St. Lucia Trip Recap + Travel Tips

Hello friends!

My husband and I just got back from a glorious nine day vacation to St. Lucia. Since he's in grad school right now, he has things like spring break (cue the jealousy!), so we decided to take advantage of it and escape to the warmth of the Caribbean with two other couples. We had never traveled internationally with friends, and I'm happy to report that we all had a blast together. We even made matching tees (oh yes we did!). It was the perfect mix of restful and active - we spent countless hours hanging out by the pool, but made sure to spend a few days exploring the island on day trips as well.

Since I've already had several friends and family ask about our trip, I figured it would be fun to recount our trip, hit some highlights, and pass along a few tips and recommendations. If you're planning a trip to St. Lucia any time soon, I hope this information will be helpful! Feel free to ask me any specific questions via email or Facebook as well if you'd like. This post will be a long one, so pin it for later reference or grab a cup of coffee and pull up a chair!

WHERE WE STAYED:

With six of us in our group, we decided to rent a villa instead of staying at a resort. We all agreed this was one of our best decisions of the trip! We rented a gorgeous seven bedroom house with a pool at the very top of a hill on the northern tip of the island in an area called Cap Estate. The views were unbelievable! Now you may be asking why did you rent a seven bedroom house if you only needed three bedrooms?! Well it turns out that many villas will "close off" the bedrooms you don't use and rent out only the ones you need at a lower cost. The awesome part about renting a larger house is that you still get all the amenities and the common space of a bigger villa without paying the higher cost.

Also, the price of many villas (including ours) includes a housekeeper, cook and groundskeeper, so it's almost like having your own private resort. We felt so spoiled all week! Having a cook was amazing. We sat down and planned the meals with her at the beginning of the week and all we had to do was the grocery shopping. She did the rest. We ate at the villa for nearly every meal and it worked out perfectly for us. It was much more cost-effective than paying the high prices at restaurants around the island and it meant more time for relaxing since we didn't have to drive anywhere for meals. If going out to eat is a priority for you, make sure to pick a location with easy access to restaurants though :).

Our villa was run by a local property management company and the representative from the company was extremely helpful when it came to coordinating things like our hike (see below) and one of our day trips. She was always available by phone and email if we needed anything during the course of the week. Again, having this service made our villa feel like a mini resort - a huge plus!

With the villa facing west, we made sure we were "home" for the sunsets every night to catch views like these!

WHAT WE DID:

We chose to alternate days between hanging out at the villa with low-key activities and day-long excursions. This worked well for us so that we got to explore and be active some days, and be totally lazy on the others. Our excursions included two full-day tours organized through local companies and one day-long hike of one of the Gros Piton mountain. Here's some more information about those...

"Tout Bagay"Tour with Seaspray Cruises

This tour took us on a two hour catamaran ride down the west coast of the island from Rodney Bay to Soufriere. It was beautiful, but a longer ride and a more crowded boat than we expected! There were about 50 people on the tour. Once we got to Soufriere, we were divided into groups and shuttled up into the hills to see a waterfall, take a dip into a sulfur spring mud bath, tour a sugar mill/plantation, and eat lunch. The waterfall and sulfur spring were a little disappointing to be honest. They were a little over-touristy and the sulfur spring mud bath was pretty small. Both were pretty glimpses into some of the natural beauty of the island though! After that we got back on the catamaran and sailed back up the coast with a stop for snorkeling on the way. They provided the gear and we had a blast swimming around with the pretty tropical fish! Overall, it was money well spent to see and do a lot in one day. I'd recommend it.

Waterfall

Sulfur springs mud bath

View from the old sugar mill and plantation

Marigot Bay

Rainforest Spa Day at Sugar Beach with Carnival Sailing

First of all, this day had incredible potential to be super relaxing, but it ended up being a total, utter, logistical nightmare. The idea was to sail via catamaran from Castries to one of the loveliest resorts on the island called Sugar Beach (look it up...it's amazing). The girls would have spa treatments while the boys did water sports, we'd have lunch together, and then hang out on the beach for a couple of hours before sailing back at sunset. Sounds idyllic, right? Well the sailing company did all the scheduling incorrectly (along with some false advertising about the sunset cruise), so we spent most of the day trying to work things out with the cruise company and get everything we paid for. It was not the relaxing day we planned! I will say though - if the cruise company can hammer out the kinks in scheduling this day, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Once we actually got to do the things we signed up for, it was wonderful. And I can't say enough good things about the staff at Sugar Beach. They bent over backwards to help us out after they realized how badly the sailing company messed up. Yikes!

Our group on the catamaran with the Gros and Petit Pitons in the background

The Pitons

Me and my hubby on the catamaran

Hike Up the Gros Piton

Our biggest accomplishment was hiking the 2,000 foot peak in Soufriere called the Gros Piton. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You are required to have a guide (you don't want to go without one, trust me!) and our guide, Francis, was wonderful. He chatted with us during the "moderate to strenuous" hike, educating us about St. Lucia, the Gros Piton and life in general. He even took us to a "secret" lookout point at the top that was by far the best view from the summit. We were wiped at the end of the hike, but it's definitely a must-do if you go to St. Lucia.

View of the Pitons from a lookout point on the drive to the hike

We made it to the top of the Gros Piton! (Those are our matching tees, by the way)

Beaches

St. Lucia is a volcanic island, so the beaches are generally small stretches scattered all around the island. The west coast is on the Caribbean Sea and most beach-front resorts are on that side of the island because the waters are calm and the beaches are pretty nice. The east coast is on the Atlantic Ocean and is much wilder and less developed. Some of the beaches can be challenging to get to due to road conditions, but they're all open to the public - even if there's a resort there. That's good news/bad news. It was great for us since we were staying in a villa - we could drive to any beach and explore - but it's also bad because beaches can get crowded and there are lots of locals trying to sell you things. If I was staying at one of the resorts and hoping for privacy, this would not be the place I'd choose! If that's your hope as well and you're looking for a resort, your best bet is to stay at one that's more isolated and difficult to access. We didn't end up spending a ton of time at beaches, but if you're curious about specifics, please ask and I can probably give you some advice!

Pigeon Island Beach

Reduit Beach

Plantation (Cas en Bas) Beach

GETTING THERE:

We flew non-stop via Jet Blue from JFK to St. Lucia. The flight is a little over four hours and we arrived in the early afternoon. It was a very easy trip!

Also something to note about passports and St. Lucia: your passport expiration date MUST BE at least six months away from your return date in order to travel there. In other words, the expiration date isn't really an expiration date for some countries. One of our friends ran into this issue (thankfully before we left), and had a crazy time getting his passport renewed last minute.

GETTING AROUND:

We read terrible reviews about renting a car and driving in St. Lucia due to the hilly terrain, narrow roads, lack of guardrails, crazy drivers and the fact that you drive on the opposite side of the road. Needless to say, we were concerned! Many people avoid renting cars due to these concerns, but since we had six people and were staying at a villa off the beaten path, we didn't really see an alternative so we risked it. I'm happy to report that we had no issues and having a car gave us major flexibility to come and go as we pleased each day. You have to be cautious of course, but it really wasn't any worse than driving in Philadelphia in my opinion!

One thing about travel time: even though it's small island and you'd expect to go from one end of the island to the other in no time, the roads are very windy most of the time and so it actually takes about two hours to go from the north to the south end. No one enjoys riding in a car under those circumstances for very long!

If you book any day trips/tours, the cost generally includes a shuttle from wherever you're staying though, and we took advantage of that a couple of times for our excursions. Taxis are also available on the island, but we didn't use them so I don't know what the pricing is like.

CLOSING THOUGHTS:

Overall, we had an incredible trip. St. Lucia is a wonderful getaway spot for a week and I wish we were still there! It was the perfect place to rest and recharge after a long, cold, busy winter for everyone in our group. We deepened our friendships, disconnected from the constant pull of technology, played, and let ourselves be pampered a bit. Being back now, I realize how important it is to do that regularly given the crazy busy lives we lead. I'm so thankful for our time away!

Our last moments at our villa - we weren't ready to leave!

Looking for more posts like this? Check out my posts on our trips to Paris (part 1, part 2 and tips & tricks) and St. Barth (part 1 & part 2)!

Enjoy what you read today?  Enter your email address below to subscribe to May Richer Fuller Be!


Delivered by FeedBurner

Tips, Tricks, and Places Not To Miss in Paris

I hope y'all enjoyed the highlight reel of our trip to Paris this week. In case you missed the recaps, here's the first and here's the second. I'm not sure if any of you are planning a trip to Paris anytime soon, but if it's on your list, you may want to bookmark or pin this post for the future! I've got lots of info about where we stayed, links to our favorite activities, hints on how to save money, where the best views in the city are along with some other resources and tidbits.

Our Trip To Paris {The Highlights Part 2}

Time for part two highlights from our trip to Paris! Get ready for a massive photo dump :).

{If you missed part one, start here.}

We took two day trips while we were in Paris and they were some of the most fun parts of the trip. For the first, we headed out to the Champagne region on an e-bike tour (electric bike, that is - more on that in a sec) and it. was. AWESOME. It was kind of a spontaneous decision, and I'm so glad we did it. The same bike company that ran the tour we went on in Paris also offered this e-bike tour of the Champagne capital, Epernay, and the surrounding villages. The region is only about an hour away by train, but it feels worlds away from the city. It wasn't touristy at all either, which was so nice!

Our Trip To Paris {The Highlights Part 1}

Long time no see, y'all! Charlie and I just got back from a lovely vacation in Paris! It was such a fantastic adventure - we loved getting away, disconnecting for a bit and exploring a new city and culture. It was our first time going and we loved our time there.

I wanted to take a little bit of time this week to catalog our trip and write down the highlights before those memories start to fade. I also wanted to pass along some tips and resources in case any of you are planning to take a trip over there in the near future. I'll cover that in a post later this week. If you've ever been to Paris, chime in and tell me what your favorite parts were!

Paris was absolutely charming. The old buildings, narrow streets, sidewalk cafes...all of it! We ate lots of cheese and baguettes (the bread! amazing.), drank wine and just plain enjoyed ourselves!

We kicked off our first day there with an awesome bike tour of the city, which turned out to be a great way to get the lay of the land and learn some history.

Here's our little group heading down a pretty little street in the Marais district.

Top 10 Packing Tips {To Avoid Checked Baggage Fees}

Having recently returned from our eight day vacation to California (read about it here, here, here and here), packing for a long(ish) trip is fresh on my mind. I'd consider myself to be a pretty seasoned traveler, and I've become especially good at packing for trips in carry-on sized luggage over the years. I fly a pretty decent amount each year and make an effort to pack lighter and more efficiently each time. I'm a tad competitive, so this is a fun little game I like to play against myself. :)

{Side note: This is a text heavy post. I'm info-centric today, y'all! Sorry if you were hoping for pretty photos of my carry on bag, ha!}

I have enacted a personal rule that I'm not allowed to check a bag on a flight unless I'm traveling for over a week. A week you say?! Yep, a week. To some of you, this may sound crazy, but let me let you in on a little secret: you don't need to pack as much as you think you do. And even though our California trip was eight days long, I still packed only a carry on bag. Boo yah.

Another reason I've enacted this rule for myself? Avoiding those pesky checked baggage fees (budget conscious traveler here, y'all) and the awful possibility of the airline losing my bag. Not paying the fees is my own little rebellion against paying upwards of $50 round trip in fees that many airlines charge. I'm already paying enough on my ticket alone; I don't need to pay extra when I can just pack efficiently and leave a few non-essentials at home.

It also saves time in the airport. No more waiting in line to check a bag on the front end, and you don't have to waste your time at the baggage carousel once you get to your destination, or when you're tired from a trip and just. want. to. go. home.

So how do I do it? I've come up with a list of my top packing tips to share with you today. I hope this will help you avoid some of those annoying checked bag fees too, which really start to add up if you're traveling as a family!

Top 10 Packing Tips:

1. Before you open a drawer or closet door, make a list of what you need based on the number of days you're traveling, activities planned, and the weather report.

2. Pull out everything you need, and then put back anything unnecessary. 

Make your clothing multitask. For example, you probably don't need a different pair of pants/shorts/skirt for each day. Instead, decide on a couple of go-with-anything bottoms and mix them with a selection of tops. Dresses are also great for travel if appropriate for the climate and activities because they don't take up much space! Mix and match people.

And one of the best parts about traveling? No one, except the people you're traveling with, will notice if you wear the same items multiple times. I promise. Sorry to burst your bubble, but they also probably don't care all that much :).

3. Use accessories to change up the look of an outfit. 

If you're worried about variety, bring a few colorful scarves or pieces of fun jewelry to vary your look. This way, you'll get the variety you crave without the bulk of extra clothing.

4. Be picky about what shoes you actually need. 

I took four pairs of shoes on our California trip, and you know what? I only actually needed two. Shoes are often bulky and hard to pack. Quick tip: if you're taking running shoes, stuff your socks into their insides to utilize that "dead space." Plus, you also won't have to go digging for them later.

5. Find out if you'll have access to a washer/dryer where you're going. 

This can obviously be a game-changer. You can pack even lighter!

6. Don't bring a hair dryer. 

For me, this is a hard-and-fast rule unless I know absolutely that I won't have access to one, and know I'll have to blow dry my hair. Hotels always have them. If it's not in your room, ask the front desk. I do often travel with my flat iron since it's much less bulky and I get the same effect of blow drying once my hair air dries.

7. Keep a quart size bag filled up with travel size toiletries handy at home. 

That way, you'll always have those things ready to go and you can just pop them into the outside pocket of your bag. You'll have to pull them out when you go through security, so keep them accessible. 


8. Use your "personal item" as overflow space and for your in-flight essentials. 

This is the item you can bring on board with you in addition to a larger suitcase. I usually pack a tote-sized bag for my personal item and bring a small purse (which I tuck into my tote during boarding to avoid dirty looks from the security people/gate agents). My laptop or iPad, a couple of magazines, a sweater or jacket, and a snack go in the tote. I try to leave a little bit of extra space in case I decide to buy something in the airport or while we're on our trip. You can push the limits on the size of this bag, but double check with your airline on the maximum size because some can be picky and make you check one of your bags (the horror!).

9. Invest in a quality rolling carry on. 

I don't mean spend hundreds of dollars, but go to a place like TJMaxx or a department store (I've had great luck with huge sales at Macy's) and get a lightweight suitcase that has quality construction. I got a Diane Von Furstenberg suitcase from TJMaxx for around $40 three years ago and it's held up great. If it's made to airline carry-on specifications, you should have no trouble fitting it easily in an overhead bin. That'll save you a few stressful moments on the plane ;). I much prefer a rolling bag to a duffle-style bag. I find it easier to drag than carry one through those long airport terminals (sometimes I wonder if I'll ever get to my gate).

10. If you happen to be flying an airline that doesn't charge for a bag (i.e. Southwest or JetBlue as of the publishing date on this post), feel free to check one if you want!

I still generally chose to carry on even with that option available so I don't lose time on either end, or risk having the airline lose my bag.

And that, my friends, wraps up my top tips for packing a carry on!

So tell me, are you with me on carrying on as often as possible? Or are you firmly in the checked bag camp? No judgment here :). It's all about doing what works for you! Do you have other packing tips that I missed?

Have a great day!

---------

linking up to: DIY Showoff, Rain on a Tin Roof, Home Stories A to Z, Uncommon Designs, If It's Not Baroque, Liz Marie Blog, House of Hepworths, Blissfully Ever After, Design, Dining and Diapers, Crafty Scrappy Happy, Craftberry Bush, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Tatertots and Jello, Serenity Now, It’s Overflowing, House of Rose, Love of Family and Home, Dear Creatives, Madigan Made, First Home...Love Life, Simply Dream and Create, Whipperberry, Sparkles and A Stove, Making Home Base

California Trip Part 4 {Napa Valley}

I'm wrapping up the recap and highlights of our vacation today with our day trip up to Napa Valley and Sonoma! Thanks for sticking with me for the past few days and letting me relive our vacation from last week. I know it deviates from the normal kinds of posts around here!

When I was originally planning our trip to California, I had no idea we'd be so close to wine country while we were up in San Francisco. (California was pretty much a foreign land to me before this trip.) Once I figured that out, there was no doubt in my mind that we'd make the quick hour and a half drive up there for at least half a day. I mean, we'd already driven 400 miles from LA to SF, so what was an extra 60?

Napa Valley and Sonoma are probably two of the most famous wine-making areas in the world, and I've always wanted to experience them in person. I'd heard it was a beautiful area, but I had NO IDEA it would be covered - literally covered - in vineyards. For miles and miles all you see are the most gorgeous rolling, green hills packed with rows and rows of grape vines. It's an amazing sight.

{view from Artesa Vineyards and Winery}

There are well over 1000 vineyards in the surrounding area and many, many cute little towns, so how in the world does one choose where to go on a short visit?

Well, thanks to a review from Kate (Centsational Girl), who lives over in Northern California and takes frequent day trips to various parts of Wine Country, I knew I there was one famous little town I wanted to visit: Yountville.

Yep, I took a photo of the post office to mark our visit. I know, I know, I'm cool. You don't have to tell me twice. :)

Yountville was made famous by Thomas Keller, chef extraordinaire (of The French Laundry fame). If you're a foodie (which I am not), you're likely to have heard of it, and if you aren't, you may have still heard of it! Though we only had a chance to breeze through, it is a charming town, and I'd love to go back some day. I'll start saving my pennies now to eat at one of Keller's restaurants there :). Kate does a much better job describing this adorable little town and what to do there than I ever could, so if you want more info, read this post.

We also utilized the friendly visitor's information center in Yountville to try to decide what vineyards to visit in the area. That was when I learned that there are over 400 vineyards along just one short stretch of road heading north from Yountville. Uh, what? Craziness! I felt overwhelmed. We just wanted to taste a few wines and experience some of the natural beauty of that part of the country. How could we possibly choose just two or three?

{Gorgeous grapes. We were told the harvest is only about a week away!}

Oh, and around the same time, I discovered that 99% of the wine tastings aren't free - they aren't even cheap! A tasting alone (not even including a tour or anything) at some vineyards can cost you $20 a person. Ain't nobody got time money for that. At least not us :).

So what did I do? I turned to my trusty iPhone and found an app (Winery Finder and Tasting Pass) that offers free or two-for-one tastings at certain vineyards in exchange for sharing about them on social media. Call us cheap, but hey, if it's there, why not use it?

That's how we found all three of our stops for the day - starting with The Hess Collection. Tucked back in the mountains off of windy back roads, we felt like we had found some sort of secret hideaway. They have a charming little garden area (complete with koi pond), a large art gallery, and a tasting room that has the feel of an old wine cellar. Our favorite wines there was by far were their Cabernet Sauvignons. It sure was fun to be able to taste a $40+ bottles of wine for nearly nothing! We're typically more $10 and under bottles of wine people. Oops, am I not supposed to admit that? Oh well, secret's out!

The second vineyard we visited, Artesa Vineyards and Winery, had the most breathtaking views. It was stunning. The wines were ok (Hess was better in our opinion), again with the Cabernets being the winners, but it was worth the trip for the views alone. (Side note: the first Napa Valley photo at the top of this post is from Artesa.)

You can see for miles from their vantage point up at the top of the hill.

Our last stop was Schug Winery. This one had a small, family-owned vibe, and we loved the friendly, laid-back servers in the tasting room. I thought both their reds and whites were lovely.

After Schug, we headed back to San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge. We loved our time up in Napa and Sonoma, and will definitely be making another trip there at some point. I'd love to spend an entire week there for a fuller experience!

Have you been up to wine country? What was your favorite part? What would you recommend we do on our next trip?

That wraps up our trip to California! Hope you enjoyed reliving our trip with me. I'll be back tomorrow with some Lovely Links to kick off the weekend!

California Trip Part 3 {San Francisco}

San Francisco. How do I describe it? It's such an eclectic city full of personality. We had a blast exploring it and we barely scratched the surface. We covered a ton of ground in just under two days, and I've got a bunch of highlights for you today! These are places I'd definitely recommend to go, eat and explore. I don't think we had a bad experience the entire time we were there. #longpostalert

After our journey up the Pacific Coast Highway, we arrived in San Francisco in time for dinner. We chose Pizzeria Delfina as our destination, and it turns out many others had that night as well. It was a popular place! We had to wait about 45 minutes for a table on a Wednesday night. I can't even imagine what it's like on the weekends. It was so, so good though. I'm such a pizza lover (it's a problem), and this definitely satisfied my appetite.

The next morning we chowed down on some baked goods and sipped coffee at Destination Bakery (yum!) up the street from where we were staying in Glen Park, and got a few business-y things done for CSW Designs and the blog before we headed out to explore the city.

Our first stop of the day was the Ferry Building Marketplace on the Embarcadero downtown. What a sight!

Besides gazing at the outside of the gorgeous building itself, the inside was full of food vendors, fresh food markets, and specialty shops. It's a great place to grab a quick lunch, putz around, and take in views of the San Francisco Bay. Many of the shops and eateries are local to San Francisco, and have flagship locations elsewhere in the city. {Side note: this is also where the big farmer's market is, which is a big SF attraction.}

We had lunch at Cowgirl Creamery inside the Ferry Building Marketplace. Total sucker for cheese of just about any variety. Can't. resist.

A few other favorite spots were Acme Bread Company, Blue Bottle Coffee (I didn't love their coffee, honestly, but loved their logo...design dork alert.), Biscuit Bender and Miette.

{Biscuit Bender}

{Miette}

The Embarcadero area surrounding the Ferry Building is a great place for views of the Bay Bridge as well:

{Bay Bridge to the right}

After lunch, we hopped on one of the historic street cars to get to our next destination: Fisherman's Wharf. 

Whoa, holy tourist alert! Fisherman's Wharf is a major San Fran attraction, and the folks down at the wharf have capitalized on that. If you're looking for a touristy place, this is it. We weren't totally into all that, but it was worth a trip - even if only for a few minutes. The views are outstanding, so we spent most of our time avoiding the cheesy tourist shops and instead spent our time looking out over the Bay.

See that flag to the right of my head? That's an America's Cup flag. The epic sailing competition is being held in the Bay this year, and it was one of the coolest things we got to see. It was a huge highlight for Charlie, who grew up sailing, to see these blazing fast boats fly on the water. And I mean fly. They certainly don't look like your run-of-the-mill sailboat...but apparently this design makes 'em fast as lightening!

If you go to SF between now and September, definitely make a stop at the America's Cup area on the Embarcadero near Fisherman's Wharf. Spectators can enter the "park" for free and wander around when the official races aren't happening, which is what we did, and we had a blast watching the different teams practice out on the water.

Next, we headed over to Union Square and wandered around a little bit. The park there is really pretty, so we grabbed a couple of glass bottle cokes (which seemed to be a "thing" in SF?) and took in the surroundings.

{Cheers!}

Then it was off to ride one of the historic Cable Cars! So iconic.

We rode the California line all the way to the end, and then took a bus over to Alamo Square Park, which is where the "Painted Ladies" houses are (the ones from Full House). Pretty cool seeing the beautiful Victorians in person after watching that show as a kid! There are "Painted Lady" houses all over SF though, so honestly, it wasn't all that different from many other parts of the city.

After all this activity, eventually we made it back "home" to our neighborhood and had dinner at a local restaurant with a friend. We were pooped, but it was great day! That was our only full day in SF (sadness).

The next morning, we hit up the famous Tartine Bakery for breakfast. GO THERE. It was so, so yummy. I had their fruit brioche and C had one of their quiches. I'd definitely get a sweet and a savory treat so you can experience both...my mouth is watering just thinking about it!

After Tartine, we headed north across the Golden Gate Bridge to start our journey up to Napa Valley...which is the subject of tomorrow's post! Stay tuned :).


A few thoughts on San Fran before I go:

• San Francisco can be an expensive city. This is especially true for lodging. Decent hotels in popular areas cost more than we wanted to spend, so we actually rented out a one bedroom condo through airbnb for about half of what we would've paid for a hotel. It was in a convenient location, clean, and worth doing the digging (research) to find. If you want more on our experience with airbnb, feel free to ask in the comments or shoot me an email!
• The MUNI public transit system is great. Besides the awesome history that goes along with the street and cable cars, they've done a really good job connecting the city through the buses and light rail systems. We didn't move our car the entire time we were exploring the city. Buy an unlimited rides visitors pass (A one day pass cost us $14 plus $3 for the Clipper Card. The cable car ride alone cost $6, so it's worth it!) if you think you're going to utilize public transit frequently throughout the day to explore the city. It saved us a lot of hassle and we didn't have to worry about having a wad of dollar bills with us at all times to pay the fare each time we hopped on a bus or train. We managed to cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time thanks to easy public transportation access. 
• The fog. Like clockwork, it rolled out every morning around 10am, and rolled back in around 5pm. It was totally bizarre to me. If you're planning on taking in any views from scenic overlooks, don't even bother unless it's between the hours of 10 and 5. Obviously, the weather can vary, but our experience was that we had bright, sunny days after the fog left each day. So wait to take your photos then!

Questions? Thoughts? What did we miss in SF? I need to start making a list for the next time we go...because there WILL be a next time. I feel like we barely scratched the surface of this awesome city!