We’re experiencing California-like temperatures here in Dallas this week (a high of 77 degrees today, eee!), and the weather instantly transports me to the wonderful trip I took to San Francisco, Half Moon Bay, and Big Sur with Mom and Andrew in November. It’s about time that I finally share some photos, and I have to break them up into parts since each location easily deserves its own post. Up first: San Francisco.

Mom and I flew into San Francisco on a Thursday, and though I’ve been to northern California a dozen times since I graduated from college, I hadn’t gotten a chance to explore San Francisco on its own in such a long time. Mom and I had so much fun together. After we landed, our first stop was at Craftsman and Wolves, a hipster coffee shop and patisserie that I had been dying to try, and there we encountered the most delicious treat of all time – the rebel within, the dreamiest and most curious savory muffin stuffed with a perfectly poached egg (now I have to try to recreate it). We wandered around the neighborhood, popping into lots of little shops, my favorite being Little Paper Planes. Later we met my cousin and her fiancé for dinner at Nopa, sharing cocktails and lots of delicious small plates. The next day we woke up feeling refreshed and took a long luxurious stroll near the water, meandering over to Saint Frank for more hipster (and delicious!) coffee and breakfast. We strolled past Lombard Street, finding ourselves out of breath as we hiked through the hilly streets. We headed to Plow for a super-late brunch, which was just divine (three words: lemon ricotta pancakes), and then made our way to the Golden Gate Bridge – the day was too beautiful to pass up a photo shoot with the gorgeous landmark. We took a pitstop at the Painted Ladies before strolling through Hayes Valley, the cutest little strip of shops and restaurants.

Looking back, I can’t believe how much we packed into our San Francisco schedules in such a short amount of time. It was perfect!

Stay tuned: Half Moon Bay is next.