Guest Post by Jacqueline Lee
Last fall I had the pleasure to visit the California Bay Area for a long weekend with friends. My trip began with a five-hour plane ride from Toronto to LAX. In hindsight, I was very happy I shelled out for the upgrade and legroom! Next was a short flight from LAX to San Jose, my homebase for the trip.
My first night we ate at a lovely Italian-American style restaurant Original Joe’s. There were plenty of options but Original Joe’s has been around for over 60 years due to their good food, good vibes, atmosphere and service.
With so many options to chose from, it was hard to decide. Everyone talks about Original Joe’s burgers, but I went for the meat ravioli, it was amazing! I especially loved it because the tomato sauce contained mushrooms.
Following dinner we checked out Christmas in the Park!
This was the first time I experienced Christmas in a warm climate. While it was odd to see countless Christmas trees and no snow – I loved it! Plus, it was awesome to walk around looking at Christmas decorations wearing a jean jacket in balmy 15 degrees Celsius.
Next stop San Francisco!
The following day we drove to the closest town with a BART subway station stop and took the train to San Francisco. It was surprisingly easy to use the subway station and I was surprised how easy to navigate it was.
This was my first time in San Francisco but it won’t be my last. We got off the subway in downtown San Francisco and wandered around a bit. I was happy just be there!
The first thing that I noticed was the architecture. It was amazing! I admit I know nothing about architecture, but I couldn’t help admiring how beautiful everything was.
Being in downtown San Francisco we had to take a ride on the famous cable car down to the San Francisco waterfront, lots of ups and downs! I suspect that the cable car is for tourists as it is $7 a ride, which isn’t practical for locals to use it to get around the city every day.
The ride was definitely worth the money. All the ups and downs and sights along the way. It was the perfect way to get down to Fisherman’s Wharf.
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No matter where you go in downtown San Francisco every tourist wants to sneak a peak at the Golden Gate Bridge. I was one of those tourists and so excited to cast my eyes on the Golden Gate Bridge – there was concern due to the recent California wildfires it might not be possible but it was a lovely sunny day about 17 degrees and the view was wonderful!Without out a doubt it was a fantastic trip!
We grabbed lunch at Boudin’s on the waterfront. My friend claimed they have the BEST Sourdough bread – so of course I had to have a bread bowl! Lunch was great and it has the added bonus of discovering a bit of history on the way the washroom – lots to see!
After lunch we wandered a little more – saw Alcatraz, from a distance. Don’t worry I am adding a trip to Alcatraz for my next trip!
After having visited See’s Candies earlier we ended our day in San Francisco by stopping by Girardelli’s. It was a huge store with lots and lots of choices! You have got to love a city that loves it’s chocolate! You can get Giradelli’s chocolate everywhere these days so I didn’t buy any but I quite enjoyed my See’s mini chocolate Santa. I also picked up boxes of See’s chocolate as Christmas gifts for my family. It’s some of the best chocolate we’ve ever eaten.
Back to San Jose
The real purpose our trip was to attend the Heroes and Villains San Jose Fanfest. For those who don’t know, it’s a fan convention kind of like San Diego Comic Con/Toronto Fan Expo but smaller. It focuses mainly on shows from the Arrowverse – Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow and more. My friends and I met for the first time in July 2017 at a Nashville Heroes and Villains Fanfest.
We spent the next two days in a convention hall. I didn’t see many of San Jose sites, but I did spend time seeing celebrities, meeting celebrities and hearing them speak on panels and doing a bit of shopping.
Saturday night we attended the Nocking Point Wine Club party. Nocking Point is the name of a wine club owned by Stephen Amell, the star of Arrow and his partner Drew Harding, they create wine blends with celebrities. Amel and Harding host wine club parties in conjunction with it Heroes and Villains Fanfest. You do not need to be a wine club member to go to the party but you do get early access to tickets if you are. For the price of admission, you get free wine, mingle with celebs and enjoy a local band. There is a choice of VIP and regular admission. VIP is close to $200 and you get in an hour early and get to be part of a question and answer portion, I did this on a previous trip to Nashville. This time we went regular admission, for less than $100 and still enjoyed.
There was no better way to end my weekend in San Jose than with friends drinking lots of Pacific Coast Pink sparkling wine. This wine was made with Emily Bett Rickards who also stars on Arrow, sadly it is not available in Canada.
Cheers!
About Jacqueline Lee
Jacqueline Lee is a Newfoundlander living on the Mainland. Working as a news librarian she spends her free time travelling, writing, reading and being a superhero fan.
