A Week in The Bay

Hello!! It’s been a while!

I’ll be honest, this post has been long overdue. For the past 2 weeks I kept thinking about writing about my recent trip to California, but I am just NOW sitting down to write about it.

I’ll be honest, I was nervous going on my trip. This was my first trip since COVID, and though I’m vaccinated, I felt anxious about being in a new environment away from my comfort zone and routine. I’ve gotten pretty comfortable being home all the time… maybe even a little *too* comfortable. But now, I’m already thinking about the next time I go on a trip – I forgot how much fun it is to travel!

This trip was actually quite spontaneous in that I didn’t really plan much. My friend wanted to visit her family in California but she was going to drive and asked me if I wanted to tag along. Road trip to California? I felt so much more comfortable knowing we were driving rather than flying and the experience of a road trip was so exciting – I haven’t done one in ages! Count me in. (though I’ll be honest, a 14-hour drive also made me nervous). Also, I always knew California is a big state but I really didn’t realize it would take half of our drive to just cut through it! In that same amount of time, we cut through Washington and Oregon!

I didn’t realize how much I needed to be away from my usual routine and scenery until I got there. We stayed in the mountainous area of south bay, which is about an hour or so south of San Francisco. I can’t even begin to describe how beautiful our view was – we were surrounded by so much green and sunshine! I really took this time to take advantage of my mornings here – I wanted to use that time to disconnect and really enjoy the peacefulness. We had a beautiful deck where I’d sit and enjoy my breakfast and write in my journal.

Overall, it was a pretty low-key trip – we weren’t really packing in a lot of activities and just taking it easy the whole week. I’ve been to the bay area many times to visit family but never particularly been to the south bay, so it was a lot of fun exploring local areas and having my friend show me where she grew up! With that, came eating a lot of amazing food and treats – got to check out some local restaurants, ice cream shops, and cafes! I got to visit Santana Row for the first time – did a bit of shopping and had yummy tacos for dinner! We even visited Palo Alto to get dinner with friends. Some of my favorite eats were from El Jardin (in Santana Row), Local Union 271 (Palo Alto), Fable (San Francisco), Sanchos Taqueria (Palo Alto), Smitten Ice Cream, and Icicles Cream Roll!

One of the biggest highlights of this week was meeting up with a few of my friends who had moved to the bay area after our college graduation. It was honestly so refreshing to see old friends after this year of chaos. I hadn’t seen some of them in 2 years so I was looking forward to seeing them after so long. I had two friends who I connected with to meet up while I was down, but to my surprise, I had a third friend text me to meet up because she knew I was local. How sweet – I was really excited to see her and catch up on how she is doing!

I think the most “touristy” part of our whole trip was going to San Francisco. Though I’ve been many times for work, friends and family, I still wanted to check it out since I was already nearby! I can’t really explain why but it’s one of my favorite cities to visit – there’s always something to do! It’s even better now that I have friends who live there and can visit them. Among the many things to do there, we decided to grab lunch at Fable and a treat at Hot Cookie, hang out at Alamo Square park and see the Painted Ladies, meet up with my friend and check out the Golden Gate Bridge at sunset. Again, been to Golden Gate bridge many times since I was a child, but for some reason, I can’t get over that view!

Overall, wanted to make this trip to be more relaxing than “touristy” to step away from my normal routine and to get to spend some time with my friend (and her dog!). Hoping for better days to come and more travels!