A Wonderful Road Trip to San Francisco

Vacation

Nov 28

Written By Joel

Both Jenn and I in the last year have started working full time after finishing up our bachelor degrees at UC Irvine. Working full time is a huge blessing, it means we have a steady paycheck, and can start saving up for our future together. The negative side of it is that we have less time to be spontaneous and less of a chance to just get away whenever we want. Luckily we had some amazing planned spontaneity when we took a few days off along side Veterans Day. What was great about taking this time off is that we had no plans what so ever for this 5 day weekend. On Veterans Day we decided to keep it close to home and figure out what to do from there. When Jenn and I walked over to Fashion Island for lunch I brought up the idea of a road trip we immediately spent lunch on our iPhones surfing Kayak for deals on hotels. We ended up going with a road trip up to San Francisco for 3 nights and 4 days.

Before we could head out for the trip though Jenn had to give a presentation at an SCE event in front of about 300 where she spoke on some ongoing communication efforts that she has been leading projects in. So I swooped in and picked Jenn up after her presentation and we were off to our road trip to San Francisco. I have never met a person who loves public speaking but Jenn gets a little stressed out when she has to do it. So needless to say my co-pilot for the journey fell asleep only an hour or two in on the drive. We ended up getting up to the bay area in around 5 hours and stopped for dinner at Black Angus and then finished up the drive into San Francisco. When we got to the Hilton San Francisco we were upgraded to the 44th floor with an awesome city view with the golden gate bridge in the distance. The elevator literally shook as you went up, Jenn was quite scared and we made as few trips up and down the elevator as possible.

Driving up to San Francisco (Yes My Car Needs Washed)

San Francisco Road Trip: View from 44th Floor

View from the 44th Floor of the Hilton San Francisco

We woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and ready for our adventure in San Francisco. Jenn's way of being ready was to hit the main shopping area where she went and got some shoes and clothes at DSW and Forever 21. Not necessarily what I had envisioned for the start of the trip but I was glad to get it out of the way. At lunch time we left the San Francisco Hilton and made our way to the Le Meridian hotel which is closer to Fisherman's Wharf. There we had a really nice room and great access to a lot of nice restaurants. The hotel recommended we try The Globe for lunch and we were both glad we did. Jenn got a steak and I got their halibut with a glass of wine. It was a really small but intimate eatery with great service and amazing food. We decided with the cold weather to stop at one of the thousands of Starbucks in the city and get something warm to drink. As I was video taping Jenn in the coffee shop she pointed to a person behind me which looked an awful bit like John Lock in the show Lost. We were not able to confirm if was actually him, but for Jenn and I's sake I am going to say it was. We are huge Lost fans and have been getting through the seasons the last few weeks and have been loving it. This was really one of the big highlights of the trip.

San Francisco Road Trip: Jenn Shopping @ Forever 21

Jenn Loving Shopping at Forever 21

San Francisco Road Trip: Jenn With Her Bags of Stuff

Jenn With Her Bags of Stuff After Shopping

We went to dinner at a local Italian food place which was a bit eerily empty when we arrived. Luckily as our meal went on it got a bit more crowded and we had another amazing meal there. We spent the rest of our evening walking around the streets of San Francisco and headed back in to watch some more episodes of Lost on DVD.

The next day we headed down to check out Stanford University some where Jenn has wanted to check out for a long time. It only took us 45 minutes or so to get out of the city and to arrive at Stanford where we were greeted by a really nice little town with shops, restaurants, and a nice atmosphere. We ate at a small Italian food place (I am sure you see the trend of our food picks) for lunch and then headed off to walk the campus. I have never been all that into school as you probably read for 4 years or so while I was in college but Jenn loves it and she got all excited walking around Stanford. While we were at Stanford we saw 3-4 weddings going on and a bunch of other gatherings. For a weekend it sure seemed like there was plenty going on. We walked around much of the campus and then headed our way back to our hotel. We ended up ordering some room service where Jenn got a soup and I got a Caesar salad. We were pooped so we watched some more Lost and called it an evening. We headed out early the next morning and made it back to our Newport Beach apartment in around 5 hours. It was a great short trip and I cannot wait to go on our next one, wherever that may be.