After Tahoe with Mike’s fambam, we came back to California to explore more fun things.
First up? Alcatraz!
I was born and raised in the Bay Area and surprisedly had yet to do a tour of the former federal prison. Mike on the other hand has been there at least 5 times with all of his visiting friends and family from Toronto. But he was a trooper and made the trip again so myself, his sister, and her husband could check it out.
After a short ferry ride, we were on the island and ready to start the self-guided tour. Being on Alcatraz was a tad creepy, really interesting, and …surreal. I kept thinking to myself how weird it was that I was standing where former convicted felons were. Overall it is worth it to do once (especially being a local!) but I wasn’t a big fan of the self-guided part and wished we had an actual tour guide to show us around.
(Of course the I mostly took pictures of the food related stuff there…)
After the tour, we met Mike’s parents and little Ella at Pier 39. As to be expected, it started cooling off significantly as the sun went down. We found a place called Fog City were we popped in for a quick happy hour before we continued up North to Santa Rosa for our final Airbnb stay of this vacation.
Once we arrived and unpacked, we headed to Belly for dinner. I ordered the truffle mac n cheese with spinach and sun-dried tomatoes. It was good but I was starving and the portion was small… oh, well! More room for wine. 😉
The next day was New Year’s Eve and we kicked it off with a late morning coffee at My Friend Joe and bagels at Sonoma Valley Bagel. The best Cafè au lait and bagel sammy I’ve had in a while!
We had a late lunch at Amy’s Drive Thru and everything was SO GOOD. I order a veggie burger wrapped in lettuce and the chili fries. Love Amy’s emphasis on organic, healthy food!
We kept it casual for NYE and stayed in with a variety of apps, drinks, and games. Cheers to 2017!
The next morning, we went for massages and have declared it a new family tradition! Such a good way to start the year.
After our massages we did a bit of shopping and then headed to The Russian River Brewing Company for lunch. We had this massive 16 beer taster before deciding on our beers and pizza. I ordered the Dribble Belt because it was deliciously hoppy but later found out that it was disappointedly only 4.5%. Weak. Although I was already a little tipsy from all of the samples so it was probably for the best.
That evening was an early night for us all (we might have still been recovering from NYE).
On Monday we woke up and packed up in preparation of heading back to San Jose. For breakfast we hit up Grateful Bagel where Mike and I spilt two bagel sandwiches and of course loaded up on coffee.
Full and caffeinated, we were ready to tackle the drive home. It was nice to be back home and start adjusting back to a schedule. Mike’s family stayed in town for the rest of the week and, although we both had to go back to work, we had the chance to take them to a few of our favorite local eateries in the evenings.
Now we are into the new year and trying to detox from all of the indulgences!
** Note this blog went through a rebrand and is now veg vibes; which aligns better with the direction I organically gravitated towards. It’s all about your vibe.**
VEG VIBES 