San Francisco & Small Town America

I'm home from my holidays and finally getting back into the swing of things with the blog. My few weeks away were so jam packed that I'm going to do a blog series, or else this will turn into a novel!! So let me start with the first leg of my trip - San Francisco & Small Town America.

San Francisco is one of my ultimate favourite cities, and I couldn't not visit while I was on that side of the world. Unfortunately though, I really only had one full day there, but I definitely made the most of it!

 Myself and Dean started off by visiting the picturesque neighbourhood of Potrero Hill, where we had breakfast in the very popular Plow restaurant, and sampled some local coffee before heading to the busier district of Union Square.

Potrero Hill

Union Square is pretty much the Times Square of San Francisco, but less lights, more art! We had a ramble around the square in the absolutely scorching sun, visited The Cheesecake Factory, which offered amazing views of the city and then hopped on one of San Francisco's most famous attractions -a cable car. 

That brought us through the city and then down to the bay, where we wandered around Pier 39, while taking in the misty views of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate bridge, before heading to a local burger joint for a late night feed. 

After one amazing day in San Francisco, it was time to start the real holiday - a road trip up the Californian Coast to Oregon. A what a road trip that was!! The weather was amazing and the views were even better. Vineyards turned into towering Redwood forests and then in no time, we were driving right along the coast of the Pacific Ocean, stopping off here and there, to take in the beauty of California.

We stayed in four small town over four days, Ukiah, Eureka, Grants Pass and Eugene, and they were - well different than I expected. Yes, they were extremely cute (I'm talking fairy lights everywhere) but also very quiet!! Small town America is completely shut down by 10pm! Myself and Dean were always the last people at the bar!  

But in saying that - small town America was an experience, never to be forgotten! If we weren't driving through a tree, we were spotting the houses in them! And when the bars were still open we were making friends with the locals! There's also the huge amount of marijuana shops to giggle at, a serious amount of hipsters, hill billies and hippies, and lots of local wine and beer to taste (sure it would be rude not to).

And then there was food! So much....so fattening....but so delicious! Donuts for breakfast was a must, and the evenings always ended up with some not so healthy options for dinner! And I have never in my life tasted something as delicious as poutine - basically chips and gravy!

Poutine - bottom left

One of my favourite things to do on the road was to look at all the fascinating houses. They may have been few and far between, but they were a far cry from what you'd see in Ireland! The Pink Lady and The Carson Manson (below) are Eureka's main (possibly only) attraction, but were absolutely breathtaking!

Our small town road trip was only a fraction of the holiday! Our next stop was Portland, but that's a tale for another day....

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