From windy city to wine country: Discovering San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf, Iconic Cable Cars, and Napa Valley Adventures

It was 2:00 PM on a Thursday. 

My lover and I landed at Chicago O’hare airport, and we both said, “damn, it's so good to see Black people again.” So my lover and I planned a trip to San Francisco for a week, from the end of January to the first week in February. 

We stayed at this lovely hotel called Hotel Zephyr at Fisherman's Wharf. It was pretty cool. The entire hotel was designed like a shipyard; it was pretty cool.

Yo, we both thought that because it was California, the weather would be warm-ish. It was not! Francisco. I feel like I should have taken a Chicago-type winter jacket with me. It was cold. Oh, my goodness. It was cold in San Francisco. Good thing I had a thick H&M jacket. Anyways, on our first night in San Francisco, we slept! then woke up fresh to explore the city. We started the day with brunch at this place called 8:00 AM Cafe. We saw the Martin Luther King waterfall, went into San Francisco MoMA, and continued exploring the city on foot. We did try to get on the cable car, but the lines? Nah! Every time we tried to get on, the lines were too long. So we took the street car instead, which was also really nice.

We met one of the street car drivers, a black driver; he put us on to tips on what to do in San Francisco. And one of the key things was that if you get in the San Francisco Streetcar, exit from the back so that people will not know you're a tourist and make a trip to Oakland. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to do that. 

On our first night, we had dinner at this highly-rated Chinese restaurant called Z&Y Szechuan Cuisine, where apparently Obama had eaten at. That was pretty cool. The food was excellent. The portions were so huge. If we had known, we would've shared the food portions. But one thing that stood out to us when our bill came was that all these other random charges were added to your final bill. The bill was initially $90 something, and it ended up being about $110. Yeah, we didn't really get what that was about. 

We marveled at how cool it was when we landed at San Francisco Airport. And both of us were just so confused about how Chicago O'Hare Airport won the best airport in America or something. Because San Francisco's airport was so cool, you could know why they called a tech city or tech, why they're the tech central. 

There was this robot arm coffee barista outside our gate called Cafe X. If you're ever at the San Francisco airport, look for the Cafe X robot barista. It does take a minute for your order to come out. But it was pretty cool. I'm not a coffee drinker, but I do not want a robot making my shit, period. 

Transportation from the airport downtown was straightforward; we followed the airport directions to the AirTrain, hopped on that, and hopped on the city transit train. It’s super helpful to download San Fran’s transportation app and load it on your Clipper app to use their transit system. I break it down in this video. 

I enjoyed doing it in San Francisco, finding all the hearts around the city. Every time we spotted one, we took pictures! So if you go to San Francisco, look out for those hearts. 

Besides the fact that it was cold and just about every restaurant didn't close their doors, it was super interesting to see that Black people, white people, and all other races were the minority. That was really shocking. Mainly because we live in Chicago, San Francisco, Asians strongly dominated it, and that was just surprising for us. And it did feel on occasion like we were a spectacle. Because there weren't many Black people around, it was shocking and interesting to experience.

But if you are in San Francisco, I recommend a day trip to Napa Valley. You will not regret it. We made a day trip to wine country; we spent the day at Castello di Amarosa. 

Our to-do list was driving across the Golden Gate Bridge and then heading to Napa Valley. So what we did is that we rented a Tesla because neither of us had been in one or driven one. We rented a Tesla with Hertz. Hold up. Don't make that same mistake we did. Do not rent a Tesla with Hertz. They were on some scam shit. 

Here's a list of everything we did and places we ate at, and I recommend that you do them on your trip to San Fran too. 

• So depending on where you're staying, you should visit Fisherman's Wharf, specifically Pier 39. There’s quite a bit to do here; you get to see the seals!!

• I didn’t care for Alcatraz, but my lover wanted to go. You get to Alcatraz by hopping on the ferry from one of the piers, and a round trip is about $54. The good thing is you get to sail the San Francisco Bay. Whenever you tour Alcatraz, you return to the mainland on the ferry.

• You should go to the Umbrella Alley. Walking into the alley to take fun photos is free, but they usually appreciate something like $10-15. Umbrella Alley was fun. Take your tripod and get ready to take pictures.

• Another thing you should do in San Francisco is you should drive down Lombard Street. Apparently, we drove down at the wrong time because when I put that video on TikTok, people who live in San Francisco were like, “Oh, you should have gone there during the summertime when there are more flowers.” So Lombard Street is that winding Street in San Francisco that looks incredible. We drove down it, but it felt underwhelming. Maybe if you guys try it, you'll have a better time.

• You should definitely ride the cable car. Sadly, we couldn't ride but rode the street car, which was great. 

• Go to the San Francisco MoMA, and spend a whole day there.

• Right across SFMOMA is the MLK fountain and a huge mall too.

• Explore Chinatown. San Francisco is very hilly. At some point, I actually tumbled and fell. So be careful, hold someone's hand, and wear comfortable shoes. 

• Don’t leave without exploring Little Italy. They have a lot of nice dessert spots. I recommend Stella Pastry & Cafe; we went there every damn day!

• Other food joints I recommend are : Eight AM Cafe, Brioche Cafe, The New Spot on Polk (I strongly suggest their cornflakes-covered pancakes and a London fog), and Eagle Cafe for brunch. If you love Biscoff like I do (because it’s crack), there’s a big store in Pier 39, Tony’s Pizza Napoletana (this place had 4,000+ reviews on Google!!!), B Patisserie and Ghirardelli Square for dessert lovers and the BEST Korean food I’ve ever had, Daeho Korean BBQ & Beef Soup, The Stinking Rose, and Brenda’s French Soul Food.

• If you go to San Francisco, you have to go to Golden Gate Park, and if you keep walking through the park, you’ll find the Japanese Tea Garden and love it. Entrance to the park is free, but the Tea Garden does charge about $14 depending on the day of the week and time of the year, so double-check.

•  Visit this nice speakeasy called The Blind Pig Speakeasy Lounge. It's dimly lit, and the vibe and drinks were real nice.

• Spend time at the historic landmark City Lights Bookstore, the first all-paperback bookstore in the U.S., and from there, you can see the Trans-America Tower, shaped like a pyramid and an icon of San Francisco.

• Rent a car and drive to Napa Valley. We went to Castello di Amarosa, a Tuscan-style castle, where we were happily wine drunk at 1 PM (wait a couple of hours and drink lots of water, we don't permit drunk driving over here). Our tickets cost about $70 per person, and It was a fantastic experience! Definitely one of the best things I’ve experienced, and we brought a bottle of wine back.

 If you are worried about traveling with wine, don't.  At the Vineyard Store, you can buy wine bottled-shaped bubble wrap with a strong adhesive at the end, which helps you pack the wine and travel with it. So how I packed mine is this, I put the wine in bubble wrap and padded it again in my luggage by putting a lot of knits and soft stuff around it just to make sure that when them airline people are tossing my luggage, the wine didn't break, and the wine was intact when I got home to Chicago. It was perfect. 

I’ve made it easy for ya’ll by hyperlinking all the important spots. If you want some more juicy deets on my San Fran trip, click here. Until I book another flight somewhere… who knows where, follow me on Instagram and TikTok for more travel stories, tips, itineraries and gist. 
xxx
- Summer