Archives for September 2012

J and I spent the last weekend in San Francisco. We had a couple of things to celebrate (things that are between me and him and that I don’t need to mention for the sake of this blog post, but I want you to know that they were things that mattered to us and our relationship a whole lot and that is why this weekend was extra-special) and decided a little getaway would be just the right thing to do.

We have a little routine when we go into San Francisco. We park our car (for free) over the weekend in the East Bay and then catch BART into the city, because a) we don’t necessarily need a car in SF and b) parking prices in the city are insane!

I had booked a hotel right off Market Street through priceline.com (their name-your-own-price® option has proven valuable time and time again and I have never been disappointed by their hotel choice), so we already started off with a 25% discount of the regular hotel room price at the Park 55 Wyndham hotel in Downtown San Francisco. When we arrived for checkin at 5:30 p.m. the friendly concierge, with the same name as my sweet husband, kindly informed us that he was able to upgrade us to the Club Level floors. I smiled, thanked him and we were on our way up to the 30th floor.

Little did I know that we were in for a real treat. Maybe you know what it means to be upgraded to Club Level, but I surely didn’t expect anything more than maybe a slightly more spacious room and a nicer view. Well, I wasn’t completely wrong. It WAS a more spacious room and it WAS a nicer view…. a 545 sq feet suite with floor-to-ceiling windows and an incredible view of the city skyline.I may or may not have squealed a bit and had a little trampolin-jumping-session on the nice king bed.

There was also a really nice bathroom, front room with couch and extra TV, a Nespresso coffee maker and bottled water.

Shortly after our arrival, the hotel staff brought by some freshly cleaned bathrobes. I mean, who am I to complain!

After marveling at the view for a while, we had to get changed as we had dinner reservations at Morton’s Steakhouse at Union Square, a short walk from the hotel. J’s Mom had gotten us a gift certificate for our anniversary (back in May!) which we were finally able to use and we had a fantastic dinner. I ordered a Filet Mignon with blue cheese butter (divine!) with potatoes au gratin and asparagus with balsamic glaze. For dessert, we shared a freshly baked upside down apple pie a la mode. (Taste buds explosion!) Unfortunately, lighting was really bad for any food photography, so I refrained, but you can trust me when I say, it looked just as delicious as it tasted.

We headed back to the hotel around 11 p.m. and just enjoyed our spacious sleeping quarters, the beautiful night skyline and the kick-ass flat screen TV.

The next day, I was up early and went for a nice morning walk around the neighborhoods (also stopping by some stores here and there) and got coffee before heading back to the hotel to pick up J. Around lunch time, we walked to North Beach, hoping to see if we can (after numerous failed attempts) get in line to have brunch at “Mama’s on Washington Square”. It’s a pretty popular place and there are always long lines and even though it was a 45-minute wait (in the beautiful sun, mind you) we got in this time!

We were super-lucky with the weather, because even though the forecast had said the temperatures were going to be in the mid-60’s, the sun was out and it was really warm. The fall is actually the best time to visit San Francisco – it’s much nicer weatherwise than in the summer! We soaked up some sun at the park and then headed half by bus and half on foot to Alamo Square. I hadn’t seen the Painted Ladies in a while and while I am aware that Alamo Square itself is a touristy spot, it’s worth stopping by for a little while, if only for the  marvelous view. Otherwise, we tried to to spend some time “off” the beaten path this time around.

Also, I would not mind living in one of those two beautiful homes. Just saying.

We had some yummy, but not worth further mentioning Chinese food for dinner later that evening and then called it an early night (going to the bars was not really on our agenda for this weekend. Not that I am that kind of person anyway. I’d much rather explore during the day!) I mean, this view from our bed pretty much made my night anyway.

Sunday morning we had a late check-out (love it!), we wandered around a bit more downtown and then caught BART back to the East Bay, where we had brunch at our favorite spot, the Rockridge Café. It’s pretty much a must when we visit the Bay Area. Their breakfast/brunch is really good and we even shared some pancakes (and now I, the person who hardly ever eats pancakes for breakfast, has a pancake craving!).

How was your weekend? Have you ever been upgraded at a hotel? I highly recommend it!

P.S. The icing on our weekend cake: we booked flights to Germany for Christmas for a really good price. Yeah. As I said: that weekend when we got REALLY lucky!