Saturday morning I woke up early -well, if 9:30 counts as “early”- and we hopped in the car to head over to San Francisco. The plan: arrive in The City before noon, visit Baker Beach to get some pictures of Golden Gate, have lunch at Fisherman’s Wharf, take the trolley/cable-car downtown for a little shopping, hop back on the trolley and head home. Good plan, no? It was all going splendidly, until our hour-and-a-half drive turned into this monstrous nearly 4-hour ordeal. Ugh, traffic. There was no explanation for it; no construction, no car accident, no dead bodies in the middle of the road, not even a duck-crossing sign! Ridiculous.
At any rate, we finally reached The City and headed over to Baker Beach, with me as Official Navigator. The bridge was covered in fog, and it was a little windy, but we took pictures anyway and headed across town to Fisherman’s Wharf. I am unnaturally fascinated with the seals and sea lions at Pier 39 down on the Wharf. There’s no explanation for it, I just love them. So we went to pay them a little visit. And lo, and behold, it was sunny! Crazy San Francisco weather! 
While we were at the Wharf we wandered around for a little while, watched several different groups of street performers and had dinner at Boudin, home of amazing Clam Chowder and authentic San Francisco sourdough. Ah, a little bit of heaven (although I won’t even pretend to know how to pronounce the name… so much for a year of French!) And then, my favorite part of the day: the trolley ride. Again, I’m not quite sure why I am so fascinated with this – but taking an old-fashioned cable-car up and down the hills of San Francisco is by far, hands down, my favorite thing to do in The City. I love the idea of hanging onto the side of a trolley as you climb up Hyde Street, past Chinatown and the skyscrapers of downtown…. it gives me this unexplicable rush. Although by the time we actually got through the line and onto the car and downtown it was almost time to go home. So, a quick spin around the block, a cup of hot chocolate to warm me up and we were back on the trolley heading home. 
NEXT POST FROM SACRAMENTO: Old Sacramento
3 Comments so far
Leave a comment
And you didn’t even call me. Hmpfh.
Comment by Jurgen Nation 2007 August 7 @ 11:34 amI’m so jealous… I’ve never been to San Francisco. Can’t wait to see more pictures on your next trip.
Hot chocolate in August, though… I’m not a fan of that level of summertime chilliness.
Comment by L Sass 2007 August 7 @ 11:41 amOh, you are on my dream vacation! I’ve only been to the West Coast once, and have been waiting for the right time to go back ever since – so gorgeous!
Thanks for inspiring me to put that trip up and down the CA coast line at the top of my “Travel 2008″ list!
Comment by Trish Ryan 2007 August 7 @ 11:57 am