I had a grand ol’ time the other week peppin’ around in a new Scion iM! Check out the bum on ‘er, so cute right? The Scions are great starter vehicles for anyone ready to purchase their first car. Though, I do have to say I did miss the sunroof, especially living in Sunny California.

But for what it lacks sans sunroof, makes up for what my car doesn’t have — a backup camera! It’s so handy to have, especially in a car you’re not familiar with.

I had this Scion iM to review for the week and I drove it up to San Francisco twice! That’s a rare occasion for me to head up to the big city that often, but I’ll take it!

First up was the Lancôme event at Clift Hotel, more to come on that later — because I’m super excited to show you some of their new launches coming out in June. And have you ever wished you could create your own foundation type, coverage, and lasting power? You’re going to want to stayed tuned to my blog, let me tell ya that much. If you follow me on Snapchat you’ve already seen the behind-the-scenes of what’s to come. Shh, don’t tell anyone! :)

Of course, Alfie (aka Captain in Command) is always my first passenger in the car. He loves goin’ for little joy rides. I never drive with him on my lap, ever. I was parked here.

Secondly, it’s been way too long since my husband had been to the City, so on the weekend we drove up and spent the entire day being tourists.

We hit up the California Academy of Sciences. I have to be honest, it was a bit of a dud. The Tech Museum in San Jose was way better and on a completely different scale. While the CAS had a great observation deck to view over the gorgeous Golden Gate Park, we were a bit disappointed in the place itself – plus it was really pricey for day passes! Yikes.

Across the park was the de Young Fine Arts Museum, so we walked over there before it closed.

We only had about 90 minutes to walk around before it closed but for me, that’s honestly long enough. You have to go up on the 9th floor to get an insane view of San Francisco! Don’t leave this building without going up there! Check out those views.

I saw some Picasso paintings (in case you didn’t know, I used to paint replicas of picasso when I attended art school!! I have a soft spot for ol’ Pablo!)

Neither of us had seen the Palace of Fine Arts up close before, and being the parkin’-pro I am, I snagged an excellent spot right in front (there’s extremely limited parking, about 10 spaces!).

This spot is always super populated with wedding & engagement shoots, and all sorts of other people in fancy outfits getting photographed. We saw a Ballerina getting her photos done… so gorgeous. I’m also super lucky since I snagged this guy in for TWO photos with me, in one day! A rare treat!

We finished off our sight-seeing and went down to the populated Fisherman’s Wharf to grab supper at Boudin, and dessert at Ghirardelli. And want to know a little somethin’? In the past 2 years we lived here in the Bay Area, Ghirardelli ice creams have doubled their prices lol. Just something we noticed!

I feel like reviewing cars for the week is such a great way to get a feel for how much I like the brand, or the vehicle type itself.

Wouldn’t it be great if, when you were looking to purchase your own car, dealerships would loan them out to you for that long too? That way you could get such a fantastic idea of whether or not you’d like to purchase. I mean, how much can you really tell with a 20 minute test drive?

Odd question I know, but what’s your favourite city to visit in North America? I have a couple of course:

• Toronto, ON
• St. John’s, NL (home! Explore your own city!!)
• San Francisco, CA
• Santa Cruz, CA
• Point Lobos, CA

Huge thanks to Scion for loaning me the car for a week to review!