I know, I know!  I’ve said it a thousand times – I love this city!  I never get sick of visiting SF, and probably never will.  A part of me still wishes Zach and I would have moved here – just for the experience!

Our trip was really low key – we didn’t make a ton of plans before setting off, and it was REALLY relaxing.  We stayed at a personal favorite hotel of mine, which has a gorgeous morning view.

Saturday was obviously the holiday – and even at 10 am there was a parade, plenty of drunk individuals, and A TON of Irish flags.  We walked, talked, ate, and shopped the entire day.  We went to some of our favorite stores that aren’t native to UT and stopped for lunch and treats at various locations near Union Square.

After our dinner at a nearby Italian resturaunt, Zach suggested we see a movie!  Sounds strange for someone on vacation to go to a movie, but it was perfect.  The city was still buzzed off of their St. Patty’s day celebratory beverages, so it was a great place to be around midnight – and the movie was fantastic!  Not to mention, the theater had Red Velvet cake gelato.

The next morning, Zach had an idea…an activity he had hoped to participate in rather.  He wanted to go to the horse races in Berkley.  I remember when we were on Study Abroad and we were in London, we saw the gentlemen and ladies on their way to Ascot.  It was the most glamorous thing I had seen:  Men in old fashioned tuxedos and top hats, women in beautiful dresses and gigantic head pieces and sun hats!  It looked like something out of Downton Abby, and I figured it would be similar?  Needless to say, it was NOT as classy as Ascot – but my horse Goldilocks did win second place (which means nothing by the way), Zach made a new friend…

and I got pretty enthralled in which horse would take the lead at the last second – notice the demographic at this place….

There were fancy hats, but most of them were worn by a different ethnic version of the Kardashians.  We didn’t win anything, but it was a very entertaining and a unique experience!

After Golden Gate Fields, we took the BART back to the city for our dinner reservation.

Foreign Cinema – surprise, surpise.  We love this place, I would say that it is my favorite restaurant.  Romantic, a free movie, outside under string lights, and the best food we’ve had in San Francisco thus far.

Later that night, Zach wanted to go to the Karaoke Bar for some new memories, and I thought it would be fun and some more free entertainment.  Besides, last time we went we had a guy dressed in a Jacksonville Jaguars jersey – wearing full make up and a neck tie, sing a song from the popular musical Jesus Christ Superstar.  It got really weird fast, and we LOVED it.  This particular establishment is a gender free zone – the Host is most always transgender, and the majority of the other attendees are ambiguous in terms of sexual preference.

Things were hilarious and fun, Zach made another friend named Lenny (which is one of his gamer names), until it was my turn to rock the mic.  I got up, started singing my song and these two ladies walk right up in front of the stage and start dancing and cheering for me – how nice, I thought!  But it once again, got really weird when she made an X-rated comment about, her exact words, “licking me”.  I stopped dead in the middle of my song and stared at her before she replied, “sorry – didn’t mean to weird you out” but she continued to dance provocatively with her weird “friend”.  You can see them in the photo below – note to self, it’s never good to wear a neon shirt on a karaoke stage…because you could look like a giant traffic cone in all the pictures.  That was about it for our night – I think we were both a little over stimulated…and me a little violated.

The next morning, I wanted to go down to the Marina and walk around – so we took the MUNI to Fillmore Street and walked.

The view once you get to the top of the big hill is amazing.  We stopped at tons of furniture stores, specialty stores, and some cute boutiques.

Zach wanted frozen yogurt, and I stopped at Susie Cakes for a “cuppy” (Zach’s made up word) and a coke.

We love the homes around this area, and there are some pretty delicious restaurants.  We stopped and ate at my favorite Thai place – which is SUPER ghetto but has the best Pad Thai and Yellow Curry!  After walking all the way down, we caught the MUNI back to Union Square to pack our bags and get ready for the journey home.  Before heading to the airport, we stopped at a local seafood and steak place in the Financial District – the only disadvantage of good seafood is smelling like good seafood afterwards.

I was not excited to come home – returning to all my responsibilities.  What is it about going on vacation that makes you feel like a million bucks?  Maybe it is the change of scenery, or the fact that someone else makes your bed every morning – either way I’ll take it!  March and April will continue to be crazy months – so I am glad that I got to get away with Zach before the madness unfolds.  Here’s to keeping sane at work these next few weeks!!!  I think this little trip was enough to hold me over.