San Francisco & the #StitchFixVacay – Part One

YAY! It’s the moment I know a lot of you have been waiting for… the first of my #StitchFixVacay recap posts! 🙂 HUZZAH!

If you follow me on Instagram or social media, you know that I had the unbelievable, CRAZY pleasure to go out to San Francisco a few weeks ago to attend a #StitchFixVacay. When Stitch Fix emailed me inviting me out there, I actually, legit thought I was being punked. I forwarded the email to my husband and I was like, “Ummm, can you tell me where the catch is?”

I’ve been writing about Stitch Fix for over six months now and I have been obsessed with the company since day one. No way in heck did I ever even think they knew who I was other than the fact that I probably annoy them on social media because I talk about them all the time. Well, turns out they DO know who I am and so they invited me along with six other amazing bloggers out to San Francisco to tour their headquarters and their warehouse and all that jazz. I knew it would be hard leaving Lilly and John for the week (oh how I missed them like crazy!!), but I knew that it was a chance of a lifetime.

I decided to break up my recap into two posts because this post is ALREADY going to be insanely picture heavy and long… so I thought breaking it up into a part one and part two would be the best.

I want to say first off that I have YOU guys to thank for this opportunity. It’s because you guys read this blog and because you guys have started to love Stitch Fix as much as I do… and I can’t even BEGIN to tell y’all how much I love you and how much I appreciate you. Seriously. This was the first time that I’ve EVER been able to do ANYTHING like this, and it was the chance of a lifetime. I was SO humbled and so thankful and so grateful to be able to go. So, I know I can’t even begin to use enough words to thank you… but THANK YOU.

Now, let’s get to the recap!

I have family and friends out in San Francisco and I’ve never been out there before, so I actually decided to fly in a day early to get some time with them and see some more of the city! I flew in on Monday afternoon and my Aunt Kathleen picked me up from the airport and was my tour guide for the day. She was AWESOME!

First stop? To see the beautiful Golden Gate bridge. It really is stunning in person!

BEAUTIFUL. That’s the bay on it’s way out to the ocean…

Then we headed to find the Mrs. Doubtfire house!! Mrs. Doubtfire is one of my all time favorite movies, so I was so excited to find it. I knew the address by heart… 2640 Steiner Street! Haha!

Since Robin Williams passed, the house has actually become somewhat of a memorial to his life. People have written all over the rocks and sidewalk out in front of the house.

Then we went to find the Full House, house! Contrary to popular belief, the “Painted Ladies” that you see in the opening sequence of Full House is not ACTUALLY the Full House house… the Full House house was at 1709 Broderick and that was the house they would show close-ups of when they would show the Tanner’s house. This house has since been painted… it used to be white with a red door.

BUT, it wouldn’t be a trip to San Francisco without going to see the infamous Painted Ladies.

Me and my Aunt Kathleen. 

Then we headed to Pier 39 to see the SEA LIONS. I LOVE THEM!!! They’re so cute!

Alcatraz in the distance!

Then, that night I went and stayed with my sorority sister, Amber. It was SO cool to see her and catch up. We went out that night to one of her favorite spots and then went back to her house and crashed. I’d had a LONG day of travel and I was still very much on east coast time.

The next morning we walked to Amber’s favorite brunch spot, The Butler and the Chef.

Y’all. I can’t even begin to tell you how unbelievably delicious this was. Like, my mouth has been watering for it ever since I left. SO. GOOD.

Me and Amber.

Then we went just walking around… we went over by the marina and AT&T park where the Giants play.

The bay bridge

We walked over to the Ferry building… what a cool place!

Then she took me by the Mozilla / Firefox HQ because they have an AWESOME quatrefoil door!!! #PHIMUFORLIFE.

Then, I left Amber and headed to check in at the place where I’d be staying for the actual vacay. The only other person who was there was Jen from Jen Loves Kev, so we decided to go exploring… and boy was it an adventure! I will spare you most of the details as it’s a rather long story… but Jen and I decided to head across the bridge over to Sausalito to check it out and have some dinner. So, we grabbed an Uber car and headed over there…

Sausalito is BEAUTIFUL. I really thought I was in Italy or something. It’s an GORGEOUS little town!

Well, LONG story short.. after not being able to find an Uber to take us BACK over the bridge, we found a random taxi and he was all kinds of crazy and we just said, “Well just drop us off on this side of the bridge and we’ll walk back.” 

Well… the Golden Gate Bridge is long. REALLY long. Like over two miles long… and we’d already done a lot of walking. But, we started walking anyway. At first we were really enjoying it… Jen and I were just chatting and getting to know each other. Then, we kept noticing that bikers were whizzing by us YELLING at us… like, giving us the dirtiest looks and saying not nice things…

The view from the bridge walking across… isn’t is STUNNING?

Well, we come to find out that the cab driver dropped us off on the WRONG SIDE OF THE BRIDGE. We were on the BIKE side. So bikers were REALLY mad. Well, what were we going to do at this point? CROSS? I don’t think so… so needless to say, we hurried.Then the bridge patrol arrested me.

Just kidding. He was super nice and drove us the rest of the way… oh Manuel. 🙂

So, after that we headed back to the house to crash and meet the other girls.

This is the house we were staying in…That night we just waited for everyone else to arrive and we just sat outside and sipped drinks and chatted. It was GREAT getting to know everyone!

The next morning we got up and got ready to head to the Stitch Fix Headquarters. …This is only a few of us… everyone else was still inside… haha 🙂

The Stitch Fix HQ is a dream! Such a cool, open space (no cubicles) with clothes for days hanging around.

(left to right: me, Erin from Living in Yellow, Natalia from Ma Nouvelle Mode, Kilee from One Little Momma, and Jen from Jen Loves Kev)

One of the most awesome things about the HQ is they have a SNACK ROOM with snacks (AND DIET COKE) galore!!

The jewelry samples… here they have at least one of every piece they have in stock.

The sample closet where they have AT LEAST one of every item they have in stock… this room is INSANE.

Then we met with Margaret and Alexandra, lead stylists for Stitch Fix. They are amazing! They took pieces that we have trouble styling and suggested ways to wear them. It was REALLY fun!

That was my zebra print top on the left. I got that top MONTHS ago but haven’t been able to figure out a way to wear it that I like… I love the ideas they gave me! (Natalia on the right)

Then we met with some lead Stitch Fix buyers to learn about what trends are big this fall and to see how they go about picking items for Stitch Fix to carry. It was REALLY cool to see how it all works. Stitch Fix works very much like other retailers in that they work with vendors to get product, but Stitch Fix is also working with certain vendors to design exclusive pieces for them. How cool!

Some of my FAVORITE pieces!!

I found my shirt!

That’s Cotille in the middle… she is one of the fabulous marketing wizzes at SF and she is AMAZING. I love her. So much. (These next few photos below were taken by the SF photographer. All other images are mine and were taken by me.)

The whole gang with the buyers. 🙂

Me, Jill, and Erin.

Then we headed to the nearby park for lunch.

They had the most adorable picnic lunch set up for us!

All of us after lunch (from left to right: Jen, Erin, Me, Jill, Kilee, Veronika, and Natalia)

Then we spent the rest of the day being tourists and seeing more of the BEAUTIFUL city. Seriously, I am in love with San Francisco. It’s gorgeous.

We headed to Coit Tower. The view was stunning!

Jen, Erin, Me, Jill, Kilee, Veronika, and Natalia

Obligatory tourist photo

Then we headed to Lombard Street, the curviest street… ever!!

All of us!! I can’t even begin to tell you how much I love these women… they became GREAT friends over the course of this trip!

Then we headed to the Palace of the Fine Arts which is literally breathtaking. It’s absolutely gorgeous.

Kilee, Me, Natalia Then some more views of the bridge. It doesn’t get old!

We headed to the flower gardens and there was this man playing a trumpet underneath the bridge… it was beautiful.

Then that night we got dressed up and headed to dinner… a MEXICAN RESTAURANT which y’all know I loved. The food was AMAZING. So delicious.

(From left to right: me, Natalia, Jen, Erin, Kilee, Jill, Veronika)

PHEW! And that’s the recap of my first three days in SF. Tomorrow’s post will be just a recap of the last day and the photoshoot (which was THE MOST FUN EVER). I can’t wait to share it! Thank you guys again SO much for reading!

Now, I want to know: have you ever been to San Francisco? What was your favorite part? Have you tried Stitch Fix yet?

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*Disclosure: My trip to San Francisco (flight, lodging, and food) was paid for by Stitch Fix. I was not given any additional monetary compensation for the trip. I’m not being paid to write this post. I genuinely LOVE Stitch Fix and the company (as you can tell because I write and talk about them all the time), and this post is 100% my own. Thank you SO much for reading this blog… if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be able to do awesome stuff like this and for your readership, I am TRULY so unbelievably grateful.