California Raod Trip Day 8&9 - San Francisco

To read more about the planning of our California Road trip go here. To read about previous stops on our trip, click on the following links:

Day 1(San Diego)

Day 2 (LA)

Day 3 Part 1 (LA)

Day 3 Part 2 (Yosemite)

Day 4 (Yosemite)

Day 5 (Napa)

Day 6 Part 1 (Napa Hot Air Baloon Ride)

Day 6 Part 2 (Pacific Coast Highway Beaches)

Day 6 Part 3 (Glamping)
Day 7 Part 1 (Half Moon Bay and Muir Woods)
Day 7 Part 2 (San Francisco)

 

California Road Trip Day Eight & Nine Itinerary

In preparation for day eight and nine, I had the following in a folder: an itinerary for the day, printed driving directions, copies of reservations for our restaurant and hotel, and all flight documents.

9:00 a.m. - wake up and get ready for our day

11:00. a.m. - walk to an early Lunch at Hang Ah Tea Room

12:00 p.m. - sightsee China Town
1:00 pm. - Walk to Lombard Street

1:30 p.m. - walk to Ghiradelli Square for dessert
2:oo p.m - walk to http://www.sftravel.com/fish.htmlfor sighseeing and clam chowdercheck

3:00 p.m. - walk to Pier 39 for sightseeing
5:00 p.m. - dinner at Crab House at Pier 39 
6:00 p.m. - walk back to the Hilton
7:00 p.m. - clean up for the eveing, pack our bags, and get a good night's sleep


6:00 a.m - wake up and get ready for the day
8:00 a.m - check out of hotel
8:30 a.m - drop off car at car rental
9:00 a.m. - check bags and go through security at San Francisco airport
11:05 a.m. - flight leaves SF
3:15 p.m. - flight connects in Houston
5:20 p.m. - flight leaves Houston
 11:15 p.m. - flight arrives in Indy
11:30 p.m. - have friend pick us up to go home
12:00 p.m. - home sweet home
 

A few pics of our day.....

San Francisco, home of the trolley….



….and the cable car.

Neither of which we actually rode, because our hotel was within walking distance to just about everything in SF.

It was the last city we visited on our road trip, and day eight of our trip started off right across the street from our hotel in China Town.



China Town is great place to get cheap souveniers, but we went to China Town primarily for one reason....lunch at Hang Ah Tea Room.  It's a little bit off the beaten path, and if I didn't do my research I would have never discovered it.

Definitely a hole in the wall kind of place, which is usually the best kind.  The prices were great….

….and the food was even better.

I had heard that the best dim sum in all of SF was here.  One bite and my husband agreed.

It was the cheapest meal we had on our entire trip, and my husband believes it is the best meal he’s had in his entire life.  He was in heaven with authentic Chinese food.

Me, well I stuck to my Americanized Chinese food…sweet and sour chicken.  Although, I will say that is the best sweet and sour chicken I’ve ever had.

After lunch we took a mile walk towards the water, passing by the well known hallmarks of SF, such as Washington Square Park…..

….beautiful row houses….

….. and Lombard Street.

Tourists surround Lombard Street just to get a picture in front of this infamous part of SF, and since I was a tourist I found myself doing just that.

After our long walk towards the water, we found ourselves stopping at Ghiradelli Square for the second time in 24 hours:) This place is a MUST when visiting SF!

I must say that the Nob Hill Chill might just be my favorite thing about SF!  Such chocolaty goodness!  I’m drooling just thinking about it!

The day only got better as we arrived at Fisherman’s Wharf.

Lot’s of free entertainment here….

….you don’t have to walk far to find all sorts of street acts.

But the best part of Fisherman’s Wharf was the fresh clam chowder in a warm sourdough bread bowl.

Clam chowder bowls are sold in just about all of the local stands in the area.  It was a great afternoon “snack” for us to share and only cost $7.  Can’t beat that:)

Fishermen were bringing in their catches as we were ordering our little snack, so I can’t even begin to tell you how fresh the food was.

Yep, chilly day by the water + a warm bread bowl with clam chowder = AWESOMENESS!  We can’t get it that fresh here in the Midwest.  Really wish we had something comparable, because I’m totally craving it now!

Not far from the clam chowder stand was the Boudin Bread Factory…

….where warm bread is baked and sold right before your eyes.  Between Ghiradelli chocolate and Boudin bread, SF was a great place for me to break my diet for a day.  Totally worth it for a day, but way too tempting if I lived there.

Just a short walk from Fisherman’s wharf is Pier 39…

…which is probably most know for the abundance of sea lions that lounge right by the pier….

….although we only saw two sea lions while we were there.  Apparently the sea lions go away in the middle of summer to mate.

We may have missed out on the sea lions, but Alcatraz didn’t go anywhere.  The famous prison is easily seen from the end of the pier.

Aside from shops and restaurants, the pier has live entertainment to offer….

….and a wonderful farmer’s market.



The market was definitely our favorite part of the pier.

I’ve never tasted such fresh, luscious juicy fruit in all my life!  Really wish we could get it that way here in Indy.

Since the majority of our day was spent indulging in food, we really finished our day well with fresh, buttery crab at the Crab House.

This guy was our last meal of the day!  Crab isn't cheap, so sharing one whole crab was the best way for us to go.




It was my first experience eating fresh crab.



A little too messy for me, but eating fresh crab is part of the SF experience.  It was a must try!

After stuffing ourselves, we called it a night and walked back to our hotel for the evening. Overall, San Francisco was packed with fun and food - two of our favorite things!!!  It was a great place to spend the last few days of our trip:)

After a wonderful night’s rest, we woke up the following morning and headed to the airport to catch an 11:00 flight out of California. 

We got through security with a little time to spare, and we couldn’t help but eat lunch at Boudin in the SF airport, where we purchased one last clam chowder bread bowl to share.  Not as fresh as Fisherman’s Wharf, but a great last meal to have on our California adventure!

Not as fresh as Fisherman's Wharf, but a great last meal to have on our California adventure!


Two flights later and we were back home.   We made it back to Indy around midnight and were welcomed with temps over 100 degrees.  I was really missing the cool California temps as soon as we stepped off the plane, but one thing is for sure....we were glad to sleep in our own bed after nine days of travel.  We love taking trips, but at the end of the day, there's no place like home;)

California Road Trip Day 7 Part 2 - San Francisco

To read more about the planning of our California Road trip go here. To read about previous stops on our trip, click on the following links:

Day 1(San Diego)

Day 2 (LA)

Day 3 Part 1 (LA)

Day 3 Part 2 (Yosemite)

Day 4 (Yosemite)

Day 5 (Napa)

Day 6 Part 1 (Napa Hot Air Baloon Ride)

Day 6 Part 2 (Pacific Coast Highway Beaches)

Day 6 Part 3 (Glamping)
Day 7 Part 1 (Half Moon Bay and Muir Woods)

California Road Trip Day Seven Itinerary

In preparation for day seven, I had the following in a folder: an itinerary for the day, printed driving directions, and copies of reservations for our restaurant and hotel.

7:30 a.m. - wake up, get ready and check out of glamp site

9:00. a.m. - breakfast in Half Moon Bay at 3-Zero Cafe

11:00 a.m. - see the California coastal redwoods of Muir Woods
1:00 pm. - walk the Golden Gate Bridge

3:00 p.m. - drive the down the infamous, steep curves of Lombard Street
4:oo p.m - check into the Hilton, rest and clean up for dinner

7:00 p.m. - sushi for dinner at Ozumo
8:00 p.m. - walk to Ghiradelli Square for dessert
9:00 p.m. - walk back to hotel
11:00 p.m. - get a good night's sleep

A few pics of our day.....

After visiting Muir Woods, we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge one last time.  Although, this time we pulled off of the exit for the bridge view and officially began our sightseeing of San Francisco.  There’s no better first stop for sightseeing than this infamous red bridge.

Finding parking was difficult, but once my we achieved that task picture taking was a must!

Our original plan was to walk across the bridge and back.

Matt got about half way before getting too cold and coming back.

I didn’t even make it that far.  I was not anticipating how cold it was going to be on that bridge, especially with the wind!  Let’s just say that I did not dress for the occasion and was really wishing I had my North Face jacket with me.  I told Matt to meet me in the visitor’s center when he was done, because I couldn’t handle the cold in my flip flops and cardigan.

After visiting the Golden Gate Bridge, we visited the second most famous thing in SF, Lombard Street. 

The line to drive down this famous, windy road stretches for sometime.  Going up is a steep, long wait. 

And going down is quick and over before you know it.  I wouldn’t do it again, but it’s just something you have to say you did if you’re visiting SF.

After the scenic drive, we checked into our hotel.  Hotels in SF are expensive.  There’s no way to get around it.  In my research, I found that one and two star hotels were not good for us location wise, and three star hotels were about the same price as four star hotels.  I also found that location was one of most important things for us in SF, because we planned on walking everywhere.  Like NYC, parking in SF is a nightmare, so best advice is to sightsee SF without driving. Taking all of that into Consideration, Pricelining a hotel was too risky.  We wouldn’t be guaranteed a good location, and parking garages at hotels are super expensive.  That meant that I also needed to research a hotel that had a public parking garage nearby our hotel and was also safe and affordable.  When all of those things were taken into consideration, we sucked it up and paid more than we wanted to for the Hilton in the financial district of SF.  It was the best price we could get for a nice hotel in a good location. 

The Hilton was nice.  It was a typical four star hotel.  The rooms were nice.  The bay view was a nice touch, although the windows were pretty dirty.  Internet access was only free in the lobby.  The parking garage across the street was only $30 a day, instead of the $50 a day that most hotels charge.  The hotel was in a central location for sight seeing.  The only thing we couldn’t walk to was the Golden Gate Bridge, but we did that on the way into the city.  While the hotel says that it is in the financial district, it’s really right across the street from China Town.  Even the décor of the hotel is Chinese.  Overall, we had a nice stay at this hotel.

After cleaning up in our hotel, we were ready for our dinner reservations.  One of the only requests that Matt asked for on our trip was that I find a great place to eat sushi.

The result of my research was that Ozumo was the best place to get sushi in SF.

It’s pricy….

…..but it’s really good.

It was only a mile from our hotel, so we walked here for dinner.

Matt got his sushi for dinner, so I got my Ghirardelli for dessert.

Ghirardelli Square is well known in SF, and is home to the original Ghirardelli chocolate factory.

It was a two mile walk from dinner to dessert and another mile back to our hotel, so the three mile walk made me feel a little bit better about devouring my hot fudge sundae:)

 

Ghirardelli was definitely a great way to end our first night in San Francisco!