A mother-daughter San Francisco vacation

After traveling to 14 states and three countries outside of the United States in the past six months, I logged into my American Airlines frequent flyer account to see if I was eligible for anything yet. I had spent way too much time on planes, on the same airline nonetheless, to not have any rewards. Plus, I wanted to book a trip to celebrate my grad school graduation and completion of my thesis, for motivation to finish it by the deadline.

Upon login, I was thankful and happy to see that I reached 25,000 miles and had enough points to redeem a free flight! I refused to use the free flight for a cheap, domestic flight to a city I had already been to. So after some research and years of curiosity, I decided I was going to go to San Francisco. For such a huge city with such presence in the United States, I wanted to check it out and see what the city had to offer.

But who was I going to travel with? Most of my friends were working daytime hours…and I was low on money. So I asked my mom! She had enough points too, so we did our research of what San Francisco tourists do and planned the trip together. 

Needless to say, we accomplished a lot in our 4-day trip. Check out the photos!

Heart statues at the four corners of Union Square 

San Francisco has a well-known Chinatown, that spans many streets, has sporadic parades and a ton of good, cheap shopping. 

At the recommendation of a friend, we checked out Coit Tower - a historic building in San Francisco that has a nice view of the city. It is roughly 22 stories high and I took a very tiny elevator up to see the view. 

The view from Coit Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge 

All of that was just the first day, and then Mom & I ended the evening at Pier 39, walking Fisherman's Wharf and checking out Ghiradelli Square!

We began our second morning with a hike through Muir Woods National Park and checking out the beautiful Redwood trees. 

Mom booked the Muir Woods excursion along with three winery tours through Sonoma and Napa Valley. Here we are at the second tasting!

Vineyards are EVERYWHERE and there are beautiful flowers all over Napa Valley. 

At the end of the excursion, the bus stops by the drop-off point near Golden Gate Bridge to check out the view and drive through Sausalito.

The next morning, Mom & I stopped by this beautiful Russian Orthodox Cathedral that she had been to on a Presvyteras retreat to see the relics of St. John Maksimovic and the gorgeous iconography.

Golden Gate Park was a must-see, definitely different than Central Park but we enjoyed the greenery. It was pretty difficult to figure out the pathways but fun to peruse!

The Union Square area of town has tons of stores around this plaza, so we spent our second to last night doing some shopping, having an elevated dinner and ending the evening with Schulzie's bread pudding in the more corporate area of town.

Lombard Street, the curviest street in the world. The flowers are gorgeous!

Although Mom was skeptical of doing Lombard Street, the views were beautiful and we were there on the perfect day. Along with this and an Italian lunch in the North Beach area, it was a great way to end the trip!

Because of a deal I acquired through Klout perks, I received a free pass to enter the American Airlines Admirals Lounge. What a great, targeted deal because with a delayed flight- there was nothing better than enjoying a few glasses of wine, fast internet and television and some free food in this lounge. If only I could become a member someday!

THREE THINGS I LEARNED TRAVELING WITH MY MOM

Sometimes, you impose more work on yourself than is actually necessary.

I have a habit of doing this with my friends, but you don’t realize how prevalent it is until you see someone else doing the same. My mom would go out of the way to pre-book a taxi to the airport (and other similar examples) or map out a route, and I realized that if we just looked up or hailed a taxi ourselves, it would save the argument and stress of the journey there. It's obviously good to plan, but not to over-think things too much. 

Silence is golden.

You don’t need to talk to have a good time. Let both parties take in everything they're seeing, comment when they want and enjoy the experience without forced conversation. 

You need to rest while you travel, too.

Although I love walking all day, your legs will hurt if you do too much. My mom & I took one afternoon and just lounged by the pool, and it was one of the greatest things ever - and a much needed time to reenergize. Taking this break during the day showed me that I should save similar time on future trips as to not get sick or exhausted at the end of every vacation.