San Francisco Day One: The Mission District

We just got back from a week-long trip to San Francisco! We had a wonderful time, so now I'm going to subject you to a barrage of vacation pictures, of course. 

We flew from Seattle to Oakland on Saturday morning. The flight prices were similar to the main San Francisco airport, but the times aligned better for meeting up with Allison. We're always happy to have my younger sister join us on trips, not only for her excellent company but also because traveling is so much easier with a three-adults-to-two-kids ratio.

After we finally claimed all our luggage, picked up our rental car, and installed the car seats (does anyone share our same hatred for offsite car rental?) we headed to In-N-Out for lunch. We've only been there once before, to the first Dallas location a few months after it opened, but, wow, we were surprised at how packed this ordinary suburban location was. Californians are serious about their burgers, apparently!

From there, we drove into the city, settled into our Airbnb, walked to Target for groceries, and tossed our exhausted children into bed. 

On Sunday morning, we walked to the Mission District. Our apartment was in NoPa, near the University of San Francisco, so the Mission was just over a mile away.

Our first stop was Mass at Mission San Francisco de Asis, the oldest building in the city. 

From there, we picked up sandwiches from Ike's and walked over to Dolores Park for a picnic. Y'all, these sandwiches were unbelievably delicious. I think probably our favorite meal of the week. And we ate some really, really good meals that week. 

  

Besides the beautiful view of the skyline, the park had a fantastic playground. 

We managed to convince Claire and Maggie to leave with the promise of ice cream, but they both fell asleep during the two-block walk over to Bi-Rite Creamery. 

Our poor deprived children. 

While they were snoozing, we walked across the street to Bi-Rite Market, the cutest little grocery store and picked up some handmade ravioli for dinner that evening. 

By the time we'd walked to Valencia Street, Claire had woken up and immediately remembered that there was supposed to be ice cream. We tried to appease her with a frozen hot chocolate from this cute little place, but were not exactly successful.



But a break playing in this toy store certainly did the trick.



From there, we checked out the murals in Clarion Alley and waited in line for pain au chocolat at Tartine, a crazy-popular French bakery. 



On our walk home, we passed the Painted Ladies in Alamo Square, a pretty block of Victorian homes.



We had our pain au chocolat for breakfast the next morning and were actually really underwhelmed. Ours were all a little burnt and just way too bread-y when they should have been light and fluffy. No comparison to St. Honore Boulangerie in Portland or Au Kouign-Amann in Montreal.

Don't worry, the day only improved from there. To be continued!