The City by the Bay

I love San Francisco.  I first visited 10 years ago with my two high school bff’s. While most other kids in our graduating class were going to Myrtle Beach, SC for ‘beach week,’ we had no interest, and instead jetted across the country to visit San Francisco & Santa Cruz.  It was lovely. I’ve had nothing but love for San Francisco since we left a decade ago, and have always wanted to go back.  This weekend, Zac & I hopped on a dusk flight across the country, chased the sunset,and spent the weekend in the city. 

He had never been, so I felt like we needed to do as much as possible.  We got a hotel in Fisherman’s Wharf, and on Saturday we set out on a crazy, fun-filled, and GRUELING itinerary of ‘lets see where our feet can take us, and just be surprised.’ My favorite kind of travel - go where the wind takes you, and discover new things. 

First thing in the morning we walked through fisherman’s wharf along the piers.  We made a stop a the famed Pier 39 so Zac could see the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, and the Bay Bride for the first time. We also had fun watching the sea lions.

After breakfast, we set out on foot to explore, we made our way along Lombard St. for awhile and set off on an uphill journey.We started seeing signs for the Coit Memorial Tower, which I had never been inside, and continued uphill for a grueling walk that my legs are hating me for today.

There was a steep staircase that we climbed, and caught the morning light filtering through the trees exposing a bit of the famous tower.

When we finally reached the top, we ventured inside to check out the murals and purchase tickets to head up to the top of the tower, for some exquisite 360 views of the city.

The tower itself is kind of…smelly.  It kind of smells like a hundred cats inhabit it on the off hours, but I can confidently say it was well-worth the scent for the views.  We were lucky to visit on such a clear day, and I was in awe by the views of the city and all of the landmarks:

After we had our fill of the views, we hopped on a muni bus and rode around for about 10 minutes before deciding to hop off and continue our foot journey, agreeing not to take too many more uphill journeys ;)

We happened upon China Town, which happens to be one of my most favorite places from my visit to San Francisco a decade ago. We meandered the streets, and purchased a little china outfit for our boy.

Next we wandered around for awhile, had a couple of beers at O’Reilly’s Irish Pub, and hailed a cab to Haight-Ashbury, my other favorite place from my last trip!

We wandered around many shops, stopped for another cold beverage & lunch, and decided to walk and figure out what else we could find in this city.

I must say that I love the culture of San Francisco.  Anywhere you look you might see a ritzy townhome next to a graffiti mural, or even quotes taped to the sidewalk:

We walked for HOURS (again, legs hate me now), and happened upon Market Street. We walked past UN Plaza, through all of the shops, and through the financial district. 

We finally made it back to Fisherman’s Wharf and did another walk-through to see the golden gate at sunset, and made a quick trip to Ghiradelli Square.

We were originally set to fly out on Sunday morning, but after looking at the flight loads, we decided to hop on the red-eye last night, which was actually nightmarish.  We got to the airport for an 11:30 departure at 8:30 (totally thought it would take longer to get through security, but we were at the gate by 8:45) and realized that the flight was delayed until 1:30 AM.  We sat around the airport for 5 1/2 hours before boarding and didn’t actually take off until 2:30 AM. We chased the sunrise on the way home, above the clouds once more, and landed in DC around 10:30 AM. Full Circle.

It was truly a whirlwind trip, and though we missed our boy like crazy, I was so pleased to be away with my husband, and happy that we were able to squeeze SO much fun into 24 hours!