California - San Jose, San Fran, San Diego
8 Days in California
From July 4 to July 11, 2021, we visited San Jose, San Francisco, and San Diego, California.
Sunday, July 4, 2021
Day 1: Today we flew direct from Maui to San Jose on Southwest. It was our first time flying on Southwest and because the world was still a little in COVID-19 state, the plane was very empty. We landed in San Jose at around 6:30pm. We rented a car thru an app called Turo and a place thru AirBnB. We picked up our car and checked into our place and met my brother for dinner. In the summer, the sun does not set until after 8pm. We hung out with my brother for a little while and headed back to our AirBnB to get some rest.
Monday, July 5, 2021
Day 2: Today for breakfast we headed to The Breakfast Club Midtown. I had some mac and cheese and Chad had some kind of Eggs Benedict with salmon. The food was really good. We didn’t want to eat too much because we had a food tour planned for lunch time. We headed to San Francisco at about 8:45am for our tour which started at 10:30am. Our North Beach/Little Italy Tour had so much food that we were so full by the end of it.
Cannoli from Caffee Greco
Focaccia Pizza from Golden Boy Pizza
Tomato Bruschetta from Acquolina
Margherita Pizza from Il Casaro Pizzeria
Cheeseburger and fries from Sam’s Pizza & Burgers
After our tour, we hung out in the city a little (walked around, went to Chinatown, visited the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory) and made early reservations at Sotto Mare, a popular seafood place suggested to us by my cousins. The food was delicious! After dinner, we made our journey back to San Jose and called it a day.
Tuesday, July 6, 2021
Day 3: Today we had another food tour in San Francisco, but this time it was at the Ferry Building and Farmer’s Market. We headed to San Fran at around 8:30am for our tour that started at 10:00am. Sometimes parking can be a little difficult to find in this area so I suggest giving yourself enough time to find parking and then walk to your tour in time. This tour also had a bunch of food to taste. Everything was so delicious!
On our Edible Excursions Tour, we tried:
Different types of raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries from the Farmer’s Market
Bread, jam, and cheese from The Acme Bread Company
Impossible Burger & Sweet Potato Fries from Gott’s Roadside
Macaroons from Miette Patisserie
Chocolate from Recchiutti
After the tour, we headed back to San Jose once again. We stopped at Chick-fil-A since I’d never been there before. I bought a bunch of food to try! After that, we rested a little before our dinner reservation at Sanraku Sushi at 6:30pm. This is one of my brother’s favorite places for sushi in San Jose. Everything was so delicious. After dinner, Chad wanted to go do something so we found a little arcade that you can drink at called LVL Up and they played some games there for a little while.
Wednesday, July 7, 2021
Day 4: Today I made reservations to visit the Winchester Mystery House. It’s not as creepy as you might think. It’s just a huge, old house that was under construction for 38 years with some quirky things here and there such as stairs and doors to nowhere. There are 160 rooms in the house but you don’t get to visit all of them. After visiting the house, we went to eat at Ramen Nagi, an extremely popular ramen shop that normally has a long wait line. When we got there, there were only a few people in front of us. We were lucky to get seated fast and be served equally as quick. Chad got the Red King, which was a little spicier than the normal, and I got the Black King, which was made with calamari ink. They were both so delicious. After lunch, we visited the Tesla store and Chad test drove a Tesla Model 3. Then we headed to Bass Pro Shops to have a quick look before our dinner reservations at the restaurant my brother works at called Be.Steak.A. at 7:30pm. Although I say a lot of the food we eat is really good, Be.Steak.A. is probably one of the best meals I’ve had, despite not feeling well. Everything was sooooo delicious. Chad said it best, it’s like Disneyland for adults in a meal. Every part of the meal is like another ride, another adventure. After dinner, despite being stuffed, we headed back to LVL Up to have a couple drinks and play more arcade games.
Thursday, July 8, 2021
Day 5: Today was our last day in San Jose/San Francisco. We turned in our Turo rental, checked out of our AirBnB, and we headed back into San Francisco with my brother to visit some attractions like Golden Gate Park, Lombard Loop, and Union Square. We attempted to see the Golden Gate Bridge but after waiting in traffic for a while and taking a wrong turn, we decided against it. We bought some food from The Cheesecake Factory before heading to the California Academy of Science NightLife. It was cool to be at a museum during the night time. The NightLife only happens Thursday’s during the week and is only available for adults 21+ since alcohol is sold. We had fun acting like kids and being in awe with everything we saw. After visiting the museum, we headed back to San Jose and my brother brought us to our bus stop to catch an overnight FlixBus from San Jose to San Diego. It was our first time riding on a bus like this and it was definitely an experience. First off, the bus driver was not the nicest person, but she was doing her job and was on a schedule. Secondly, we bought tickets for a specific seat but there were no assigned seats on the bus. We also paid for luggage to go under the bus but the bus driver didn’t even pay attention to how much luggage we had. It was the cheapest way to get from San Jose to San Diego and maybe I’d do it again. We’ll see.
Friday, July 9, 2021
Day 6: Today we arrived in San Diego with the FlixBus. There were number of other stops before arriving at our place. We could sleep a little on the bus but it wasn’t the most comfortable so when we arrived in San Diego, we were still tired. Our Turo car was waiting for us at our stop and we drove to my uncle’s house which became our home base for a couple days. We dropped off our luggage at his place and met him for lunch at Tajima for some Japanese cuisine. _________We met up with my best friend and her family for dinner at Rei Do Gado for their buffet. It was her son’s birthday and we sang Happy Birthday to him. It was really busy in town that night and so many people walking around due to the Padre’s baseball game going on at their home stadium nearby.
Saturday, July 10, 2021
Day 7: Today was a long day! We headed to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. It was so hot and they served alcohol, making us a little more dehydrated than we needed to be. We spend the day with my friend and her family once again. Her son just turned 6 and was having so much fun at the zoo. After being at the zoo for almost 7 hours, we stopped off at Pho Ca Dao & Grill for some pho and banh mi before heading back to our home base.
Sunday, July 11, 2021
Day 8: Today was the last day of our trip. We headed to Coronado Island and explored for a little while before meeting up with my best friend and her family for some lunch. After lunch, we headed back to home base, said bye to my uncle, and headed to the airport to drop off our Turo rental. We flew on United back home. It was a nice and adventure packed time we had visiting San Jose, San Francisco, and San Diego. It was nice to start traveling again, even if it was just to another state.