Cliff House | Ocean + Eats

When I wrote here about driving 8 hours two Saturdays ago to attend our friends' wedding in Oregon, I didn't delve into the other part of the story. Not only could Jay not make it to the wedding and miss seeing his friends while I left town but it was his actual birthday that day. Bummers all around. Weddings trump birthdays so we had to be separated but I wasted no time the following weekend planning a wee' littl' celebration for the belated birthday boy.

When I get excited about something, I do a sh*t ton of online research to feed my anticipation. And by online research, I mean Googling things, clicking links and never keeping track of any sites I visited so I guess it's a bit liberal use of the word "research". But no matter. In the historical case of The City of San Francisco vs. Caitlin's Entertainment Needs, I tried to read EVERYTHING I could before we came down here. With respect to that, I was so ready to eat sushi burritos, test my car's brakes on Lombard street, go on a run with Chandler at Crissy Fields ("run" again is a very liberal use of the term...) and get drinks at the Mark hotel. But what most articles about SF fail to mention is THE BEACH and how much access to it you have. 

My first Sunday here, I drove all over in a quest for vintage furniture stores and somehow rounded this amazing bend which produced the most incredible views of the beach, the ocean, the neighboring homes and a restaurant called "Cliff House". It looked like something from a movie and I was in disbelief that I had never even heard of this place after scouring lists of things to do in SF. I mean just look at it:

So that's immediately where I decided to take Jay for his birthday late lunch. He didn't know where we were going but just like my first time, as we rounded the bend and he saw the ocean and view he couldn't help but say "wow!" over and over and over again. We quickly parked and soaked in those views as we slowly made our way to the restaurant.

^I feel like THIS should be listened to right now

^Are you kidding me with these views?

But soon enough, it was time to partake in my favorite activity of all time: Gorging myself. So we made our way into the restaurant and got settled in at our table at Sutro's, ordered our traditional libations while we visually accosted the menu items.

^"With enough butter, anything is good" - Julia Child

^I enjoyed the Chicken & Dumplings and noted how much the exquisite output didn't match the simple title

^Jay devoured his Scallop & Gulf Shrimp Scampi

With our bellies full after our meal, we made our way down to the ocean to walk off our indulgences. As my toes burrowed into the sand and the ocean crashed against the rocks, I felt so happy in that moment. The beach is a special place and it's hard to not feel like there's  something larger than you at play when you're on one.

So this may not be 40. But this is 32 & 31 (respectively^). And it feels pretty good.