San Francisco

San Francisco was a short, but sweet, visit.  We found a hotel just outside the city on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge where we could still take the bus into town.  The first night we were thinking to go into town but we were unsure on how the bus operated and the hours, so we ended up going to this sushi restaurant right next to our hotel.  It was awesome!  Elisabeth took the salmon sashimi as she usually does and Antoine and I ended up taking a combo of various sushi with the soups and salad included.  It was absolutely delicious with their little green tea on the side.  After dinner we went for a walk around the area, we were surprised to discover that there were rich neighborhoods right behind our hotel that had a view right on the bay.  There was a little nature trail that went winding behind the beautiful townhouses and along the bay that we discovered.  We rented a movie at the redbox before going back to our hotel.  

The next day was our big day in San Francisco.  We got an early start on the bus, which took us an eternity to figure out!!!  We ended up in the heart of downtown San Francisco near Union Square off of Market street.  It was a Saturday so it was a bustle of street entertainers, tourists, and locals doing their shopping in the elegant nearby boutiques and department stores.  We went straight to the visitor’s center to know where to start.  We were advised to first hit the coast near Port 39 and Wharf’s Harbor. 

We had lunch before heading out there at this Irish pub that served fresh cooked meats on sandwiches with delicious soups. 

Union Square was hosting a Korean Festivals with dancers and performers.  We headed up the steep streets towards the bay and went through China Town on the way.  It was fun to see all the different shops and restaurants.  We bought Elisabeth a little purple traditional Chinese dress, she was very excited about this.  Then we stopped off at a hair salon and all of us got our hair cut before having a quick stop with tea and delicious pastries.  We felt a little out of place since it was only the local people that lived in China town, but the desserts were delicious!! 

We stopped off at Washington Square to see the cathedral and let Elisabeth play at the park for a little while to give our feet a break!

Washington Square

We finally made it to the bay, this is the very touristic area of San Francisco.  Unfortunately it was too foggy to have a view on the Golden Gate Bridge but there was a lot of activity on the harbor.  There were street performers, restaurants, and tons of shops.  We walked down the quay to see Alcatraz Island off in the distance plunged in the fog.  There were sea lions lounging on platforms just below the quay. 

Alcatraz Island

Around 5:00 the boats were doing their last rounds bringing people out onto the bay, we were lucky and found a boat that was bringing people out around Alcatraz Island for just $10 a person.  So we jumped on and headed out onto the bay.  Well I was imagining that it was going to be a leisurely ride out and around Alcatraz but in fact once you get out of the harbor area the waters are quite rough!  So we did get splashed a few times and it was quite the ride over the gigantic waves!  But we had a lot of fun and great views of Alcatraz!  The boat ride lasted around 45 minutes and we had beautiful views of the city from the water. 

Getting ready to head out to sea!

A view of San Francisco from the bay

Alcatraz Island

The Jeremiah O'Brien where parts of Titanic was filmed (the parts in the machine room).

Thankfully the boat ride didn’t shake us up too much and we still had an appetite for dinner after!  We decided to have dinner in Little Italy so we headed back up the streets in this direction.  It took us awhile to decide on which restaurant we wanted to go to since there were so many choices.  We ended up at this little pizzeria where the staff barely spoke English.  The food was great and we had lots of pizza left over for lunch the next day. 

Finding the bus in the dark was not a fun ordeal, if Portland was very easy to figure out, San Francisco was the most confusing I have seen outside of Paris!  We walked for what seemed like an eternity to the street where we thought our bus picked up but none of the stops had our bus number on it.  Finally, we stopped to ask someone at a hotel and he had no idea either.  We were standing there trying to figure it out when we saw our bus passed by so I waved her down and thankfully we finally made it on and back to our hotel.