Our anniversary weekend!

We had such a great time in our 28-hour getaway to San Francisco this weekend. We left Yuba City around 1:00 pm and arrived at our hotel- The Galleria Park Hotel in the financial district. If it wasn't for Hotels.com I never would have picked this place. But, it looked like a fun area of the city and I loved the design in the guest rooms, plus at $130 a night it was pretty affordable. I called a few days before just to confirm our reservations. They asked if we were staying for a special occasion and I said: YES! our first anniversary! So, when we checked in they had upgraded our room (to a room that would have been $269 a night) and there was a bottle of wine (woohoo!) and a cute little card waiting for us. It was so sweet! So, we went up to our 7th floor room and we both were in love! It was awesome. Better than I expected. The room was decorated in such an awesome/funky way. We loved the teal walls with the apple colored upholstered chair and love seat. It was so cute.


I had never stayed anywhere with a stocked mini fridge. I had fun looking at the list of prices and making Nic guess how much they charged for things.

here are some of the highlights of the weekend:

{window shopping}
staying in the financial district was absolutely perfect! We were steps away from the best shops. We didn't buy anything but we had a lot of fun looking. We first saw the Diesel store and went straight for it. It was 4 full floors. I did experience my first (and second) charlie horses! It was on the way down the 4 flights of stairs and I just stopped and was laughing so hard because I had never felt anything like that before. Nic felt my leg and could feel the crazy leg muscles freaking out. As soon as it started to feel a little bit normal, it then started in my right leg. We got to a couch on the second floor but it was crazy... and it really hurt!

{dinner}
I read a million reviews before deciding where we should eat over the weekend. When I would find what looked like a cool restaurant, it seemed like if it had great views, it was crappy food. Good food, no views. But in the end, what I really wanted was to find a place with food we actually liked. When I read the menus at really fancy restaurants I couldn't pronounce anything and I am just not that adventurous with eating things like es cargo and things like that. So, I decided steak would be perfect for us. I finally narrowed it down to Morton's. I knew it was going to be expensive and it had no view, but I knew it would be delicious and it was only .5 mile from our hotel (we didn't get our car out till the end of our trip, we walked everywhere and nothing was very far. it was great!) I called for reservations and they again asked if it was a special occasion and I told them it was. They set up a table for us with little happy anniversary decorations and the menus were printed jut for us and said: Happy anniversary Kirsten and Nic! (well, Nic was with a K at the end, that was our one complaint :) We dressed up to go out to dinner and that was really fun. We were planning on taking pictures but it was too nice, we would have been really embarrassed. The food was AMAZING! Nic got the jumbo lobster tail with grilled asparagus with balsamic glaze and I got the cajun rib eye steak (which was in the "smaller steak" section but it was HUGE and I shared it with Nic) with mashed potatoes. We shared with each other and it was all so fabulous. We finished off the meal with the famous Morton's hot chocolate cake which was so yummy. It had raspberries and mint leaves on top which Nic loved. We have never spent anywhere close to that amount on a meal (or three weeks of groceries for that matter) but it was a fun once in a year type of meal.
I wanted a picture with the baby!

my hot, hot husband :)



{Breakfast}
We did more than just eat on our trip, I promise :)
I read over and over again in reviews about a breakfast spot named: Dotties. Every review promised very long lines, especially on the weekends but every review also ended with: it was totally worth it! We walked about a mile to get there and found a line of about 35 people outside of Dotties. They only have 10 tables and room for about 4 people to wait inside. We talked to some nice people in line and our legs were burning at the end of our hour and half wait but then finally, we were inside! there was a bench to sit on and it was so nice to give our legs a break. then, we sat down! everything was SOOOO good! We each were starving (which I found very disappointing after our expensive meal the night before) so we ordered eggs, sausage, hashbrowns and Nic got french toast and I got pancakes. The pancakes were whole wheat and spiced with cinnamon and ginger and it was for the sure the best pancake I have ever had! We too agreed it was worth the wait.
This was only 20 minutes into the waiting... you've got a long time left, lover.
Yes, I am showing, and yes, Nic likes to take pictures of my growing bulge. Some days he is like: WOAH! it is even bigger than yesterday! I must say I am just as shocked as he is.. its weird to see my body changing so fast.
I call this... anticipation
The long line after we were almost inside. VICTORY!



{museum}
I initially planned on taking us to the SF museum of modern art, but as we were looking for our hotel on Saturday, we saw another museum on the same street we were staying. The SF museum of craft and design sounded perfect for us! Plus the $3 donation was a great price! The exhibit was on ceramics and it was really good. We especially loved the museum shop which was filled with awesome and really unique things and the beautiful gardens and sculpture outside.




{ice cream and the Mission district}
again... with all my review readings I wanted to try an ice cream shop a few miles away. So, we finally picked up the car from the parking garage and $30 poorer we drove to the Mission district which we LOVED! The houses are traditional San Francisco victorian row houses and a little less expensive plus if you head up the hill a bit there was beautiful views of the Bay, even though it was a cloudy day. We went through a few open houses which is our favorite thing to do when we visit a new city... we love to look at real estate. The ice cream was really good too :)

{site seeing}
We then headed to more of the touristy side of the city. We drove down Lombard street, it was freaky (and hard to get pictures of, I tried my best!) and past all the piers and across the golden gate bridge. It was really fun! This ended our fabulous trip for our first anniversary. It has been by far the best year of my life and I am so excited and elated to married to Nic. We had a great time together this weekend and a great first year of marriage!
Lombard street and our cracked windshield.
we have no clue what this building was... but it was way rad.