Fall trips down by the Bay
On Labour Day weekend 2025, Andrew and I moved in together in SF! I spent two weeks packing up the Willoughby with help from my parents (so appreciated) and flew to our new home on Berry St in Mission Bay. Andrew graciously set up everything upon his arrival in July, so I was able to unpack and settle in within a day. Efficiency! Alongside trips to Daly City (my first day trip spot — Target, In-n-Out, and Jagalchi 😍), we even managed to squeeze in a hike in San Bruno.
Tahoe
Just one week after moving to the bay, Andrew and I were off on a Tahoe weekend trip with Michael, Michelle, Insoo, Lisa, George, Raghav, Cece, Sven, Grace, Dean, Megan, and others. To be honest, I think a regular weekend is too short for a Tahoe trip from SF. Realistically, we did so much driving (4-5h each way) just to have one day for activities. The group apparently ended up being much tamer than the year prior (i.e., playing video games every evening and not drinking much). On Saturday, we got brunch (mid spot) and visited a couple beaches (+ Safeway for snacks). I would recommend Kings Beach (which was nice and sandy!) over Carnelian West Beach (very pebbly and small). The weather was warm enough to frolic in the water! That evening, we had a lovely at-home dinner of bbq, salad, and rotisserie chicken. Cheesy sausages in the US pale in comparison to the ones we have in Canada (perhaps it was just the wrong brand?). The next morning, we also squeezed in a leisurely hike at the Stateline View Lookout Trail. I would recommend grabbing a quick bite at Waterman's landing — the acai bowl was good!
Dates: Sep 5-7, 2025
Tomales Bay
Andrew and I visited Tomales Bay for our first "beeb weekend" of the fall, where we ambitiously set out to explore the west coast more together. Upon reflection, I think Tomales Bay could be done well as a single overnight—we ran out of things to do pretty quickly. However, it was still worth coming on Friday night for bioluminescent kayaking!! The area is a dark sky zone, which enabled us to see bioluminescence swish in the water. It was definitely pricey, but a unique bucket list item worth experiencing at least once. There were pockets where the water became SO blue beneath our oars, and it felt like we were water benders.
We enjoyed two hikes on this trip (both which I'd recommend): the Tomales Point trail (~10 leisurely miles, where you can see elk chilling!) and the combo of the Cypress Tunnel (kinda desolate) + Point Reyes lighthouse (we saw a whale breech!) + Chimney Rock hike.
One of my highlights of the trip was our early-morning visit to the Saturday farmer's market. There was a farm stand with pink raspberries, which were a revelation. They were sooo sweet and yummy, reminiscent of the backyard raspberries I devoured growing up. For food, I liked the Marshall Store best for unique oyster dressings and good clam chowder. Nick's Cove was also good, although we just ate fish and chips given a late lunch and slightly ruined appetite from a Palace market peanut butter and berry smoothie (would just go for the buffalo milk soft serve, which they are much more famous for). The Boat Oyster House at Hog Island Oyster Farm was good, although you can get the sweetwater oysters elsewhere (somewhere with fewer bees, perhaps?). Since they don't have much of a kitchen, the food there was a lot more like "girl dinner."
One quirk of Tomales Bay is that the food spots are all a 30-minute+ drive away from the nature spots — on one hand, a bridge would be nice. On the other, I get the value of not disrupting nature. Rather than wandering around the tiny town, I'd recommend visiting Bodega Bay after eating at the Marshall Store. We didn't make it up there due to an 18-wheeler that supposedly tipped over on the road. Scary stuff. Overall, would definitely recommend visiting here!!
Dates: Sep 26-28, 2025
Carmel-by-the-sea
I've been to Carmel before (s/o 2019 trip with Steph and Cora and 2005 trip with the fam), but still had a ball of a time on a day trip with Andrew on October 18, 2025. It was nice to have a day just for us, especially since the weekend prior was Fleet Week (which we had packed with a ton of friend-focused activities). I definitely think you COULD spend more time in Carmel and Big Sur, but the airbnb and hotel costs were prohibitively expensive in the area (especially given we could just... drive back home). For reasons unknown, we decided to take an inland driving route instead of highway 1 down the coast. Still, we got the nice ocean views on the 17-mile drive around Pebble Beach.
I was surprised to feel the deja vu from my family trip 20 years prior: yes, kids do remember things like posing with a lone cypress tree (which rivals #ThatWanakaTree for sure) and eating at Pebble Beach. Although this time, we went for The Bench instead of Roy's. The food at Pebble Beach is SO GOOD??!?! Although please just call a pizza a pizza instead of a flatbread (would defs recommend the smoked salmon one). While The Bench is known for a strawberry crumble dessert, it was a bit too sweet for my liking. Roy's wins with the best and most memorable chocolate lava cake of my life (no, I won't have it again in case it pales in comparison to my memory). That afternoon, we wandered around the shops in Carmel (most of which were craaazy expensive) and got dinner at Casanova (which had the best gnocchi of my life... I finally get the hype! And it was SPINACH gnocchi too!) + "second dinner" at In-n-out. I wish we had time for the Monterey aquarium too, but we would've just been too rushed. At any rate, kudos to Andrew for planning such a lovely day together (and doing all that driving)!
Date: October 18, 2025
Sonoma & Sausalito
For our November beeb weekend, we did a double-header of Sonoma and Sausalito. The SF weather really held up this November, and we had two gloriously sunny days. The charming small towns around SF are starting to feel a little similar, as is the scope of activities available.
In Sonoma, we started the day by doing a leisurely stroll through the Sonoma Overlook trail (it was really chill). I loved the cute benches at the top, looking out at the town below. We eerily walked through a cemetery to get back to the parking lot though. From there, we visited Figione's olive oil store (with FREE SAMPLES!! I definitely recommend) and ate at Valley for lunch. Valley was really fresh. I was a bit pouty though because I wanted to eat the tomato tartine, but they weren't able to accommodate any substitutions for my trout allergy. We always want what we can't have...
After lunch, we rushed to Buena Vista winery for a barrel tasting and winery tour! It's rated the #4 wine tour in the US by USA Today readers. I've never seen barrels of wine (getting naked?) up close before, so that was interesting. We also went to a cool lounge area with pelts and scents, plus a cavernous upstairs room with a bunch of animatronic wine-making machinery. Definitely felt like some investor TLC was brought to this place. The hedge maze was a random but pleasant enough touch, which is also what I'd say about the random statues of "wine titans" (which included the likes of... Charles Darwin?!) on the path between the parking lot and the winery itself. My main takeaway from the tour: Chinese railroad immigrants were the MVPs. They even carved out the wine caves by hand with pick-axes!!
After the tour, we strolled around Sonoma town a bit. The town was charming and felt very liveable. We saw kids running all around the park, with multiple lavish birthday parties held. We also grabbed ice cream and visited the flagship Williams-Sonoma store (mind-blowing to discover it was founded in Sonoma!! Still too pricey though...). Andrew ended up buying two jean-ish jackets at a spot called Trove. From there, we proceeded to soak up festive vibes at the "Lighting of the Square" holiday event. How lucky for us to visit on such a fun day! The town was buzzing. We got free hot apple cider. Adorable schoolchildren belted out "Feliz Navidad." The food trucks looked fantastic — so much so that we were tempted to skip out on our reservation at Glen Ellen Star if not for a $50pp no-show fee. Dinner ended up being cute and cozy, but we probably could've cobbled together a similar meal for less among the food trucks. Overall, a sweet day in a gorgeous, liveable town (also liveable because we took a peek at the real estate listings, and they actually seemed doable).
The day after Sonoma, we took a last-minute jaunt to Sausalito! I love the boardwalk area, mainly because I love being able to hear waves lap against the shore. It was also another gorgeous day, so we saw wide expanses of blue from both the sky and the sea. In Sausalito, we grabbed lunch at Napa Valley Burger Company right when it opened. The James Beard burger really lives up to the hype, and the fries were good too. A mere hour or two later, the place was popping off with people spilling out the door. Go early!! Other highlights included raspberry and matcha ice cream from Sausalito Sweets (better than the ice cream options in Sonoma for sure) and meeting the charming proprietor of Pegasus Leather, who convinced Andrew to get two new Remy leather jackets for $225 each. All of Andrew's outerwear purchases gave me FOMO, so I ended up running to Fillmore Street in SF that evening to grab a cute little jean jacket I had been eyeing from a store called Ruti. Black Friday deals had begun!
Dates: November 22-23, 2025