Chico to San Francisco

We had a 5 pm flight to catch from Sacramento to San Francisco, so we took our time checking out of our VRBO and went to Armin and Corinne’s place to drop off some things for storage before heading that way. On the way to the airport we decided to stop for some In n Out Burger (a California must) for lunch. As it turns out, we lost track of time and found ourselves planning what we would do if we missed our flight the rest of the way to the airport. Thankfully we made just in time after filling gas and dropping off the rental car before check in.

We arrived in San Francisco around 6:30, but after waiting for and catching the Bart (train) to get to downtown SF we found ourselves arriving at our hotel about a quarter after 8. We booked a place right outside of Chinatown with a great Chinese meal in mind. Though after we checked in and cleaned up a bit, we found ourselves heading out to town just past 9 and restaurants were starting to close down fast. I had a restaurant in mind that I wanted to check out, but by the time we got there their waiting list was closed so we settled for a random restaurant just down the road instead. It was difficult to order since our waitress spoke only in Cantonese and Eric’s secondary language is Mandarin, but we ordered 3 dishes- 1 of which wasn't on the menu (high five for Eric with his broken Mandarin/Cantonese success), stuffed ourselves, and were quickly rushed off since they too were closing.

Room with a nice view of the street/cafes

Hotel Astoria, a good value for a one night layover and a good location on the edge of Chinatown

Salt and pepper shrimp

Pan fried noodles with chicken and vegetables

Stuffed fried tofu. Stuffed with what? Pork fat? Your guess is as good as mine....

We had a 4 am wake-up call the next morning so we walked around town for about an hour after dinner and then called it a night since we didn't want to be up too late. While the night seemed to go by too quickly, we had some good food and got to experience SF one more time so the layover/hotel expense was worth it.

Li Bo. We had gone to this bar in 2010, the last time we were in SF. Since then, Anthony Bourdain made this place famous. They are most well known for their Chinese Mai Tai