Much like my trip to Salt Spring
I was blown away by my trip to San Fran!
But alas my family and I,
only had a mere 2 half days and a full day
to explore the expansive city!
Here's how we did...
My sister and I
And our crazy parents (see the resemblance :P)
had a short and pleasant plane ride down from Vancouver
(yay for extra leg room in the emergency exit row!),
but still decided to have a pretty mellow night in San Fran...
We explored Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf,
which was only a short walk from our hotel,
got some dinner and margaritas in us,
and did some sightseeing and shopping.
We grabbed a bottle of wine, a few blocks of cheese,
and headed back to our hotel for a good rest
before our full day of sightseeing.
We woke up early and headed down to the dock
for our trip over to Alcatraz!
I had never been to a prison before,
(I know shocking, right?)
so that on top of the intense history of Alcatraz,
made it a truly great tour.
Back over on the mainland we finally found out
where to catch our prepaid Hop on Hop of Tour Guide Bus
and rode it into Chinatown.
Being that it is the largest Chinatown outside of Asia,
there was tons to see there and little trinkets to buy.
By this point we were starving for some lunch and took a gamble
on the first restaurant sign that we found
and ended up stumbling upon this gorgeous and delicious restaurant.
From there we hopped back on the tour bus,
and let it show us around this city
The Painted Ladies
Riding on the top of a open air
tour bus over the Golden Gate bridge
was one of my favorite memories from the trip...
especially when my mom stood up many rows ahead of us
and tried to walk towards us and get her knitting!
Talk about dangerous, considering the winds were rapid
up there, and my Dad had already lost his hat to the breeze!
After the tour we came back into the area of our hotel
and jumped onto one of the trolley cars
which took us up to the famed Lombard st.
Lucky me, there were no more seats so
I got to hang off the trolley car riding up the steep San Fran hills!
View from the bottom of Lombard st.
(which is the only thing I remember about San Fran from going as a kid).
As the sun started to set, we made our way back down to Fisherman's Wharf
and had dinner at the amusing "Joe's Crab Shack"
where they sing and dance every hour on the hour!
Then after wards we roamed down by the fish stalls
before heading back to our hotel for the night :)
Bright and early the next morning
I convinced my mom to come explore the Farmers Market with me
whilst my dad and sister snored away.
We got down there at quarter to eight
and the vendors were still setting up their wares.
So we grabbed a tea, and enjoyed watching the
very quite city dust off its sleep and greet the morn.
This was my favorite sight of San Fran as we got see
what it would be like to live in this beautiful city!
At first I was disappointed by the size of the Farmer's market,
till I found out that it was not only the large row of white tents out front of the ferry building,
but also spanning across the street, inside, and behind the large ferry building.
Which then make it the largest farmers market that I had been to :)
You would not believe how happy I was to see mountains of cherries,
nectarines, and peaches on every stand! So tasty!
We went back to grab our sleeping beauties from the hotel,
jumped back on the tour bus, and took in the last of the city we had yet to see.
There was one quick stop on Haight st, to visit some of the shops,
and then it was back on to our hotel to pick up our luggage
and venture onto the second part of our trip.
Instead of flying back to Vancouver we had the
unique pleasure of taking a cruise ship back home.
And a 4 day cruise was just what we needed
after bustling around San Fran for the last two days.
We spent most of the cruise...
hanging by the pool,
relaxing in the hot tub with margaretta's in hand,
lounging in the thermal spa with our novels,
getting a full body massage and facial,
watching game shows and plays at night,
taking a wine tasting seminar,
having afternoon tea,
and
watching movies outdoors on the giant screen...
We also had a quick stop over in Victoria,
for one of the days,
where we hit the museum,
Chinatown and big bad johns bar
so my mom and sister could leave there bras there.
(Which my mom's bra is their new peanut holder!)
As you can see it was a truly fantastic trip,
and I can't wait to head back to San Fran in the near future with my man.
But as for now I am glad to be back in my lovely home,
where the sun is starting to come out for spring.
-Love Nymph xoxoxoxo
