Weekend in San Francisco (+ HAMILTON)!

My mom and I had the best weekend in San Francisco!  Of course it went by much too quickly, but we were able to cram a lot in in the 2 days we had :)

Our flight out of Seattle on Friday morning was delayed about an hour, but we finally arrived at our hotel around 1pm.  Rachel and Peter had recommended this place to us, Hotel Adagio, and it was the perfect little hotel in the perfect location!

View from the street in front:

After checking in, we had some time to kill before dinner.  We decided to just start walking around to see where we would end up - and we ended up in Chinatown!

Next up, we made our way to Little Italy.  We were starting to get pretty hungry at this point, so we stopped for a snack and a beer (at my insistence) which hit the spot.

Then we headed back to the hotel to shower and get ready for our big, amazing night out!

We started the evening off having dinner at The Progress.  This place required a reservation about a month in advance, and after dining there, we understood why!  The menu is designed where you select 4 items and then share them family style.  We enjoyed:

• Artichoke Tempura with Black Trumpet Aioli (this was an add on).
• Sour beer bread with fermented cabbage butter, grilled asparagus with charred onion ranch, and 'roast' beef with fresh horseradish (a starter the provide for the table)
• Hass Avocado-Manchego "Wedge": dried summer pepper, lime & pomegranate syrup 'romesco'
• Wild Winter Mushroom Fried Rice: wilted greens, snow peas 7 aromatic garlic chlii oil
• Grilled Monterey Bay Abalone: celery root-citrus peel butter & broccoli di ciccio 'salad'
• Grilled Dry Aged Beef: fava green-sunflower seed 'pesto' & green garlic pickles

Absolutely incredible!

 

And then it was time for the main event: HAMILTON!

 

I'm still re-living each moment of the evening and I still cannot BELIEVE we scored such amazing seats.

Everyone in the room was so incredibly excited to be there and we were taking turns taking pictures of one another in front of the stage.  I met 2 girls who had won the $10 ticket lottery and they were just beyond thrilled to be sitting in the third row!  I love that they do that.  

 

This is the view from our seats - 5th row, center.  !!!!!!  I'll never forget it.  We stood (and I cried) during the final curtain call and I already cannot wait to see it again!  Amazing cast, amazing show!

The next morning, we grabbed coffee and an almond scone at La Boulangerie, and then grabbed tickets and seats on a big bus tour that left out of Union Square.  Since it had been raining on and off that morning, it was a good way to see a lot of the city!

Since it wasn't raining when we got on, we sat on the top of the bus.

The bus actually took us ACROSS the Golden Gate Bridge, and it was definitely one of the coldest moments of my life.  I was very thankful to have my hat with me and a hood!

 

We got off the bus down at Pier 39 and I was having a difficult time warming up.  A Bloody Mary and a bowl of clam chowder at Fog Harbor Fish House helped :)

We walked around Fisherman's Wharf for awhile.

As we were looking for a place to hop back on the bus, we came across The Buena Vista - famous for "perfecting" the Irish Coffee, and a place my parents use to frequent when they lived in the city (40 years ago)!  It was so fun to go and have an Irish coffee there with my mom :) 

We eventually made it back to the bus, finished the tour, and returned to our hotel.  That evening, we went to dinner at Cha Cha Cha, another Cougan recommendation - and it was SO good.  The Sangria was TOO good.  Just ask my mom ;)

On Sunday morning before it was time to head to the airport, we wandered around a bit looking for a Starbucks.  We ended up wandering through the Tenderloin District and were both very glad it was a bright sunny morning and not a late Saturday night.  Yikes.  

The good news is that our wandering did manage to take us to City Hall, which is one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen.

And then it was time to go home.  Such a fun and memorable weekend - I wonder where our Hamil-obsession will take us next???