Visiting San Francisco anytime soon? This post will focus on my parents’ visit when they spent the long weekend in sizzling temps of SF during Labor Day Weekend.
We kept it pretty laid-back and we took them to a few of our beloved neighborhoods in the city. Hope you enjoy the read, you’ll find lots of local flavors for sure!
Yay for parents visit! ❤ It was short but sweet so I wanted to make sure they’d see more of San Francisco without getting exhausted from all the sight-seeing and touring. My folks flew in Friday and flew back to Chicago on Tuesday morning. I’m all for slow traveling as I feel like I get more quality time for myself and whomever I’m traveling with.
Read along for the highlights of their visit, or go this way ☞ jump to the summarized itinerary!
Friday
See: Mission Dolores Park between Castro and the Mission District.
Eat: Tartine Bakery at Mission District for snacks
I chose to take them to the beautiful Dolores Park because they get to sight-see and unwind at the same time. Picked them up from SFO and drove straight to Tartine to get a box full of viennoiseries to enjoy at the park and to bring some home.
What’s in our box of yummies:
4 Morning Buns, 2 Pains au Chocolat, 2 Croissants and a Frangipane Croissant.
You can never go wrong with their Morning Buns, I promise you. We reheated it in our oven the next morning and it was still divine.
Saturday
See: Twin Peaks and Marin Headlands Vista Point.
Side trip: Marina Green for Philz Coffee Truck.
Eat: LaLe at Inner Sunset neighborhood for Mediterranean Brunch and Mochica at Potrero Hill neighborhood for Peruvian Dinner.
I would totally recommend Lale for Brunch if you’re visiting this side of town, close to the Golden Gate Park.
They also serve Sightglass coffee so that’s a double *yay*.
For today’s sight-seeing, we went for a short drive to Twin Peaks from LaLe. It’s their 3rd time visiting SF and this is the first time I brought them here. LOL better late than never! 😁
From there, we went on a scenic drive along PCH 1 to cross the ever so beautiful Golden Gate Bridge and took in the city and bridge views from Marin Headlands.
On the way back to my place, we stopped by Marina District’s scenic Marina Green Park for Philz Coffee Truck… Get: Iced Mint Mojito Coffee with almond milk and honey.
Pick a bench by the water and enjoy views of the GG Bridge and the Marin (also: The Alcatraz). Along the park at Marina Blvd. are lovely Spanish Colonial homes overlooking the bay. Occasionally, when I head home from work in Sonoma, I take this exit right after the bridge just to get the relaxing feel of this area—music turned off and windows down to let the sounds of the neighborhood and the cool breeze in. Sometimes, I make a quick stop at the park just to take it all in. A simple yet lovely way to end the work day.
We spent the rest of the day at home before dinner at Mochica in Potrero Hill neighborhood. It’s a nice and quiet residential neighborhood. Their extraordinary POLLO A LA BRASA… It’s just rotisserie chicken but their version had us imagine how amazing it must be like to visit and eat in Peru.
Sunday
See: Proxy in Hayes Valley and 16th Avenue Tiled Steps at Inner Sunset.
Eat: Uma Casa at Noe Valley for Portuguese Lunch and a relaxing dinner at home (hint: over-ordering at almost all the places we went to).
Sunday was kind of a fuller day. My mother asked that we attend a morning church service so that was the first thing on the list. We were going to take her to SFEFC in North Beach but with the time constraint we attended the 9:30am at Epic SF instead since that’s in our neighborhood before heading out to Uma Casa in Noe Valley for Lunch.
Uma Casa’s interior is gorgeous. I feel like it’s a peek into a small mediterranean town. The space is bright and airy, with beautiful arched details, blue and white Portuguese tiling on columns, and what seemed to be large sliding doors on the front and the side of the corner restaurant that opens up to the sidewalk.
Noe Valley is one lovely residential neighborhood and this area by Uma Casa has other local businesses around it so it’s a nice area to walk around on a sunny afternoon weekend. There are several train stops around here if you prefer to take public transpo.
For Desserts Part 2, we drove to Proxy for Smitten Ice Cream in Hayes Valley, one of my favorite neighborhoods in the city. It’s a vibrant neighborhood with lots of locals enjoying local goodies. One of the spots we enjoy here is the temporary two-block project, Proxy, which houses rotating art installations and local businesses in modified shipping containers-turned-modern shops and food spots.
We HAD TO take them to Smitten Ice Cream. They get to experience one of our favorite churned-to-order ice cream treats, so cool to see them churn the ice cream. We’re just too *smitten* for Smitten Ice Cream!
Monday
Labor Day (A much slower day before they leave the next morning.)
See: Painted Ladies at Alamo Square.
Eat: Breakfast at Sightglass Coffee, picnic lunch at Alamo Square Park with food to go from the nearby 4505 Burgers and BBQ, and Spanish tapas for Dinner at Beso in The Castro.
We took them to our neighborhood coffee spot, Sightglass coffee. We wanted them to experience what our slow morning weekend is like.
Get: Owl’s Howl latte or capp with almond milk. Kouign Amann by b.patisserie. Check out their Affogato Bar: get one with Lavender ice cream by Salt & Straw of ♡PDX♡.
We drove around Alamo Square Park and found a parking spot on the north end. Walked up to the park all the way to the south end facing the Painted Ladies for a nice little picnic spot.
The next time you’re in town, definitely go here for your Postcard Row photo-op then pick a spot at one of the benches or bring a picnic mat and unwind. The vibe here is really relaxing.
For dinner, we brought them to our favorite Paella spot, Beso. Everything about their Paellas are cooked to perfection, from the fresh ingredients to its scrumptious socarrat. Pulpo a la Gallega [seared octopus] and their house-made churros.
It was definitely a good choice to end the full day. A relaxing dinner with vino in hand for my father, and a couple orders of churros to share with my mother’s sweet tooth. I would totally *drink* their chocolate sauce but what’s good churros without it!
The entire long weekend almost felt like we traveled around the world with my parents, trying a variety of cuisines. The diversity in our food scene is one of the reasons why we ❤ SF.
By the way, it was intensely hot that entire weekend it felt like we were the ones who visited them in Chicago for the Summer! When people ask me when the best time to visit SF is, I always tell them if you’re aiming for a long holiday weekend, Labor Day is the best time. Basically, anytime during early Fall. It’s not chilly unlike most SF days, unless you don’t care for sweater weather or the dramatic scenes of foggy days then I’d say any day in any season is always a good time to visit.
Thank you for reading through and I hope I was able to provide you with ideas for your next visit to our beloved city!
💛 Erica
Labor Day 2017 – Parents visit
Day One
See: Mission Dolores Park between Castro and the Mission District.
Eat: Tartine Bakery at Mission District for snacks
Day Two
See: Twin Peaks and Marin Headlands Vista Point.
Side trip: Marina Green for Philz Coffee Truck.
Eat: LaLe at Inner Sunset neighborhood for Mediterranean Brunch and Mochica at Potrero Hill neighborhood for Peruvian Dinner.
Day Three
See: Proxy in Hayes Valley and 16th Ave. Tiled Steps at Inner Sunset.
Eat: Uma Casa at Noe Valley for Portuguese Lunch, sweets for my sweets at Smitten Ice Cream, and a relaxing dinner at home (hint: over-ordering at almost all the places we went to).
Day Four
See: Painted Ladies at Alamo Square.
Eat: Breakfast at Sightglass Coffee, picnic lunch at Alamo Square Park with food to go from the nearby 4505 Burgers and BBQ, and Spanish tapas for Dinner at Beso in The Castro.
emme hope 
