One day in San Francisco doesn’t seem like enough time, but we maximized our day to see as much as possible. I was surprised at how much we were actually able to do.
Our day started at 7:30 am to make our way to San Francisco, or as the locals call it, The City. We made it to an area called Sunset around 8:45 am and had breakfast at a little cafe called Beachside. It was super close to the beach (hence the name). This little cafe was so hipster and SO Californian. I had a salted caramel latte and a Belgian waffle with fruit. Eric had some breakfast sandwich that he ate before I could get a picture.
After breakfast, we made our way to the Pacific Ocean because I had never seen it before. I should mention that the whole time we were in California it rained. So it was a foggy mess all over San Francisco. When we arrived to the beach, it was more of the same.
However, I did get some cool shots of the fog hazing over the big cliff side and rocks jutting out of the ocean. Also, I got a little eager and misjudged the forcefulness of the waves coming ashore. All I heard was, “Lauryn watch it… WATCH OUT!” It was too late; shoes were soaked. It’s ok though; I was blessed by the Pacific.
We left the beach a little soggy, but happy! On we went to Muir woods.
The drive up was SO windy (the squiggly kind, not the blustery kind). When we finally reached Muir Woods, it was drizzling a bit harder, unfortunately. Neither Eric nor I brought any rain gear with us, so I had my one jacket with a hood and Kevin brought an umbrella that Eric used.
It was incredible how enormous those trees were. I tried to get as many pictures as I could with people in them so you could see just how big they were.
We stayed there for almost 2 hours, then we were on our way to the city. Along the way, we stopped to walk under the Golden Gate Bridge, then get some pictures with it.
As we got closer to the city, it really became clear just how different San Francisco was. Some cities you go to and it’s just like the others; nothing special that sets them apart from all the other huge cities. Not San Francisco. The massive hills, the beautiful homes; it is a city all its own.
Our next stop was the Painted Ladies. Beautiful homes, cool to see in person, probably won’t ever do it again if we ever come back.
Next, we made a quick stop to see the Full House house!
It was so cool to see something that represented a piece of my childhood!
We continued to Lombard street! We passed by tons of people crowded around the top of Lombard as we made our way down the curvy street.
We had seen pretty much everything we could see in 5 minutes or less, so we made our way to Fisherman’s Wharf. What keeps your car dry and cleans out your wallet all at the same time? A parking garage in California. It was $3 per 15 min. OH but they were so kind and capped the fee at $45. Que the biggest eye-roll you’ve ever seen.
We walked out of the garage almost straight on to Pier 39. There was this cute walkway over the road connected to the garage which was so convenient. We briefly walked through the little shops then immediately found the sea lions! They were so cute (and a little smelly). It was also neat because Karl the Fog was rolling in at the same time.
Side note: If you’ve ever been to San Francisco, you know they get some wicked looking fog that rolls in every now and then. If you haven’t, take a gander at my sea lion pictures to see what I’m talking about. At some point, someone named this fog Karl. Karl has his own Twitter. Enjoy!
Once the sea lions were done with us, we moved on in search of food. We walked all over the Wharf and it was just seafood after seafood. There were a couple places that had burgers, but I wasn’t wanting that. There was a place we passed earlier called Boudin and they had the word SOURDOUGH on their sign. I forced Eric and Kevin in to eating here and it did not disappoint! We all got soup in sourdough bread bowls. Eric got clam chowder and Kevin and I got tomato. We also got half sandwiches to go along with them, but I can’t remember what they were.
It was getting close to our Alcatraz tour time, so we wrapped up our late lunch and started walking to Pier 33. Alcatraz was so amazing, it deserves its own post, so I’m dividing this day! See the next post for our awesome and spooky Alcatraz adventure.
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