San Francisco, CA

This morning, we got up at around 8:30 a.m. We showered quickly and went downstairs to use the rest of our comps from our rewards cards. After searching around, we finally decided to use our comps at the Starbucks in the hotel. Zac got a cherry cheese danish with a caramel macchiato and I got a blueberry muffin with a decaf mocha coconut frappuccino. Yum!

We went back upstairs, got our things, and checked out at the front desk. Goodbye, Reno! We headed out on I-80W towards San Francisco, CA.

The drive took us through a winding stretch of Tahoe National Forest. Beautiful!

After a good four-and-a-half hours, we finally reached our destination of San Francisco. Man, was it cold, rainy, and foggy! Not what we expected during this time of year in California. Traffic was very heavy with drivers who were very aggressive and unforgiving. Whew! Glad I wasn't driving.

We reached our hotel in downtown San Francisco at around 5:00 p.m. We checked in and took our things to our room. Every room in the hotel had a name dedicated to famous celebrity personalities. Ours was very unique; it was named after Hunter S. Thompson.

We went exploring for food after dropping off our things. Yes - FOOD - again. Just a note to future travelers to San Francisco: Be prepared to pay for self parking or valet parking along with your already-paid hotel room. Our fee for self parking (which was unavoidable) was $20.00 plus tax each day. Pricey, but what isn't in this city? After walking a few blocks, we stopped and pulled out our map to find the way to China Town. We must have looked like tourists with our map because a man walked up to us and asked us where we were planning to go. He pointed us in the right direction and we proceeded to walk towards the land of authentic goodness!

While we were walking through a tunnel, we witnessed a female motorcyclist slide right off of her bike and slam against the pavement. A car right behind her stopped immediately and the male passenger jumped out and went to help pick up her oversized motorcycle. Concerned, we stopped to make sure she was okay. Zac looked around the tunnel to make sure no cars were speeding through and went to her aid as well. She was lucky and so were we. If her bike had come straight through the walkway, we would have been hit! Whew, what a way to be welcomed to the area!

After the scary incident, we walked around China Town and asked the locals the best place to eat. They all recommended the R&G Lounge. We finally made it to the R&G after several wrong turns. We sat down and were provided with hot tea. We ordered the hot and sour soup, the salmon and avocado eggrolls, the R&G Beef Special, and the Triple Delight with Chinese black bean sauce. The Triple Delight had eggplant, roasted red and green peppers stuffed with crab, and giant pieces of fried tofu cubes. Holy cow! We ate every last bit of everything. No leftovers tonight!

We left the R&G very full and extremely satisfied. On our way back to the hotel, we walked around and came upon the biggest Banana Republic in the country! It had several different levels. I could have stayed in there all day if I wanted. I got one little item and we walked leisurely back to our hotel.

The rest of the night was spent in front of the tube in our room. Tomorrow, we explore the city in depth, including the famous Golden Gate Bridge!