Surfers, Blue Bottle Coffee and Pacific Ocean Views

My friend Jenna lucked out during her week long trip to California. I had a completely blocked itinerary for her as soon as she arrived at the San Jose airport. I’m not saying it was so cholker-blocked that she couldn’t relax, it was the epitome of relaxation if I do say so myself. Hotel stays, wine tours and spa treatments — I’m tellin’ ya, not everyone is going to get that type of treatment. I’ve known Jenna since we were three years old, and it’s been close to 4 years since we’ve seen each other in person. It was long overdue for a girls trip, so I invited her down to Sunny California. Except, it happened to be really chilly and only kinda sunny the entire time she was here. Whoops. Can’t change Mother Nature.

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HanaHaus-Blue-BottleAfter our overnight trip to San Francisco came to an end, we woke up at a reasonable hour, packed up our belongings and started the drive down to Carmel. To break up our 2 hour commute I swung by the city of Palo Alto and stopped at the new Hana Haus Blue Bottle coffee shop. More on that place later, but it’s a beautiful spot to relax and/or work if you so choose. I had to show her all the cool spots, you know.

Lunch-at-BumbleThen we stopped for lunch  at one of favourite brunch spots in Los Altos: Bumble (see what I did my first visit to Bumble)! We had a nice little lunch on their adult patio away from any children, and had a grand ol’ chat, catching up. After we were done there, we took our time driving down the scenic Highway 1 to Carmel.

I always love to stay at the warm and welcoming Hofsas House when visiting Carmel. I surprised my husband for his birthday last year for a trip down to Carmel as a late honeymoon gift for the both of us, so I knew Hofsas House was the place to go once again. I love going there!

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Hofsas-House-2-double-bedsOur room was so spacious, quite large really! Such an airy, and sweet feeling room. Perfect for our little getaway for just the two of us.

Red-wine-and-chocolatesTalk about being spoiled. A bottle of red plus some chocolates and wine walk tour tickets were waiting for us in the room as we arrived. We definitely hit up the Wine Walk tour right away but not before showing Jenna the little town of Carmel and taking her to the serene Carmel beach, hoowee!

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Carmel-BeachThe sand here is the softest I have ever felt underneath my feet. Surfers galore. Dogs frolicking on the beach and couples holding hands. My heart was swooing! Can you now see why I love this place so much that I need to take every visitor here?

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After a quick visit to the beach, since it was windy and chilly, we walked around the downtown core, and did the self-guided Wine Walk Tour and sampled wines at three different wine tasting rooms before heading off to supper.

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Wine-in-a-TubThis one being my favourite. Because, how fun is it to pretend you’re taking a bath drinking wine? It’d be better if the tub was filled up and in my own bathroom. Hehe! Cheers to that!

Hofsas-House-roomAfter our wine tastings were over with, we walked back to our room at Hofsas House, grabbed some warmer clothes and got ready for supper.

Prius-in-Pacific-GroveWe headed out for a quick 15 minute drive up north to Lovers Point in Pacific Grove to have a meal at The Beach House in our trusty 2015 Prius Five that took us everywhere on our week long excursion. I never thought about buying a red car, and not for any real reason to be honest. But doesn’t this red just pop out at you?

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View-from-The-Beach-HouseI don’t know what place is prettier, Pacific Grove or Carmel. Both places are absolutely breathtaking. This was our balcony-type view from The Beach House, in Pacific Grove. I mean. Come on! Watching the sunset while eating supper with this view… unreal, and nothing like I’ve ever experienced in my life. We couldn’t stop raving about it.

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Beach-House-ice-cream-cakeOur meals at The Beach House hit the spot, but the winners of the entire meal was most definitely the home made ice cream cakes. I’m still thinking of how good they both were.

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Sunset-in-Pacific-GroveAfter we finished our delicious meals, we drove around Pacific Grove for a little bit just as the sun was setting. Perfect timing for that golden hour photo op, am I right? I think I have a thing for taking photos of trees. Especially the ones around this area, they’re really cool looking.

Once we were back in our room at Hofsas House, we lit a fire and hung out for the rest of the evening, watching a bit of TV before falling asleep. The next morning, we woke up super early because I wanted to take Jenna back to Carmel Beach for some more photos then off to Point Lobos (you can see more photos here from when my Husband and I went). I’ll let the photos do the talking for themselves…Carmel-Beach-CA

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Pt-Lobos-NancySecluded beaches = everything dreams are made of.

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Pt-Lobos-JNHooray for my camera balancing on the edge of a fence, and me racing down to beat the self-timer count down. Oof!

Standing-on-Prius-FiveThat next day when we went to Point Lobos, we were heading back to San Jose — but not before doing a bit of outlet shopping in Gilroy. Such a fun way to end this leg of the trip! Stay tuned for the San Jose staycation in Santana Row which will be up next week sometime.

Hofsas House
San Carlos St, Carmel, CA 93921
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The Beach House at Lovers Point
620 Ocean View Boulevard, Pacific Grove, CA 93950
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Disclaimer: Thank you to Hofsas House in Carmel, and The Beach House in Pacific Grove for hosting our stay and feeding us yummy supper!

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Fog Harbor, San Francisco, the Prius & Four Seasons

Nancy-Jenna-Baker-BeachTo start off our girls week long trip with my friend visiting from Canada a few weeks ago, I took her out to San Francisco on one of her first days in California. Our first stop was to Baker Beach, making sure we went earlier in the morning. Tidbit for newcomers to this beach.

Baker-Beach-and-PriusArrive early in the morning or when it’s cold out. Baker Beach is a nude beach is primarily full of older grey-haired men who love to photo-bomb pictures, but lucky for us it was both early enough in the morning and a windy chilly day — therefore no sign of nudity. Ha!

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Jenna-on-Baker-BeachJenna is more civilized than I am ;)

Nancy-in-PriusMy car is currently on the fritz lately so I received a 2015 Prius Five to test out and review for a whole week and I made sure it lined up with my friends visit. Isn’t that insane? To be given a car to review. Now that’s what I’m talking about. So glad we had the Prius, not only did it save us tons in gas, it had built in navigation and was a breeze to drive. Once we had a glance at the Golden Gate bridge from the beach, we took our photos and scurried off back into the car. I’m tellin’ ya, being on that beach in California, was like being on a Newfoundland beach during a chilly autumn day. We were froze!

Pier-39-SFAt this point it was creeping up on lunch time and we decided to venture off into the right direction and grab some lunch at the Fog Harbor Fish House on Pier 39 with views of the San Francisco Bay.

Fog-Harbor-Fish-House-Pier3Although I’m from Newfoundland – I’ve never been to a seafood restaurant before.

Fog-Harbor-Fish-HouseSo taking that into consideration I had a glance at the lunch menu and made sure to order things that weren’t chicken. Tough for an ol’ routine gal like myself, but I did it.

Fog-Harbor-entranceFog Harbor Fish House pride themselves in offering the freshest sustainable seafood in San Francisco.

Fog-Harbor-menuThey have a few menu specialities:

• 100% Sustainable Seafood
• Live Lobster
• Cioppino
• Crab
• Steaks
• Daily Fresh Fish Specials
• In-House Baked Bread Made Fresh Daily

 

Sitting-at-Fog-HarborIt’s located on the second level of PIER 39, and every table offers spectacular San Francisco Bay views looking out over Alcatraz, the PIER 39 Sea Lions and the Golden Gate Bridge.

Fog-Harbor-startersWe were pretty hungry by the time we got there considering we skipped breakfast. So we ordered some app’s to start. Crispy lemon calamari for Jenna, crispy bay scallops for me. IJenna really enjoyed her calamari and I tried a bit of it too. But I’m not the hugest fan even though Jenna mentioned it was done perfectly (ie: not rubbery) but I still couldn’t get past the texture, and seeing the dangly legs. Guess I’m not cut out for that kinda stuff. Visuals like that kinda give me the creeps.

Fog-Harbor-lunchLunch was absolutely delicious. I hadn’t tried swordfish before, and I was questioning my friend who seems to be the connoisseur of many foods — she mentioned the fish tastes like a moist pork chop. That’s all I needed to hear. The swordfish had a mild flavour to it, so I’m pretty sure many people would enjoy eating it. We didn’t have room for dessert after the pile of food and virgin drinks I had — I was driving.

So our next destination was finding our hotel for the evening.Four-Seasons-Rooftop

Nancys-suitcaseFour Seasons San Francisco was a feat in itself to find. Although it’s in a great location, I had both the car GPS and my BlackBerry GPS going at the same time trying to find it. Considering San Francisco is known for its one-way streets and no left turns basically anywhere in the downtown vicinity, it was difficult to find the hotel. We drove past it twice not noticing it at all as it looked like an office building. Third time was a charm, and no 3 strikes you’re out over here, we found it, and parked the vehicle for the night.

As we were checking into the elegant Four Seasons, a couple of gift bags were waiting for us at the front desk, with a few San Francisco souvenirs and a gift card to the Westfield San Francisco Centre! Definitely hit up that massive mall and checked out the super-cool circular escalators while doing a bit of shopping. Nordstrom-SFI picked up a new concealer from Bloomingdales with my gift card :) I’m so thankful I googled the heck out of the area we were staying in and as luck would have it, the shopping centre was a simple 5 minute walk down the same street as our hotel was on. No one got lost! Whewf. Hey, it’s a huge feat when you’re in a new-to-you city, am I right?

Four-Seasons-trioOur room was really beautiful, and spacious. What caught me off guard in the best way possible, was the snacks, champagne bubbly champagne and this huge framed poster of “spiffykerms” hanging out at the Golden Gate. A wonderful personal touch that I wasn’t expecting — but it brought out the giggles in us!

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Cheers

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Jenna-with-ChampagneWe popped the bubbly, ate our snacks and enjoyed cable TV for the night.

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Four-Seasons-barA short while later, we heard a knock at the door. It was housekeeping checking in on me for turn-down service. Having had this never happen to me while staying at a hotel before, I assumed it wasn’t complimentary. I was wrong! The woman was so friendly and incredibly sweet to me being a bit naive, but we received some bottle water and extra shampoo — because hello they use L’Occitane products at Four Seasons Hotel, I definitely need extra.

Four-Seasons-twin-bedThe next morning we both had our showers for the day and oh my gosh you guys, the shower head in our hotel room was unreal. Perfect amount of water pressure, but the shower head was huge and felt like rain coming down, cleansing me. Now tell me that wasn’t relaxing! I was in heaven.

This was probably the funniest part of our stay at the Four Seasons. I brought down the framed photo of spiffykerms to the front desk, asking if I was supposed to keep it or hand it back. The man at the front desk greeted us professionally and quietly asked me “Was it on the wall?“.

Oh my gosh … no! It was waiting for me in the room on the desk. Thinking back to what he said, I laughed really hard and said I would never take art from the wall and ask if I could keep it. Which in turn loosened him up and we were all in tears laughing as we were checking out of the hotel for the day. He told me he’d be impressed if I took down the art from the wall behind him which was twice the height and width of me. Muscles. Thankfully, it wasn’t as awkward as I thought it was going to be, and I got to keep the personalized frame photo.

Jenna-and-I-Four-SeasonsOnce we checked out of the hotel, we headed down to one of my favourite places for lunch, and took the coastal highway down to Carmel. That will be another blog post, so stay tuned for that!

Fog Harbor Fish House
Pier 39, San Francisco
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Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco
757 Market Street, San Francisco
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Westfield San Francisco Centre
865 Market St, San Francisco
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Baker Beach
1504 Pershing Drive, San Francisco
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Disclaimer: A big thanks to Pier 39 for providing us lunch at Fog Harbor Fish House, Westfield San Francisco Centre for the goody bags and to Four Seasons for hosting our stay. 

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Minato Japanese Restaurant

Minato-Japanese-CuisineI’ve never been to a Japanese Restaurant, so I thought it was worth a try, given the fact San Jose’s Japantown is 1 of 3 remaining historical Japantown’s in the USA. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I had a peek at the menu beforehand so I knew a little bit about what to order.

Minato-hoursAs someone who hasn’t tried sushi (I’m so not ready for it yet, even after trying Ahi Tuna Poke in December), of course I’d be the person to order the few chicken dishes on a Japanese menu. Aren’t Eastern Canadians supposed to love fish? Probably. But, I’m not an adventurous eater like some.

minato-miso-soupI ended up staying in my comfort zone and getting a tasting of chicken teriyaki and salad. First came out our miso soup, where I dug out the yummy tofu with chopsticks. Because, yolo. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to drink the miso soup, but I took it up with my hands and drank most of it before our lunch arrived.

Minato is on the smaller side of restaurants, and the menu is nice and short. I admire that, because whenever I go to larger chains I feel like I have to flick through so many pages to decide on what I want to eat.

Minato-lunchThe Guy and I ordered the same thing :) I wasn’t a huge fan of the salad, not much on it to be honest! The dressing was awesome, though I have no idea what they used.

Minato-mainThis is what you see when you walk in the first set of doors before you enter the restaurant. 

MinatoTowards the middle of the restaurant when you walk in, there is an area for kids prizes after they’ve finished their meal. I’m not too sure how the kids get tickets, perhaps after so many visits they can save up and pick out a prize for themselves. This sort of thing reminds me of my childhood, where we used to pick out prizes at a fair, or at a school event. Super fun, and I’m glad Minato is doing it too. After our bellies were filled with lunch, we ended up checking into our hotel at The Fairmont San Jose. Now that is one beautiful hotel, I’ll have a review of our ginantor suite we stayed in (bigger than our old apartment), later on!

If you’re craving a bit of Japanese food when you visit San Jose, come check out Minato, it’s only a 1.5 mile walk from the downtown core in San Jose. Plus, it has a ton of rave reviews on Yelp, so many people have been enjoying it!

Have you ever been to a Japanese Restaurant? What would you normally order?

Are you a fan of sushi?

Minato Japanese Restaurant
617 North 6th Street
San Jose, CA 95112
(408) 998-9711

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