i’ve only been back home/at work for one day and i’m ready to go on another vacation! haha, why is that always the case?
our vacation was beyond wonderful, so i wanted to do a full recap on the blog.
here goes!
we got to the madison airport bright and early on thursday morning and grabbed a quick breakfast at the great dane in the airport.
then we took two flights (brad & my first time flying together!) to california.
we arrived in san francisco on thursday afternoon around 1:30. after dropping off our stuff at liz & keith’s apartment, we did a little bumming around san mateo. liz took us to her favorite grocery store, draeger’s, and we did some damage. we also popped into some cute little shops and i tried bubble tea (yum!). then liz took us to the school she works at for a tour.
the school is super fancy and sooooo cool/different from my elementary school experience.
then we spent the night at liz & keith’s apartment. we met their adorable pup, shiloh.
and liz made dinner (tacos at my request!) and a birthday cake for me.
the cake was a homemade funfetti cake (with only purple sprinkles!) with white chocolate mousse and raspberry filling and german buttercream frosting. it was seriously delicious and so pretty!
liz and keith were amazing hosts and gave up their living room to me, brad, my mom, and jamie (my stepdad) for the whole weekend.
we went to be pretty early on thursday night because we had an early morning on friday.
we were out the door by 9 am to go….stand up paddle-boarding!!
we went to half moon bay and us kids (liz, keith, brad, me, and keith’s sister) went paddle-boarding while mom and jamie played paparazzi and walked around by the marina.
after paddle-boarding we walked to pillar point harbor where the mavericks surfing tournament is held and took in the ocean & the giant waves!
once we were done there, we headed back to get cleaned up at liz & keith’s. then we were off again…this time to san francisco! liz had a reception at her culinary school, so we dropped her off there and then checked out at&t park.
we walked around that area for a bit (and i took too many pictures of palm trees)…
and then we decided to stop for a couple drinks. we found a random bar called zeke’s and then were so excited to realize that the owner is from milwaukee, wi! small world! we had a couple drinks there and liz met us with her friend.
after we were done in the city (for that day), we met keith’s parents at refuge for dinner.
good food was eaten, wine was consumed, and we talked a ton! it was fun.
saturday morning was the main event of the weekend…liz graduated from culinary school with her baking and pastry certification! we were up bright & early (again) to go to the hyatt in downtown san francisco for the graduation.
we had more fun planned for lunch after the ceremony. we went to tommy’s joynt, which has been featured on diners, drive-in’s, and dives! so fun.
the big thing at tommy’s joynt is the hand-carved sandwiches. i had turkey & swiss and liz had ham & swiss so we traded halves. everything was really good!
we played tourist for the rest of the day.
we went to china town,
lombard street,
and pier 39/fisherman’s warf.
it was a loooooong, but oh-so-fun day!
our last full day in san francisco was sunday. we were up early again (see a theme?) to head back into the city to check out the golden gate bridge (!!!).
our stop at golden gate was on our way north of the city to go wine tasting in sonoma! (i was beyond excited about this.) we brought shiloh with us, so we only stopped at dog-friendly wineries.
the first winery we stopped at was larson family winery.
this was the place we stayed at the longest. they had $5 tastings and pretty good wine! we all ended up buying a bottle or two, and then we headed out to their back area to hang out, drink wine, eat our lunch (packed sandwiches) and play bean bags.
the second winery we visited was called nicholson ranch winery. it was a smaller winery with only a few wines, but we still enjoyed the ones we tried.
most of all, we loved the scenery there. it was beautiful.
our last stop of the day was bartholomew park winery.
they had tastings of 6 wines for $10, so only a few of us did this tasting. i was pretty wined out at this point, but i still enjoyed the wines i tried here.
we headed back to liz & keith’s after that.
when we got home, the men cooked us ladies pizza for dinner.
and we snuggled up and enjoyed our last night in cali.
we had to fly out of san francisco at 8:30 on monday morning, so, yet again, we were up bright and early.
after two fairly quick and painless flights, we were back to reality in wisconsin.
the 5 days flew by so quickly! i’m already ready to go back for another visit because this one was so not long enough.
a giant thanks to liz & keith for being awesome hosts! i will definitely be back soon! 
oh yeah, and thanks to this trip i get to check off number 7 and number 20 from my 101 in 1001 list!
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if you have any questions about specific places we visited or any of my recommendations for things to do in san francisco after this trip, i’m happy to answer questions in the comments or by email!
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