The first day after I arrived, we woke up early and headed off to Muir Woods. We took an Uber there for about $35 (for an hour drive). There is an option of taking a shuttle which connects to the ferry between Sausalito and SF proper, and we took this option on the way back, but it actually ended up being more expensive once we paid for shuttle, ferry, and MUNI pass. This is just one example of how cheap Uber is in SF!
Muir Woods was beautiful. We tried to arrive as early as possible, before the crowds. We got there around 10am, and it was quite busy, but we ended up going off on a slightly more difficult trail than the path that the general crowd follows around the forest. This path was much more isolated and had some steep uphill sections, but nothing too difficult. We both remarked how incredibly quiet and peaceful it was. We came across a very quiet bridge, where we sat down and enjoyed the sun peeking through the trees and the utter quiet that forced us to whisper for fear of breaking it.
Then, much to my surprise, when I stood up after a while to continue hiking, my boyfriend stood up as well and proposed to me! It was the perfect moment and very unexpected. After saying yes and stopping to take some photos we continued on our way ...
That night we moved to the Warwick Hotel in the Tenderloin, which we definitely recommend. It's well-located and we experienced very nice service from the front desk staff. I did potentially hear someone being murdered outside our window the first night but that was a small price to pay :)
The next day, after celebratory dinner & drinks (at Bourbon & Branch, which was very cool, make reservations ahead of time to get the "password"), we continued our trip viewing murals in the Mission District. We stopped by Precita Eyes, which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the murals, to pick up a map ($5), then spent an hour or two traversing the neighborhood on foot.
We moved on to the Palace of Fine Arts, which I also think is worth seeing. We walked up past The Presidio afterward and around the neighborhood, which had absolutely beautiful architecture. The houses were covered in all manner of bright flowering bushes. I remarked to D. that I would like to live in this neighborhood; my dreams were quickly crushed after Redfin revealed the house I was looking at cost $9.9 million.
Dinner was at Zuni Cafe, where we ate with D.'s brother Matt and his girlfriend Diana. We had a few pasta dishes and the roast chicken for two, which is supposedly what you are supposed to get. It was very good, although I was not completely blown away by it. The restaurant space itself was very cute and we got a nice seat upstairs, overlooking the restaurant.