June 04, 2013

San Francisco

We hit the ground running once we arrived in San Francisco and enjoyed three days in the city. We stayed at the Elks Lodge in South San Francisco which was very nice. We did not see anyone the three days we were there and it was only a twenty minute ride on the BART ( Bay Area rapid transit) into town and back each day.


On the first afternoon in town we rode in to Powell Station and then caught a bus down to the Fisherman's Wharf area and explored Pier 39. It was bustling with tourists and we enjoyed some crab chowder before watching the sea lions down the wharf.


We strolled on down to the old part of Fishemans Wharf watching street performers along the way. We resisted more food!


We did take a long trolley ride over the rolling hills from Fisherman's Wharf before heading back south for the night.


Day 2 started with a visit to Chinatown. What an American treasure. We wandered forever weaving among the back alleys and stopping in the parks. It was a surprise to see all the laundry hanging out to dry from the upper floors.






In the Peninsula Seafood Restaurant having some dim sum, I realized we were the only non Chinese there.


From Chinatown we ventured over to North Beach, a largely Italian neighborhood, where we stopped for wine and coffee and tiramisu.


After gathering steam we walked to Lombard Street and actually walked the 253 steps to the top. The tourists sure know how to find this stop which makes it just a fun place to be. Instead of being wise and catching a trolley we then wandered the streets over to Ocean Beach where we hopped a train back to the Powell Street Station for our ride home.

On our third day we planned to ride our bikes in Golden Gate Park but sore calf muscles prevented this. We instead had a most fantastic tour of the Botanical Gardens, looked through the art museum, and explored the science museum. The penguins were my favorite. What a nice little museum well worth the visit.




It would be easy to stay in San Francisco forever but we went north to Petaluma thinking we would return the next day, but by then there were new adventures to be had.



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