For my 21st birthday, my two closest friends and I traveled to San Francisco, California! This is going to be a three-day series, so stay tuned for Days 2 and 3, coming soon!
Our adventure began in Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, Ariz., where we drove to from Tucson the night before our flight. We began our travels on 5 hours of sleep (not a good start for me) and a three-ish hour flight into San Francisco Airport. When we arrived in San Francisco we hopped onto the metro to take us into downtown San Fran. Having lived in D.C. for a while now, I was the experienced member of the group on buying metro passes and navigating us through the metro station. It was the first time one of my friends had ever been on a metro so I was very happy to be there with her for that experience.
After about an hour on the metro, we jumped off and with all of our luggage in tow, began the hike uphill to our hotel. Theoretically it wasn’t that long of a walk (probably a mile or so), but with 50 pounds of luggage walking uphill, it was a struggle.
It was a lovely but hot day so when we finally arrived to our hotel, I was disgustingly sweaty and worn out. I promptly took a shower when we got to our rooms.
The day of our arrival to San Fran was my actual 21st birthday, but because of our travels I was completely exhausted, which was unfortunate considering that I should have been celebrating all day.
For lunch we stopped off at a little grill, where I got a delicious margarita pizza and my first *legal* drink: a light beer called “Goofy Boots!”
We walked around Union Square and weaved in and out of shops near our hotel. The Macy’s (seen in the picture below) was five floors worth of just clothing !! And it had the restaurant “Cheesecake Factory” and a cheese and wine tasting bar inside the Macy’s building! There was also very high-end shops like Tiffany’s, Versace, Vera Wang, and Jimmy Choo (among many other stores that I will probably never be able to afford in my lifetime) in the areas surrounding Union Square. Needless to say, I was gawking the entire time we were walking around.
We traveled down the hill from Union Square and found the historic and legendary San Francisco trolley! The line to ride the trolley was unfortunately extremely long so we decided to not ride it this time. I’m sure that it would’ve been a fun and exciting experience, but the line was so long that we decided to get food instead.
Tip: click on the images to enlarge them!
For dinner, we went to a fancy Italian restaurant, where I got a ravioli in a rose sauce and a California white wine. I had no desire to go out to a club or a bar to party afterwards, but nonetheless, I went to a bar out of tradition. I am, however, glad that I went! I got a delicious lemon drop martini, per my mother’s recommendation, and the bartender took a yummy watermelon shot with us girls for my birthday. I have no idea what was in it because he said that it was his specialty shot and kept its ingredients secret, but it was definitely the best shot I’ve ever had!
At this point I had been running on 5 hours of sleep for over 16 hours and could hardly keep my eyes open, so this is sadly the end of my 21st birthday. However, the next two days brought much more excitement.
Check back in soon for Day 2 of my San Francisco adventures!
______
Thank you for reading! Have you ever traveled to San Francisco, California? What did you do to celebrate your 21st birthday? Let me know in the comments below and like this post if you want more like it!
Xoxo’s
Emmalee
______
Follow me!
Emmalee Mauldin 