In an attempt to continue our North American tour while living in Canada, we visited San Mateo in the summer of 2023. It was Luke’s first time to the San Francisco Bay area and my second time after visiting in May 2013.
Interested in visiting the San Francisco Bay area? Here are some resources for you:
- San Francisco: The Most Amazing Things To Do In The City
- San Francisco’s Colorful Streets: A Guide to Mission District Murals
- 3 Day Budget Travel in San Francisco: What We Spent in 2023
- Why You Should Visit San Mateo When Traveling the Bay Area
We did something very unlike us for this trip. Normally, we over plan with activities and sightseeing every single day. Know exactly which coffee shops we want to visit. Have a list of foods we want to try. Basically anything and everything planned and mapped out.
However, for this trip as we were visiting a friend, we took a more laissez-faire approach. We spent five nights in San Mateo with only a vague idea of what we wanted to do. We made it up day by day and went with the flow. It was glorious and made possible by visiting one of my favorite people who served as our tour guide during that time, my friend Jill.
Story Time
San Francisco International Airport is a Time
The adventure began as soon as we hopped off the plane in SFO with a dream and a cardigan. Not really, it was a hot day, no cardigans were worn.
Arriving at SFO from Canada is an experience in itself. Finding our baggage claim area was a convoluted maze. Up an escalator. Down and around a corner. Head through a walkway. Take a left at a sign. Go down another escalator. Walk around another corner. Then do the macarena and throw a coin into a wishing well. And voilà, you’ve arrived! We weren’t considered international, and nor were we domestic. Instead it was an international domestic hybrid buried away in a locked baggage room. It wasn’t even Luke or I that actually found the room. Jill found it. And then found us. Luckily, she remembered it from 10 years ago when I first visited her.
San Mateo: I Love You
We started in the town of San Mateo. This experience was culturally enriching in ways I never imagined.
Our first night in San Mateo was spent catching up with Jill over several rounds of drinks and good food. We met new people and laughed till we cried. We held essential and serious philosophical discussions at 1am. It was an enlightening time for me. I learned of the many shared commonalities between my oldest friend and my husband that I never would have expected. These include a passion for watching pressure washing videos, a 90-day fiancé obsession, and an intense affinity for financial spreadsheets.
To further illustrate how random our time was, the following is a notable quotes from those first few days: “It’s like an air hockey table for your bottom!”
Side note: Luke and I took to calling San Mateo, “San Matato”, as a nod to the TV show Superstore. If you haven’t watched it, check it out. It’s a romp. The show has nothing to do with the city of San Mateo.
Fun with Friends
In the days to come, we caught up with Jill while visiting local sights. This includes Crystal Springs Reservoir, the quaint bustling town centers of both San Mateo and Burlingame, and Trader Joe’s – mine and Luke’s mecca.
Burlingame was originally settled by wealthy San Franciscans looking for a better climate, and it shows. The town center is filled with fancy coffee shops, restaurants and high-end fashion boutiques. I ventured there on two separate occasions during our visit. Both times I was in awe of the sheer volume of beautiful, fancy, important-looking people milling about. There were no sweatpants and hoodies in Burlingame. And if they were, you better believe they cost more than my house. It will be our rich-person retirement home. Everyone needs goals to work towards. This is ours.
Crystal Springs Reservoir
Crystal Springs Reservoir is a pair of artificial lakes located in the northern Santa Cruz Mountains of San Mateo County, California. They are situated in the rift valley created by the San Andreas Fault. There are ample trails and gorgeous views for walkers, hikers and cyclists to enjoy. There is no shortage of nature and wildlife viewing. It’s even home to a 600-year-old Jepson Laurel, the state’s oldest laurel tree. As well as old-growth Douglas fir forests. For animal lovers there are bald eagles, golden eagles, and deer roaming about.
We also explored outside of the San Mateo area spending one day visiting the Googleplex campus. We were fortunate to have our own personal Google tour guide. She showed us around a couple different places, took us to lunch, snuck us into a games room, and even got us escorted out by security. (We were searching for a place to drop our coffee cups and ventured into an employees’ only zone. Pure rebellion.) As she got us kicked out we opted not to give her a tip. Try better next time, tour guide. (Before anyone gets mad, the tour guide was my friend. Not an actual tour guide that we neglected to tip. It’s fine.)
Santa Cruz
After getting kicked out of Google by the nicest security guard I’ve ever met, we drove to Santa Cruz to explore the beach boardwalk and oceanfront amusement park. Jill commissioned an epic caricature drawing of the three of us in our most stereotypical form: Jill riding an eagle (for her American side). Me riding a moose (Canadian). And Luke dressed as the King (English).
It was here I learned of another commonality between Luke and Jill. Neither one of them are a fan of fast, high, or scary amusement park rides. They basically aren’t fans of fun. What are they fans of? I’m so glad you asked. The ride where you sit two-seated and slowly cruise above the park one end to the other. They called it the Sky Glider in Santa Cruz. Basically, traveling at a snail’s pace with a low-hanging bird’s eye view. Thrilling. We ended our evening with dinner on the pier and wildlife viewing of nearby sea lions and otters.
Last Day
Our last day with Jill was spent touring Stanford and Palo Alto.
Side note: I didn’t recognize at the time, but I may have been in the presence of greatness. A professor of neurobiology at Stanford could have even been on the campus at the same time. I’m disappointed in myself. I wouldn’t have stalked, but would have been tempted to. If you know, you know.
To prevent us from wandering around without any direction, I took the initiative to lead us on a self-guided tour of the university using random facts from the internet. I thought I was doing a great job. Apparently neither of my guests shared this sentiment. They did not appreciate my tour and instead turned to the advice of someone who actually went to Stanford. Taking this person’s advice led us to a “lake” which was actually just a dried up vastness of burnt grass and sadness. My tour was better.
Overall, the five days spent in San Mateo surpassed all our expectations. It filled our hearts with joy to be able to spend such good quality time with friends. We loved visiting and would love our future selves to live there one day.
