We planned a trip to San Francisco to see ELO in concert. Luckily, the concert fell on the Labor Day weekend so we made it a quick getaway without missing much time from work. My husband had work on Oahu on Thursday so I met him at HNL on Friday for our flight to SFO. I took advantage of our credit card lounge benefits during my wait at HNL where I got some kalua sliders and used the WiFi to do some work while I waited. I prepped for the trip by downloading some documentaries about Barcelona and Basque for an upcoming trip and finally some episodes of The Bear. The Bear is so good!

We used our Hawaiian Air miles to upgrade to the comfortable seats at the front of the plane so we got food and drinks in-flight before arriving at SFO at 10 p.m. where we met up with Ryan and headed to the Royal Clift Sonesta in Union Square. After checking in we went to Cocobang a Korean restaurant open late to get some beer, Soju, and Korean bites.

On Saturday while the others slept in, I walked to Trader Joe’s to get some fun new things and staples I love. By the time I was done, the others got up and we stopped at Napa Valley Winery Exchange just a few steps away from our hotel for fun wine conversation with Don and to pick up a few bottles we couldn’t get at Kadota Liquor in Hilo. Next, we headed to Chinatown and popped into Far East Cafe for gai lan with beef, string beans with pork, spicy eggplant with pork, and hot and sour soup. Right when we finished lunch, Heather made it to the city and we all headed to Vital Tea Leaf to learn about tea and its benefits from Ming. After buying some tea to make us super healthy, we walked back to the hotel via Union Square just 5 minutes before SF 49er Ricky Pearsall got shot! Scary to think that we were in that same space. While the rescue and police swarmed the area, we stayed safely in our room and got ready for dinner with some wine that Ryan brought for us from his recent Portland wine trip. That got us ready for dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant, Alto Vino for pasta and wine. I think this was my third time eating at Alto Vino and I highly recommend a visit there.

On Sunday, we went on a 3-hour walking Mission District SF Food Tour by Sidewalk Food Tours. I thought I hadn’t explored this area before so I was really looking forward to it. Our tour guide was Spud Hilton–travel writer, former food editor for the San Francisco Chronicle, and great guide and storyteller. As expected, we got some great food on this trip. First stop at Craftsman and Wolves to get a Rebel Within which was an amazing savory choriso and cheese muffin with a surprise soft-boiled eggs in it. As we walked around this working-class neighborhood, which is credited with being the birthplace of the burrito that we all know and love and maybe didn’t know was invented by Carlos Santana’s brother, we stopped at Taqueria Cancun where I enjoyed a carnitas taco. According to Spud, Taqueria Cancun is ranked in the top 3 taqueria in the Bay area. The next stop was Venga to get Argentine Beef empanadas while learning some of the culture, history-, and landmarks of the Mission District. After all that amazing food, we still had more. We stopped at beautiful Arepas Latin Cuisine for an awesome arepitas slider filled with braised pork with a great chimichurri sauce. Dessert was from Tartine that I had to save for later since I was so full! Earlier in this paragraph, I mentioned that I thought I hadn’t explored the area but as we walked through the neighborhood, I recognized several stops that Deaner had taken us to before or mentioned to us. Loved exploring the Mission District.

After the tour, Aaron wanted to go back to Paxton Gate where he saw curiosities like a megalodon tooth so we backtracked to the starting point of our tour. I, however, got sidetracked by my new favorite SF store Bernal Cutlery where I met Hawaii native Lisa. I browsed and browsed so long that my travel mates had to come and find me — sans a megalodon tooth acquisition, thank goodness. I, however, did acquire some things I didn’t even know existed and needed. I NEED to schedule a trip here on every trip back to SF. I want to sign up for their natto class on my next trip.

By that time, we all needed a quick recharge at the hotel before getting ready for the purpose of the trip — ELO in concert. We caught the Muni T train to Chase Center for the ELO concert. The tickets are only $2.50 but supposedly, our concert tickets give us free access to the Muni but we haven’t yet figured out which station has an attendant that can help us with that. We got to the stop and ate at Its Dumpling Time at Thrive City right outside Chase Center. We enjoyed new-to-us dishes like Tom Yum XLB and lobster truffle siu mai. The opening act was Rooney who had a guest — David Pack of Ambrosia so we could enjoy the song How Much I Feel! The main event ELO started just after 9 p.m. and THEY WERE GREAT! So many hits. I’m so glad we went. If you have a chance to see ELO — GO! After taking the muni back to Union square, we got some takeout from Halal Guys for our last meal in SF in Ryan’s hotel suite before packing up for our early morning departure.

I woke up early the next morning to get ready to head to the airport and found a text from Hawaiian Airlines alerting me to a 9-hour delay that would have required an overnight stay on Oahu and arrival in Hilo the next morning. At first, I was happy about some extra time in SF but when I thought of the logistics of having to stay overnight on Oahu, I decided to call customer service and got them to reroute us through OAK. Even with this reroute, we were still able to make our originally scheduled interisland flight. What a great few days. Living Hilo Style in San Francisco.