Wednesday, March 19, 2014

San Francisco

In January Lauren, Leti, Marissa, Heather, and I ran the 15k Hot Chocolate race in San Francisco. We booked our hotel rooms about a month in advance and were ready to get our run on! Several days before our drive out, my aunt offered to put us up for a night in their fancy hotel suite, so of course we obliged. The way I purchased an overnight stay at the original hotel didn't allow for us to cancel our reservation, but we were able to change the dates, so another trip to San Francisco was made! Only Leti, Lauren, and I went on this trip...Marissa and Heather were able to get a refund for their reservation. It's been hard to make plans for the weekends due to training runs, but luckily we had the first Sunday of March off, so we decided to drive to the Bay Area that weekend.

We drove up to San Francisco on Saturday and made our first stop at my favorite fabric store ever, Fabric Outlet in the Mission District. They sell the best knit fabric there for the best prices. I actually didn't get any knits this time, but I did manage to purchase some black stretch velvet and floral rayon-like fabric.

This trip we had no real plans for our weekend in the city. Like I've said before, I love trying new vegan restaurants when I travel so that was something I wanted to do. Before leaving Sacramento, I'd been searching different places to dine in San Francisco. One of my many interesting hobbies. After Fabric Outlet we headed over to Source for dinner. We ordered spicy buffalo bites and source fries with rosemary sea salt and creamy Gilroy garlic sauce for appetizers. The buffalo bites were to die for and I loved the ranch that came with it. For dinner the three of us shared the awesome burger, smashed potato pie pizza, and siracha cluck teriyaki. The burger was good, different, but good. It was made out of beets so it was red/purple in color and I was not expecting that at all. It had good flavor and was filling, so I enjoyed it. I never had mashed potatoes on pizza, but likewise it tasted yummy, but could've used a bit more flavoring. The teriyaki chicken stir fry was also tasty, but it wasn't anything "special" that couldn't have been offered at most other restaurants with some alterations. For dessert we went overboard and busted our buttons. We devoured a chocolate covered twinkee, strawberry filled snowball, and a brownie bite. I've never been a fan of twinkees or snowballs, so I'm not the best person to critique those. I did try a few bites of the snowball, and to my surprise I enjoyed the cake-like outside as long as I didn't eat the filling. I've never been a fan of filled desserts. I know, I'm picky and weird. The brownie bite tasted like a chocolate brownie Clif bar cut up and doused with chocolate mouse. I didn't care too much for the brownie, but the mouse was good.


We spent the next morning at the Ferry Building as I read that they have vegan donuts! We stopped at Pepple's Donuts and bought a dozen donuts. I picked out the lemon, vanilla glazed, maple, and chocolate donuts. I enjoyed them all except for the lemon one...too tart for my taste buds! These donuts were definitely worth the weight...he he, get it?  I also tried a vegan steamed Chinese bao that was pretty good. I was just impressed they offered a vegan version.


Next we stopped at the ImagiKnit yarn store...Lauren loves yarn. As Stitches West was the weekend before, I was on a strict no-more-yarn diet and refrained from buying anything, although the Manos de Uruguay Alegria has been tempting me.

We made a stop at another fabric store...a huge warehouse that carried all kinds of fabric in large bolts. I purchased some plaid cotton, lots of muslin, and white/black striped knit fabric. San Francisco is my favorite place to shop for fabric, even though I've hardly used any of the fabric I already own.

Before driving back to Sacramento, we stopped at Source again for lunch. We had the buffalo bites (again), baked spinach artichoke fondue, peking quack spring rolls for appetizers. I've never tasted anything like the spring rolls; they were amazing! We each order our own entrees this time...I picked the crisp Caesar salad with "chicken". It was a good salad and I appreciated all the lettuce after stuffing myself the previous with everything but veggies, but the dressing didn't taste Casesar-ish. Don't get me wrong, the dressing was still really good, but it wasn't what I was expecting.


I don't have another trip to San Francisco planned just yet, but when I do go back I foresee more fabric shopping and an abundance of vegan food in store for me!

No comments:

Post a Comment