San Francisco – City by the Bay -The City – whatever you call it, I’m sure you’ll agree it is one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
We are so lucky to live close to such an amazing place and also lucky we were able to spend 3 days there recently with the monkeys taking advantage of all the sights during their Spring Break. Bonus, Libby was attending a conference in The City so we got to crash in her hotel room for a couple of nights!
While there are almost endless things to do in The City, even with kids, here are a few of the places we hit this last trip.
Day One
First, we bought 48-hour Hop-On-Hop-Off bus tickets on the double-decker tour bus as a means of easily getting us around all the “hot spots”. The weather was gorgeous, so this was absolutely the way to go to see all the beauty The City has to offer.
The views were amazing. Our first destination, a drive over the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito for lunch.
First beautiful sighting, the Palace of Fine Arts:
Next, as we approached to cross, we could see the famous Golden Gate Bridge from the top of the bus:
Then, a stop across the bridge for lunch in the precious town of Sausalito:
After lunch, we took a little walk through town to view the shops, nearby islands and the city skyline from across the bay.
The skyline views were even better heading back to The City from the top of the bus:
We take the bus back to Fisherman’s Wharf to get the boys some clam chowder in a bread bowl and to take a tour of the USS Pampanito submarine:
Then it was time to head back to our hotel near Union Square to meet Libby for dinner (and beer) at the Cheesecake Factory on Union Square.
Day Two
The first destination of day 2 on the Hop-On-Hop-Off Bus was The California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park.
We really enjoyed the Rainforest and the planetarium show inside.
Because the day was so gorgeous, and while waiting for the bus to return, we took time for the all-essential relaxing nap and lounging on the grass:
Next destination, Ocean Beach – which was super exciting since the weather was so unseasonably warm!
Then it was time to head back to the hotel near Union Square to meet Libby for dinner in Chinatown!
San Francisco’s Chinatown is the largest Chinatown outside of Asia as well as the oldest Chinatown in North America – and a fun place to eat and shop!
Then a quick walk over to Plentea for an after-dinner Bubble Tea:
Day Three
Day three begins with breakfast at Lori’s Diner (an essential to me when visiting The City with hungry kids):
Then a walk back through Chinatown to look for goodies to buy:
Today, we don’t have Hop-On-Hop-Off tickets so we head to Fisherman’s Wharf on the Cable Car.
Today, we visit the USS Jeremiah O’Brien one of two remaining fully functional Liberty ships built and launched during World War II.
The ship has guns on each side that the kids can play on – as you can see here I suddenly have “3” kids:
With the tour, you get pretty much full ship access to the ship including the engine room where the scenes from the movie “The Titanic” by James Cameron were filmed.
There’s also a full museum and a movie to watch inside:
Bonus! There are views of Alcatraz from the deck, and,
GORGEOUS views of The City’s skyline from the deck, too.
Our trip was then coming to a close, but not before one more quick bowl of soup in a delicious sourdough bread bowl from Boudin Bakery!!
Some of us might have taken a little bit of a snooze on the way home too:
Of course, no “trip” with Pops and I is complete until I make the trip video. Here it is – hope you like it:
Hope you enjoyed following our little “staycation” over Spring Break!
