welcome to the town after a long drive.

 

 

What was surprising about Carmel-by-the-Sea, also a really cute town, but bigger than Sonoma Square, is that all of the shops shut down relatively early, so walking to our restaurant that night, there weren’t many people around.  After dinner, we walked back to our B & B, turned on the fireplace, wrote some blogs, and went to bed.

The next morning, we set our alarm to get up early, as we wanted to head out on the 17 mile drive before our 11am food tour.  Woke up to a fantastic breakfast!

It was foggy still, and cold, so we weren’t sure if we should, but we did, and it was really nice.  I think it would be more enjoyable if you had more time to spend, and wasn’t so cold/foggy, but, on the other hand, we got some really great photos of the trees in the fog, which were really enchanting looking, which was nice.  We were so glad we had a convertible jeep as we were able to capture some really great shots as we were driving.

We made it to our food tour at 11am and once again, turns out we have a private tour as we end up being the only two on the tour that day which was great, made it feel like we were being shown around the town by a friend and all of the shop keepers were so friendly and it didn’t feel overly rehearsed – it just felt like a relaxing walk about, meeting shop keepers and restaurant management and trying their products.  It was really a great time.  We started with some cheese tasting, where I learned that there is apparently a town called Cheddar and that is where Cheddar got its name..I didn’t know that?!  We then moved on to try THE BEST, no joke, Gnocchi I’ve ever had.  It is made with flour rather than Spinach (I think?) and it was still steaming hot with parmesan on it..OMG soooooo yummy..and the setting couldn’t have been more perfect – the Casanova restaurant is known as the most romantic restaurant in town, and it truly is the most romantic and cute setting! 

Next we had a really educational tasting of olive oils and vinegars, which was really interesting.  We both had no idea that olive oils could take so different, depending on the region, the olive, etc.   Next, we went to an Italian deli where we tasted cured meats, wine, and gelato..salted caramel gelato OMG. 

After that, we headed to a shop that makes its own fruit vinegars and this was very unique so we bought a couple to bring home.   We also tasted some great wines at a local winery tasting room and saw some really unique art pieces at a local art gallery.  Last, but certainly not least, we tasted some sea salt caramels and truffles, which can you guess what I bought? Sea Salt Caramels for the road trip, and some other yummy goodies! Our tour guide was very professional, friendly, and as I said earlier, we felt as though we were being toured by a friend who had connections, which was really the kind of tour we were looking for.

We ended the day with a visit to the beach only 7 blocks down the hill, and a little more shopping.  Our favourite shop was called TWO SISTERS designs and we couldn’t help but notice that they had a picture of us in their window display:

 We bought some cute earrings (matching of course, I got the gold, jen got the silver) and we went back to our b & b where we were surprised to find happy hour, complimentary wine, cheese and snacks!  We chatted with Randall who helped us decide on a restaurant for dinner and we went to Christopher’s for a wonderful dinner and drinks, and then headed to Mundaka’s where we had heard there might be SOME aspect of nightlife.  We did find a small little spot with about 20-25 people, had a few drinks, some dancing, more tequila, and headed back to the B & B around 12:30 where we decided to put the top up on our jeep as it was rather cold and damp out.  We had a raccoon visitor and Jen freaked as she was sure that raccoons attack people, so we had to sit in the jeep until the raccoon disappeared.  Once the raccoon left we made our way back to the B & B and crashed for an early morning whale watching tour – more to come!

Day 5 - a little shopping, a little roadtripping

Jen got up before me, and headed off for a walk and a workout in the park, and came back to wake me up and force me into my gym clothes for a run that I was not really feeling but knew that I should given the amount of calorie consumption we’ve been enjoying.  It was SUCH a beautiful morning, it was warm, sunny, its just a beautiful country setting running by vineyards, beautiful properties, etc. 

After a 5k run we  did a few push ups in the park, stretched a little and went back to our room for breakfast.  This was THE CUTEST breakfast EVER.  They left a little basket of pastries hanging on our door!! 

 

 

While jen was showering, I set up the breakfast on the bistro table on our little terrace – I toasted the leftover baguette, we had leftover caramel sauce, and Bungalows 313 provided fruit, coffee, the best homemade granola ever (so good that jen hoarded it in a plastic baggie to bring on the road rather than allow us to eat it all at once), milk and cream in the cutest little milk bottles ever, and delicious almond croissants. 









The only notable negative, were the damn wasps that wanted to enjoy our breakfast also.  The grounds are gorgeous with beautiful flowers and so of course there are bees and wasps, and once the food is out, they came around also but I kept my cool as much as I could.

 

They allowed us to check out a little later, so we took our time finishing breakfast and packed up the jeep and walked into the town square for a little shopping, wine and chocolate tasting!

and finally were able to eat at the Girl and the Fig for lunch where we had the most delicious Croque Monsieur ever. 

The bread was sliced super thick, and it was crispy yes chewing and cheesy all at the same time.  The ham was applewood smoked, and it came with a salad while I had leek mussels with matchstick fries. YUM..i don’t normally eat the soup/juice that the mussels sit in, but this was SOOO yummy.

We then grabbed some coffees and put our top down for the first time, and headed to Carmel-by-the-Sea.  The California weather varies widely – so we left Sonoma and it was very hot and beautiful, but as we approached the Golden Gate Bridge it was rather cold again, and to layer up.  The drive to Carmel-by-the-Sea was a little longer than anticipated and we arrived in town around 8:30pm where our gracious host at the Vagabond’s House Inn was waiting for us.  More in our next post about Carmel-by-the-Sea!

Day 4 in Sonoma : Cutest..town..EVER!!

Some of the more popular/highly reviewed breakfast restaurants in San Francisco only open at 7:30 or 8am surprisingly.  We really wanted to check out a place called Mama’s on Washington Square in North Beach, so we got up early, checked out, and drove to Mama’s and the line up was out the door and down the block, so once again, we had to wing in with no plan B.  Very VERY stressful hahahaha. So we drove around and came upon a San Francisco chain of French bakeries called La Boulange (subsequently they have been bought out by Starbucks..but hopefully they remain as they are because they are so cute!).  We had been wanting to check out this place so we were happy to see it along the street.  Jen ordered granola and fruit, and Cindy wanted baguette toast, but apparently they cannot only offer you a portion of a baguette, so I had to buy the whole thing, and they toasted half of it, and gave me the other half in a bag.  There is a big condiment bar area that offers nutella, jam, butter, etc, but I happened to notice a jar of caramel for sale, and couldn’t resist. 

So I had warm buttered baguette with soft yummy caramel sauce (and jam on some pieces) and it was fantastic.  Although I must say, Cindy Lee’s wedding caramel was actually better, jen agrees. Lol J

We hopped back in our jeep for the 1 hour drive to Sonoma, where we had a bicycle wine tour scheduled at 10:30am.  We arrived in town at 10:15am, parked our car, dropped our bags at the B & B office at Bungalows 313 and made our way to the town square to try to find our bike tour meeting point.  Couldn’t find it at first, frantically calling the bike tour phone number we had, but we finally met our tour guide in a parking lot – Doug,  next to his Goodtime Touring Van, and realized that the tour was going to be private, as just the two of us had signed up for this particular day.  Very exciting!! 

Doug gave us some great little history tidbits of the area of Sonoma, about wine and wine growing,  and just an all around great day.  It was hot, beautiful, a great contrast from the cool weather in San Francisco, and a nice RELAXING bicycle ride (for the most part) compared to our ass bruising ride the day before.  Hahahaha

We visited 3 wineries over 6 hours and a cheese factory, and the best part was realizing that Doug was a former mayor of the town, and everywhere we turned someone was saying “hi Doug!”..we felt like Doug’s groupies and after the third winery, and a slight buzz (ok maybe more than slight) we offered Doug an Almond sandwich.  ;) He had never had one, and I think he liked it?? Lollll

 

The absolute BEST part of our day though, was the AMAAAZING picnic that Doug put together for us.  While we were having a tasting at the second winery, Doug was outside in the gardens of the winery setting up a picnic table with a blue checkered table cloth, napkins, white wine to go with the picnic, fresh strawberries picked that morning, a juicy pear, tart grapes picked from Doug’s garden, the best deli sandwiches we’ve ever had, a fresh green salad, and the best part – a yummy chocolatey cupcake with a candle for Jen’s birthday! I had asked Doug prior in an e-mail if he could do something like this as a surprise for Jen, and he didn’t have to accommodate this at all, but he went above and beyond to make it special.  We even also got a macadamia chewy cookie as well!  We were in HEAVENNNNNN.

After saying our goodbyes to Doug after having our best day yet, we checked in to our bungalow – and it was really such a beautiful little haven.  Great little courtyard with couches and bistro tables, and our room was awesome. Rustic chic, with a little kitchen, king bed, fireplace (which we didn’t need this day) and the shower was amazing with Aveda products.  I never thought I’d be a hotel amenities snob, but I realized that it DOES add to the experience to have some fancy little shampoos and soaps. J 

We crashed on our bed for a power nap which turned into at 1-2 hour affair.  We woke up refreshed and sober, and got ready for a night out in the Sonoma Square.  The Sonoma Square has got to be the cutest little town EVER, we couldn’t stop talking about how cute it was and how perfect it would be for a girls getaway, or a forced couples getaway. Hahahahha

We walked the entire square to check out our options for dinner, although I had done prior research and had an idea of where we should go.  We tried to eat at the Girl and the Fig, however, the wait was too long, and so we decided to check out Rin’s Thai – which turned out to be an excellent choice.  We ordered Puffies which were awesome – fried wontons stuffed with pork, veggies, etc ( I think) with a dipping sauce.  The waiter came by to ask if we liked shrimp and brought us a plate of fried shrimp as well – which was a really nice surprise seeing as we are pigs and love to eat.  No really, jen won’t stop talking about eating, it’s all she’s been doing all week..we aren’t even done ordering an appetizer and shes’ already talking what we’re going to eat tomorrow. No really. I’m so proud of her.  So anyway – Jen ordered Pad Thai, and I ordered a dish that I can’t remember the name, but it was pork with veggies and flat noodles with a soy/hoisin sauce base and had a little kick, it was delicious.  For dessert, we ordered fried banana with coconut ice cream and it was drizzled with a caramel sauce…HELLO. HEAVEN. 

 

After this, we walked around to see if there was any nightlife going on, and went into Steiner’s sports bar to have a beer.  They had one of our favourite’s, Newcastle, so we sat at the bar and had a beer and watched some Olympics on the flat screen.  We had a game of pool, I kicked Jen’s butt, and then we went back to the bar for another beer and chatted with a retired crab fisherman who was entertaining.  This place had a really cool vibe, and what was fun was a giant sized ipod touch screen jukebox, where you could put in a dollar bill and choose 2 or 3 songs.  FUN!

Around 11ish we called it a night, got in our jammies and watched a little tv.   We went to bed with a plan of getting up for a run the next morning, and that we for sure wanted to spend the next day browsing the shops and soaking it all in before heading to our next destination – Carmel-by the Sea.  For more about Sonoma and Carmel-by-the Sea, stay tuned!

The Sisters Bike the Bridge

Day 3 in San Francisco:

Walked about 15 mins to find another breakfast restaurant I’d read about called Brenda’s Soul Food Café – we found it – there was no line up – yay! It was a New Orleans style décor with jazz/blues music, perfect way to start the day.  We ordered a flight of beignets that is their signature dish – we assumed they’d be timbit sized beignets, however, to our surprise – this is what arrived!

We also ordered the most amazing French toast on earth – seriously.  Jennifer had said when we ordered “french toast is French toast”.  She ate her words, literally.

After a carbalicious breakfast, we walked back to our hotel, rented bikes from Blazzing Saddles for the day.  I was impressed with the service and friendliness of the staff.  Our plan was to see Golden Gate Park, cross the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito and see Old Mill Park.  We were given a couple of options for routes, one being a more hilly challenging route.  We thought, hey we’re young, we’re fit, let’s challenge ourselves – while thinking it likely it wasn’t really going to be that challenging. 

All of a sudden, 4.5 hours later, bruised buns, burning thighs, and hungry stomachs, we arrived in Sausalito.  The hilly areas, were WAYYYY more challenging that we’d expected and we walked our bikes for half of the hills!! Luckily – it helped us feel much better about our carbalicious breakfast.

The ride was beautiful though, we saw a beautiful park, beautiful beach area, great views of the bridge and then of course the actual ride across the bridge.  Which in truth was rather stressful than enjoyable due to having to share the path with pedestrians and cyclists coming back in the opposite direction – so it was a game of bob and weave.  We drove across the bridge the next day at 9 am and it was much quieter, so I would recommend that if you decide to  bike across the bridge here, you do not go at primetime (it was about 2 pm when we did it) and go instead in the early morning or late afternoon.

Sausolito was a very cute touristy town, little shops, restaurants, built on a hillside. 

We had lunch at a restaurant called Spinnaker’s – which overlooked the water and had a beautiful view, however it reminded us of a 1980s cruiseship.  Food was reasonable, but nothing to write home about..therefore I won’t write about it. Lol J

What was noteable, was the icecream we had at Lappert’s icecream shop..I had a date caramel vanilla ice cream, and jen had a coconut, caramel, macadamia nut ice cream…uhhhh YUMMMM.  We were so excited that we forgot to take a picture – and if you know us, that’s really something.

We could have biked back or taken a ferry and biked back to the hotel – but we were all biked out – and shared a taxi back with another couple with our bikes racked up. 

We had to force ourselves to fight the fatigue and as our lower body had been receiving a decent workout with 6 hours of walking and 5 hours of biking, we felt our upper body was being neglected and went to the hotel gym for a short upper body workout.  We then ordered a glass of room service wine, got ready,  and grabbed a taxi to North Beach. 

 North Beach is a beautiful little spot to head to at night, Italians restaurants on every corner, great music, vibe, décor.  We walked around and checked out various spots before we finally settled on a restaurant called …  They were playing frank Sinatra music (my favourite!) and it was cute and cozy and looked like the owner was running the place.  We ordered Caesar salad, garlic cheese bread, lasagna and pesto ravioli.  The Caesar salad was good, dressing a little watery, but the cheesebread was sooo good.  By the time the lasagna arrived I was already full but we managed to finish it. Jen realized she didn’t love pesto as much as she thought she did and preferred my lasagna. 

After dinner we headed over to Café Vesuvio – very cute cozy bar. We sat upstairs overlooking the bar and ordered Mexican coffees, watched a bit of the Olympics and called it a night.  Our cab ride home was like a rollercoaster ride up and down hills – very fun!!   Time for bed to get ready for another eventful day – tomorrow we head to Sonoma!!

Baiz - she's some cold!

So had a bit of a scare during our connection in Toronto – we were supposed to pick up our bags and go through customs with them..first went to the wrong baggage claim pickup, then when we got to the right one, jen’s bag was there but mine wasn’t!! waited..waited..then asked at the counter and I realized there was a bag similar to mine on the conveyor belt..and thought I bet someone took mine!!! The guy checked  my luggage tag and yes, someone brought my bag through customs instead of their own!! He assured me to go on through, that my bags would arrive in destination..at this point we were running short on time to catch our flight and we RAN down the hall as they were calling last call for boarding on our flight..we were FREAKING out! It was like a movie! My throat was burning..who knew cardio at the airport could be so fun..NOT. 


Anyway we didn’t miss our flight thank god – lesson #1 – always ensure my clients have a long connection time when clearing customs in Toronto as it can be a confusing process!

We also weren’t seated together on the plane but luckily a nice lady was kind enough to switch with one of us so that we could sit together and watch “What to Expect when you’re Expecting” and reruns of the Golden Girls..SO fun.

So we arrive finally in San Francisco and go pick up our car rental..a Jeep Wrangler!! Fun!! Well..didn’t start off so fun since the staff at the garage had no idea how to show us how to put the top down..after an hour of frigging with it, we sort of have it figured out.  Not sure if I love driving a jeep yet – but I’ve only driven it 30 mins from the airport so far as it’s been parked in valet service since we arrive at the hotel.

HOTEL: The Donatello

First impressions – lobby isn’t anything special but nice enough – since we arrived late the check-in process was quick and efficient.  We booked last minute and got a handicap accessible room – weren’t sure what that would be like but it’s great!

 

 

Huge comfy bed, a sectional couch, kitchenette area with fridge and microwave, and get this – in the bathroom, there was a tv built into the MIRROR!! HOW COOL!!

After bringing in our bags we went down the block to a 24 hour diner for a hamburger and a salad then called it a night. 

Day 2:

Got up early and first impressions of San Francisco – it’s bloody cold! And there seemed to be a lot of bums everywhere..made walking around all the more interesting!  We wanted to check out a famous breakfast spot – walked there but the line up was too long – we had to meet our walking tour guide at 9:30 so we decided to make our way toward the walking tour meeting point and see what was on the way..wing it..as they say.  I don’t wing it very well, usually, and so we walked by a number of places until we finally popped into a deli/café type place..well..the waitress/counter clerk seemed very inexperienced..she forgot the cheese on my sandwich, put Dijon when there wasn’t supposed to be any, and burnt Jen’s bagel and told her it was the bagel’s fault because it had holes in it..ugghh ok.  So…lesson #2 – always have a plan B and plan C !!

 

 

Met up with our tour guide – and walked for about 10k throughout the day and visited many neighbourhoods.  We also got to experience the cable car, bus system and BART system - It was a great way to see the city quickly while getting exercise too!  We were able to see what areas we might like to go back to, to visit the next day.

Went back to our hotel and decided we’d visit Beretta in the Mission area for dinner.  What a great choice – the place was very hip and cool without being overly pretentious – had to sit at the bar for about 30 mins while waiting for a table but it was great to interact with the bartenders and watch them work their magic.  We were mesmerized!

We ordered the Saffron Osso Bucco Risotto and Funghi Pizza..both excellent choices but the Osso Bucco Risotto was OUT OF THIS WORLD.  One of the best meals I’ve ever had. 

 I go to the washroom and jen surprises me with shots of tequila..but they were WINE GLASSES OF TEQUILA!! ugh!!! Asked the waitress where might be a good place to end the night with a few drinks and were recommended a few areas and so ended up walking around and came across this place that had a small lineup..played reggae music so we thought, great let’s check it out.  Well..we wait in line while a number of homeless walk back and forth around us, one spitting food everywhere, it was quite the show.   Every so often we’d spell marijuana and thought someone in line was smoking..we shortly thereafter got into the bar and realized the ENTIRE bar was FULL of weed.  Drugs on the bar, people rolling joints everywhere we looked!  It felt like we were in the twilight zone! We ordered a drink, danced to a song or two and hailed a cab..who also appeared high on something and we feared for our lives for a short moment !!  Ended up having a nightcap at a great little neighbourhood bar near our hotel and called it a night – all in all – a great, weird, night!!