🌁 Holiday Cheer at Lightscape San Francisco Botanical Garden

Good morning readers! Welcome to The Fogline, a newsletter created to share our love for the city we live in and to promote community connection. We aim to give you the scoop on neighborhood events, tasty new pop-ups and restaurants, and spots to gather, play, shop, and enjoy this beautiful city we share.

In today’s news:

This week we filled up on holiday cheer at Lightscape at the San Francisco Botanical Garden. This immersive light show included the expected grand illuminations of the garden’s trees and plants, as well as fun little surprises interspersed along the trail. We highly recommend this experience for anyone in search of a little holiday magic. I love the botanical garden at any time of year, and seeing familiar plants awash in colorful glow was truly impressive. In addition to the light trail, there were food trucks at the entrance and along the trail offering sweet treats, hot cocoa, spiked beverages, and hot meals. Lightscape runs through January 4, 2026. Be sure to catch it while it’s here!

After two days of indulging in turkey, gravy, dressing, plenty of sides, and desserts, we decided to spend the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend getting some movement, fresh air, and views. A little research led us to two spots in Golden Gate Heights: Larsen Peak and Hawk Hill. Yes, there is a Hawk Hill in San Francisco too! Eager to check out some new nature spots we hadn’t yet visited, we planned for a window of clear skies and set off on a bus-and-walk combo to reach our destination.

We walked several blocks toward Larsen Peak from Lawton and 9th Avenue until we reached the Oriole Way Stairs (one of San Francisco’s famous public stairways). The Oriole Way Stairs offer a charming path running from Pacheco Street between 10th and 11th Avenue to Cragmont Avenue near 12th Avenue. The stairway is bordered by lovely homes and a glittery rock garden. Larsen Peak sits within Golden Gate Heights Park. It has a short, easy trail to an area of trees with benches and offers a rewarding view in exchange for light effort.

Continuing our walk south, we found Hawk Hill at the end of a steep descent on Funston Avenue from Quintara Street. Hawk Hill is a hilltop dune that affords views of southwestern San Francisco. It is one of only two spots in the city where you can see the green hairstreak butterfly. Due to erosion concerns and the lack of public trails, we viewed this hill from a short distance away on the street.

On December 4th from 5-9 p.m. Clement Street between Arguello and Park Presidio will host its 15th annual Clementime Holiday Stroll. The event is designed to highlight the shops, bars, and restaurants in the Inner Richmond to inspire you to shop locally this holiday season. There will be special sales, raffles, pop-ups, crafts, and refreshments to get you in the holiday spirit!

For a full list of participating merchants click below:

As a matcha lover, it is exciting to see more and more cafes on the west side offering a variety of high-quality, customizable matcha-based drinks. I like just a tiny bit of sweetness in my matcha drinks. We found ourselves at Home Coffee Roasters on Noriega the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The adorable cafe was filled with students studying hard while we sat and savored two matcha lattes, discussing our holiday memories in the city. Home is a place that has fun with its coffee drinks, offering everything from red velvet to birthday cake to Nutella flavors, as well as all the traditional espresso drinks. There’s even a matcha affogato!