Winter trip to California

Dear readers, hope all of you had a great start to the New Year! Wishing everyone happiness, love, success and peace in 2022. We took a winter trip in December to California for 8 days. This post is part one of the trip where I will cover days 1-5 of our vacation, where we visited San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge, Union Square, Coit Tower, Lombard Street, Ghiradelli Square, Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Wharf. In my next travel post, I will write about our visit to Yosemite State Park and Napa Valley. So read on about a wonderful trip we took just a couple weeks ago where we also welcomed the New Year: our California trip during winter.

Introduction

Who does not love vacations? Family trips and traveling add joy and a change in routine, which in turn leads to refreshment, positivity and higher productivity! We take 2-3 trips in a year- definitely one in summer and one in the winter, and sometimes add a short one in March during spring break and/or November during Thanksgiving break. You may read my earlier posts about our road trip experiences, Disney World trip in 2019 winter and Europe trip in 2019 summer. In 2020 due to the pandemic, we had to cancel our planned Boston trip during the spring and could not travel anywhere in the summer or winter. 2021 came and it was time for our older one to go off to college. We visited Pittsburgh in the summer to explore her college and also visited New York City. Here are the two posts in case you are interested to read them- first post pandemic vacation to Pittsburgh and exploring New York City. We were fortunate enough to take another trip in winter 2021 and added California to the list of the third state visited in 2021! Here is the post about California trip during winter.

Day 1

We flew from Houston, Texas to San Francisco, California on Christmas day. The flight is 4 hours long and we reached the SFO at around 12:30 pm. We immediately took the rental car from the airport, put our luggage and drove off to Big Sur. Big Sur is such a beautiful and serene drive over a stretch of 17 miles. You can read more about it here on the official site of bigsurcalifornia.org. It was quite cold, especially since we were coming from Texas, but we did make multiple stops to capture some of the beauty. It was already getting dark at 5 pm and we were ready to drive back to San Francisco.

Did you know these facts about Big Sur?

• Traveler’s Choice Award Winner for Top 25 Destinations in the United States.
• Big Sur was voted “Best Place to Play Hookie,” and “Best Romantic Getaway.”
• Big Sur is also home of the “Best Marathon in North America” and the “Best Hotel in North America.”
• Adding to our ‘best of’ list, Big Sur is now home to the “Best Restaurant in California,” per the Zagat Survey.
• National Geographic Traveler listed Big Sur as one of the “50 Places of a Lifetime/The World’s Greatest Destinations.”
• Consistently a ‘top pick’ for weekend getaways and fantasy vacations.”

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We wrapped up our day by eating at Denny’s as not many restaurants were open on the Christmas Day and had a good night sleep at out hotel close to Big Sur. I would highly recommend Big Sur for anyone visiting CA for the first time or anyone who hasn’t done that picturesque drive!

Day 2

We checked out of the hotel as we were now booked for 7 nights at Hilton San Francisco Financial District. We had already booked the Sea Goddess Whale Watch Tour in Monterrey, and our cruise lasted from 12:30- 3:30 pm. Our late lunch was at Chipotle and dinner was takeout from an Indian restaurant close to our Hilton.

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Day 3

We visited Coit Tower and Pier 39. According to sfrecpark.org, Coit Tower, a slender white concrete column rising from the top of Telegraph Hill, has been an emblem of San Francisco’s skyline since its completion in 1933, a welcoming beacon to visitors and residents alike. Its observation deck, reached by elevator (tickets can be purchased in the gift shop), provides 360-degree views of the city and bay, including the Golden Gate and Bay bridges. You can find more information by clicking here.

Pier 39 is a fun place where you can shop, dine, and visit attractions. To learn more, visit their official site here at pier39.com. We ate lunch there at Boudin Bistro; it was not a long line as we did online check-in. The pier was crowded but masks were required and vaccination status checked for any indoor dining. We ended the day by eating dinner at Hong Kong Clay Pot. Being a vegetarian family, we got quite some options and would definitely recommend this place.

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Day 4

We took day pass for the bus which is called Muni in San Francisco, and traveled to Golden Gate Bridge and Union Square. We also walked a lot. Each day our average walking steps was 15000+ which was a good way to be active as we were eating quite a bit:) Lunch was at The Melt and dinner was Taqueria Zorr. We also walked though the China Town and did a little souvenir shopping.

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Day 5

It had been so chilly since we arrived on the 25th, that we decided to go for some more winter shopping. Mind you that we love traveling to snow places in winter, and had already packed our share of woolens including hats, gloves, socks and sweaters, but just be to sure and safe we also bought 2 jackets for our teens from Costco. We chose Costco as we are members and it was nearby. We walked up and down the San Francisco steep streets and enjoyed Lombard Street. Lombard Street in San Francisco is often called the most crooked street in the world. It is a pretty sight with eight, hairpin turns among the beautiful flower beds. A fun fact: these eight tight switchback turns is in the stretch of 600 feet of steep heels, and around one million cars drive down it every year!

Later we also walked up to the Ghiradelli’s Square and tried and tasted many of their sweets and drinks. In the night we went to Pier 39 again and saw the lit musical Christmas tree and walked around the Fisherman’s Wharf. Lunch for that day was at Italian Homemade Company where we ordered Fettucine Alfredo, Veggie Lasagna, Flatbreads and Tiramisu. Dinner was Domino’s take out as we were so full after eating at Ghiradelli’s.

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Wrap up

Here I want to conclude part I of our travel post: days 1-5 of our California trip during winter. We enjoyed each day but to chose our favorite would be the Golden Gate Bridge and Union Square. Ghiradelli’s and Lombard street come close second. Stay tuned for the next travel post where I will cover visiting beautiful Yosemite National Park and Napa Valley.

Dear readers, we would love to hear from you. Have you visited these parts of California that we explored? What is your favorite and recommendations? Did you get to travel anywhere in December to welcome the New Year 2022? Do share any recent travels you may have done in 2021.

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