San Francisco - Day 2

Having seen what felt like the entire city on Friday, by foot, we decided for our second day to find a more relaxing way to see the city, by chauffeured bus. We booked a tour in advance to do a San Francisco city tour and Alcatraz. The tour started the morning by driving us around the city, through many of the places we had walked through the day before. The driver had all kinds of good information he shared with us, which was really interesting.

The first stop on the tour was at the park right next to the Golden Gate Bridge, thankfully it was a beautiful day and the sun was shinning and there was no fog, so we were able to get some great pictures!

After that the tour drove through some more of the city, including a couple more stops at the beach and a scenic lookout overlooking the city. The tour concluded by dropping us off at the ferry for Alcatraz. We boarded the ferry and headed to "The Rock." I think Mike was secretly hoping he could leave me there, little did he know I had the same idea. It was just a short ferry ride over to the remote island and then a pretty steep walk up some hills to get up to the prison itself.

We listened to the audio tour as we walked through the prison and saw the famous cell blocks and listened to the stories of life as a prisoner on the island. We even got to go in some of the cells. It's amazing to think that three individuals somehow got outside of the prison, if they made it across to safety and are living somewhere in South America today is anybody's guess!

Unfortunately the weather took a turn as we tried to get back to the mainland and the rain rolled in. We planned to make a run for it to get over to the Ferry Building, we were planning to pick up some snacks to bring with us for our trip to Napa the next day. The four of us ended up sprinting in the rain from the ferry boat all the way back down to the Ferry Building, by the time we got there we were def soaked! 

Our run in the rain was def worth it though. We went to the Cowgirl Creamery in the Ferry Building to get some fresh cheese to bring for snacks. We had so much fun tasting all these different kinds of cheese and they were even more delicious when we had them for our snacks the next day!

San Francisco - Day 1

We spent our Memorial Day weekend this year in San Francisco. We had a chance to join two of our friends, Joe & Gina, for a weekend trip out there. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up so it meant going right back out on the road for me after just getting back from Disney World and for Mike just a day after getting back from Africa. Our plan was to spend 5 full days out west, leaving early Friday morning and returning late Tuesday night on the red eye.

When we arrived on Friday afternoon we were starving (especially since gone are the days where they even give you a snack on the plane - or free tv for that matter), luckily Joe had the perfect lunch place lined up for us, appropriately named, Joe's Cable Car. And it was on the way from the airport to the city. When we pulled up the restaurant doesn't look like much from the outside or even on the inside but it was the food that counts. This place was a diamond in the rough, so much so, that it was even featured on the show Diners, Drive-in's, and Dives (one of my favorite mouth watering shows to watch). We had some of the most fantastic hamburgers we have ever had in our entire life. They might as well cut up the cow in the back that's how fresh these hamburgers are. I went for the "california fresh" that had the most amazing sauteed onions on top, it was delish! We left there wanting to make another trip back!

 Mike showing off his. My delicious california fresh on the right!

 The boys thoroughly enjoying their burgers!

Once are tummy's were full we headed into the city to go check into the hotel and get settled. We were staying at the San Francisco Mariott Marquis which is in the Union Square part of town. For the rest of our afternoon we decided to do some walking and check out the city and walk we did! It felt like we walked through the entire city, we covered a lot of ground.

We started our walk by heading down to the San Francisco Ferry Building which was only a couple blocks from the hotel.  The Ferry Building had a lot of nice little shops inside that all looked so quaint and fresh (more to come later on the places we went to in there) but it was very nice to stroll through and see all the great looking food and other things in there.

Then we thought we'd walk down to Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf, little did we know it was a decent walk to get down there but we made it. We got our first glimpse of all the action down at Pier 39, there's a lot of restaurants and little shops down at the Pier (apparently it's the most visited attraction in San Francisco). We checked it out for a bit, walked around to see what was there and we even saw the famous sea lions that call Pier 39 home, that was pretty cool to see!

We didn't set out planning to walk miles through the city, but our walk continued on from Pier 39 down to Fisherman's Wharf. We passed through the Wharf and headed onwards, we were actually looking for this place called Kara's Cupcakes that sells gluten free cupcakes for Gina, so we continued on to Ghiradelli Square for the coveted cupcake. On our walk we also got our first glimpse of the cable cars which was cool, one of the main stations is right near Ghiradelli.

We finally made it over to our destination and could sit down and relax for a few minutes, Gina got her cupcake and I got a small chocolate ice cream from the Ghiradelli ice cream shop. According to google maps at this point we'd already walked 3.2 miles to get down here and we still had to get back to the hotel. Once snack was over we started our trek back. On our walk back we managed to walk through China Town, the North Side and I'm sure a couple more places, it felt like we walked through the whole city by the time we got back but it was a great way to see the city on our first day!

My Favorite Tortellini

My mom and I have been making this tortellini pasta salad for years now. I can't remember where we came across this recipe, it was years ago. It's not something we make for every bbq since it involves a lot of chopping! You have to chop everything from 2 peppers, red onion, sun dried tomatoes, and artichokes. I love this salad because it has so many great vegetables that go along with the pasta and make it pretty hearty. I also love the flavor of the dressing on it, especially after it's set in along with the feta cheese, I think it's quite tasty. I love enjoying this salad for a special bbq!

Mediterranean Tortellini Pasta Salad
  
Ingredients 
1 pkg. (16 oz.) cheese tortellini
¼ cup olive oil
3 Tbsp. vinegar (preferably balsamic)
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 clove minced garlic
1 tsp. sugar
¾ tsp. salt
½ tsp. dried oregano
½ tsp. pepper
1/3 cup drained oil-packed sun dried tomatoes chopped (reserve oil)
2 red, yellow and/or green peppers
1 can (14 oz.) artichoke hearts, drained and quartered
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
½ cup black kalamata olives, pitted and chopped (I omit, I despise olives)
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese (I was generous with the cheese)
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

Directions 
Cook tortellini according to package directions; drain. Rinse with cold water until cool, about 30 seconds. In large serving bowl combine olive oil with next seven ingredients and reserved tomato oil. Stir in tortellini, tomatoes and next 4 ingredients until well combined. Cover; refrigerate at least 1 hour or overnight; Toss again before serving; sprinkle with cheese and parsley.

Disney - Favorites

There were so many things that we loved about Disney, the entire trip was fantastic, but there were a couple things that stuck out in our mind as being our favorite part of the trip. 

1. The Disney Beach Club - We absolutely loved this hotel, I'd say it was our favorite, we particularly enjoyed its location for a trip for two adults. When we were kids we stayed at the Contemporary a lot which was great for location and everything was right there, including the monorail which made loading up two kids to get to the Magic Kingdom quite easy. We've also stayed at the Caribbean Beach Club before which was nice but secluded, but I think we really enjoyed the Beach Club the best.

The location of the beach club was perfect for us. We were able to walk over to EPCOT, which we did every day we were there. It was also nice being so close to the Disney Boardwalk resort which you can walk the loop around the two resorts, the Boardwalk had a lot of restaurants and nightlife. There are tons of people walking around the grounds or sitting outside with a drink at night, versus at a resort like the Polynesian or the Contemporary there isn't much going on at night. The Beach Club was also within walking distance of Hollywood Studios as well so we we walked there too. And the pool was really nice for relaxing too!  

2. EPCOT - We absolutely loved EPCOT, we walked over there every single day. We mostly walked through the world showcase which is a nice lap around that part of the park. It was fun to go through all the countries and see the scenery and the food in each country. Since it was so close to our resort it was fun to just walk over there and check things out or walk through the park if we were returning from somewhere else. This was def our favorite park, for the location, the walking and the food!

3. Fish and Chips - We ate these twice in the 5 short days we were there. We would walk over to EPCOT just for lunch. It helped too that the UK was in the back of the park where we would walk in through. We discovered these delicious fish and chips on our second day there and we just had to go back for them again. Along with a cold bass beer in the Florida heat, it hit the spot. And the shortbread cookies were a great finish to this meal. This was definitely our favorite lunch meal of the trip! 

4. Finding Nemo - I put Finding Nemo on here because we watched the film together on the beach of our resort one night for Movies Under the Stars (which was so much fun, sitting outside on the beach lounge chairs watching the movie outside on the beach). It was the first time my Mom had seen the movie, and it is just so cute. We had already been on the ride at EPCOT, but the next night when we were over there we just had to ride the clam shells again to go look for Nemo, and it was such a cute ride and movie!

5. African Safari at Animal Kingdom - Mom had been skeptical about going to Animal Kindgom, going into it she was comparing it to the Bronx Zoo, but afterwards she was sold. The African Safari ride is something not to be missed, and was def the coolest thing in that park, we saw so many animals up close, it was great!

6. Dinner at the California Grill - This was definitely the best meal we had the whole week. I highly recommend anyone that is going to Disney World looking for a nice meal that this place is a can't miss. The caliber and quality of the food is unmatched, and was one of the best meals I've ever had, it's up there. From the food, to the location and ambiance this place is somewhere I'm already looking forward to going back to!

7. Breakfast with the Characters - Yes I realize I am 28 years old, but you're never too old for Breakfast with the characters. It was our last morning in Disney and I think the best way to end the trip. There was a character breakfast at our resort at the Cape May Cafe so we had to go, the breakfast buffet was pretty good too. We got to have breakfast with Donald, Minnie and Goofy and it was the perfect was to end our great vacation with all our favorite Disney Characters, everyone should have a meal with the characters at least once on their trip to Disney for the kid in everyone! 

Disney - EPCOT

Disney - Animal Kingdom