I have a serious case of the Monday Blues today because our weekend was so fun with some of my favorite company.

We kicked things off on Thursday when Melissa, a good friend of ours from Toronto, flew in to visit. Mike and I headed up to San Francisco after work to meet her at the hotel we were staying at. We got a room for 2 nights at Hotel Whitcomb on Market street (more on that disaster later…), which was a short walk from Hayes Valley.

Hayes Valley is a super cute area in SF with a lot of unique stores and delicious looking restaurants. We went straight to Little Gem where they focus on fresh and seasonal ingredients. It’s an open space that still manages to feel cozy with candles, succulents, and dim lighting.

We started with glasses of wine, sparkling, and beer plus an order of their hummus with NON bread. I could’ve just ate this all night. It was so good. For my main though, I ordered the Hen of the Woods Mushrooms on Beans & Rice bowl (talk about a wordy title!) with the mushrooms on the side (because I am picky about my mushrooms – it’s a texture thing). The rice and beans were good but filing. I ended up only eating about half and taking the rest to-go.

After dinner we walked back to our hotel, which looked a horror/ghost movie was filmed in. We spilt a bottle of wine, caught up, listened to music, and went to bed… blissfully unaware of what else was lurking in the room with us.

On Friday morning I walked to the work, opting to work in from the SF office that day. I wouldn’t want to live in the city but it was a nice change of pace to be there for a few days. There’s an energy you can’t deny in San Francisco.

While eating breakfast I got a call from Mike and I thought, weird, he almost never calls me. Maybe he just wants to make sure I made it to the office alright?

I answered the phone and he told me the disgusting news that him and Melissa had found a bedbug in our hotel room. I immediately felt itchy. Melissa had woken up with bites (not fun!) and was suspect of bedbugs. Luckily, they found a live one to show to the hotel staff. It was gross but without the little crawler as proof, we probably wouldn’t have gotten a refund.

Melissa and Mike had to spend the next few hours checking us into a new hotel (the Hyatt!) and being sure Hotel Whitcomb refunded our money, cleaned our clothes, luggage, etc. Total bummer for the start of a vacation (!) but they eventually got out and enjoyed the city. I requested pictures of their adventures and got these ones of the Painted Ladies and the Full House house.

After work I walked to the Hyatt to meet them at our new hotel. Man, I love the Hyatt. It was unfortunate that we had to deal with bedbugs but the sliver lining was staying in the Hyatt. It’s such a luxurious hotel.

Melissa has been out to California to visit us 3 times and each trip we get a bottle of champs to drink in Union Square. Keeping up with tradition, we walked to Union Square for some bubbles next. Kicking off Friday right!

Dinner was next at Jasper’s Corner Tap and Kitchen. We ordered drinks and the Oh Canada! poutine (fitting), pomegranate organic chicken breast with kale and quinoa, and the mac n’ cheese. The drinks were strong and the food was drool-worthy! We even ordered a second mac n ‘ cheese for dessert. 😉

On Saturday we trekked across the Bay to Berkeley. We went to Marker’s Common for lunch (more mac n’ cheese and avo toast) and popped into a few stores in downtown. It was really hot and I just wasn’t all too impressed with downtown Berkeley so we didn’t spend too much time there. Next time I’ll have to do more research on local spots before.

The heat was worse in the south bay but we popped into Whole Foods for adult essentials: crackers, cheese, berries, and wine before going back to our house. We promptly threw our clothes in the washer – despite the hotel cleaning them – to double protect against the Whitcomb bedbugs. Then we chilled out for a few hours before a BBQ at our house.

Because of the fight on Saturday, dinner reservations for our friend Shelby’s birthday were impossible. Instead we offered to host a BBQ at our house because we have a big outdoor space. We host Canadian Thanksgiving here every year (read about 2015 and 2016) and it’s the perfect spot with multiple BBQs, picnic tables, shade, and outlets to play music.

Everyone left after 10pm and Mike, Melissa, and I went back to our house where Melissa and I stayed up until 5am. The last time I pulled an all nighter was in high school! I’m usually a stickler for getting good sleep every night but was happy to make an exception.

On Sunday we woke up at 11am, showered and went to Los Gatos for coffee and lunch. It was another hot day and we were running on little sleep so things were slow moving. Around 4pm we dropped Melissa off at the airport and I had to fight back tears. It was so good to have her in town for the weekend. We’re already texting each other talking about separation anxiety… 

The countdown is on for when we’ll see her again in December when we go to Toronto for Christmas.