San Francisco, Monterey, Carmel-by-the-Sea

October 10-15, 2017

San Francisco is an enchanting city. It attracts those who love exploring nature, incredibly brilliant people in tech, and has some of the steepest hills around! Within a few hours, you can drive to amazing places like Napa & Sonoma for wine, breath-taking views on Highway 1 to Monterey and adorable cities like Carmel-by-the-Sea. Steven and I have both been to SF many times before, but ventured down beyond the city for the first time ever! I arrived Oct 10-13 for the Local Guides Summit. I love sharing reviews and photos on Google Maps to help others make informed decisions when traveling. 151 Local Guides from 62 countries around the world were chosen to attend the summit - it was an unbelievable experience! Steven flew in for the weekend to extend my time in California. 

During some free time before the summit started, I visited Buena Vista to try their famous Irish coffee. Ironically, I don't typically drink coffee or whiskey. It was good -- assuming you like both items, but was way too strong for me! Twas a doozy. 

On Friday when the summit ended, Steven and I visited some favorites like Lombard Street and the Palace of Fine Arts. We then drove to Sutro Baths and Lands End. So gorgeous with the rushing water and elevated rocks. I'd love to do a shoot here someday!

Believe it or not, we've never visited the Painted Ladies so we paid the iconic "ladies" a visit!

At this point, we had to have some food adventures!! Steven always craves Chinese food, so we visited Good Mong Kok Bakery for take-out dim-sum! Who knew such a thing existed?! It's a no nonsense, no frills counter where you can order outrageously large pieces of dim-sum for ridiculously cheap prices. It's going to be hard to pay normal prices again! We had 2 turnip cakes, 2 massive siu mai, pork buns, and deep fried meat balls for $7 in total! Since there was no seating, we ate while walking to Boba Guys. Ivana has been wanting to visit for a very long time...the wait was well worth it despite the line that wrapped down the street. As if that wasn't enough, we also stopped by Eastern Bakery for their BBQ pork buns. Best bun I've ever had!

The timing of our trip happened a few days after the wildfires. So sad and I feel terrible for everyone living in the area! Despite the smoke, we drove to Marin Headlands for fantastic, albeit foggy views of Golden Gate! We even got to meet up with my dear high school friend, Sally, at a trendy bar called Novela. We also hit up In n' Out before the night ended because animal style fries are always a good idea.

As we migrated south, we woke up early the next morning to visit Cupertino! Unfortunately, the new Apple campus isn't open yet so we visited the Infinite Loop store. We also ate at a terrific Taiwanese restaurant called Mama Chen's Kitchen and indulged in such good food I didn't get a chance to photograph it...but you'll have to believe me - it was amazing! On the way to Carmel-by-the-Sea, we visited Monterey to drive along the fabled 17-Mile Drive. So beautiful and scenic! We probably spent 4 hours there because we had so much fun exploring.

We ended up with only a few hours in Carmel-by-the-Sea, visiting a few small boutiques and art galleries. It wasn't enough time and I'd love to come back! It's a pricier city, but so endearing. We stumbled into a charming restaurant called La Bicyclette featuring old country European cuisine for mussels & frites and truffle mushroom pizza - one of my favorite restaurants of all time! I would literally come back to Carmel to eat here again. I had a free night from hotels.com that I used to stay at a cute bed & breakfast called Carmel Lodge.

Lastly, a few images of sunset on Highway 1 in Big Sur. Absolutely breath-taking & incredible. Until next time, SF!!! Looking forward to spending the Christmas holiday in LA with family :)