San Francisco and Honolulu

After we left Vail, we flew to San Francisco. We had decided to make San Francisco our jumping off point because we wanted to visit our friends, the Vanlannens before leaving the country. This also allowed us to have a flexible departure date to book the cheapest international flight to New Zealand.

It was relatively a low cost add on because we spent 4 nights in San Jose and because they are a young family, we did a lot of activities at home with their two year old!

We drove to the redwoods and to Santa Cruz on Valentine’s Day, which was free except parking, and since we were borrowing a car (hybrid to be exact) it was a pretty inexpensive day out!

We stopped at a street market in Campbell for a quick bite and found something neither of us had seen before, an Indian Burrito – chicken masala wrapped in naan.

On the 15th we drove into San Fransico to visit my friend Emily and her new husband. The drive to SF was stunning, especially through Palo Alto. Emily and Oren toured us all around the city and here are some spots we hit.

The Full House “House”

Fishermans Wharf and the resident Sea Lions. I had a Biscoff Cookie flavored iced coffee and it was incredible

We ate lunch at In and Out Burger…Cheeseburger and fries, animal style

The Golden Gate Bridge

It took us about 4 hours,  so the rest of the afternoon was spent resting our feet at their apartment, drinking wine, and watching the sunset from their floor to ceiling windows. Their view overlooks the city and the Bay Bridge so it was a treat!

On our flight to Auckland we had a layover in Honolulu so we could spend the day visiting our friend Amy. She was nice enough to pick us up from the airport and show us around for just a few hours before we returned. She greeted us with traditional Hawaiian leis. We only had the chance to walk through Waikiki and have lunch at a place called Uncle Bo’s. The lunch spot seemed to be a local spot that had a wide selection. We got dropped back off at the airport and set off to our first international stop.