Our last night in San Francisco but I can happily say that I saw enough. It’s a cool city but I didn’t fall in love with it like I have with other places. The only things I would have liked to do that we didn’t get to do today was visit Alcatraz and ride one of the trollies.
We started our day with a trip to Fisherman’s Wharf – what an incredibly huge tourist trap, but nonetheless, we had a good time. The sun was out but it was a bit hazey and down by the water it was a little on the cool side. I was hopeful (for warm California weather) and wore flip flops and no coat. Yeah, not the brightest idea. I hadn’t even thought about how much walking we would be doing and how much my feet would hurt after a few hours. Lesson learned for when we go to Disneyland – not to wear flip flops.
We walked all over – went in and out of the little shops lining the street, watching a couple hundred sea lions basking in the sun by Pier 39, and we ate lunch at the Boudin Bakery where I had clam chowder in a bread bowl, and Brent had chili in a bread bowl. It was SO yummy! I haven’t had such great clam chowder since I was in Boston MA years back. Brent wouldn’t even try it cause he doesn’t like clams, but I don’t like clams either and I still love clam chowder! Oh well, he just doesn’t know what he’s missing….
We also wanted to see the part of Lombard street that is the “Curviest Road in the World”. I’ve seen pictures of it and well, it really did look much cooler…in the pictures. I’m glad we saw it, I guess I just expected it to be much more exciting then it turned out to be. It wasn’t too far from Fisherman’s Wharf so we walked up there – UP there. Wow, the street we walked up was so steep. I have never walked up such a steep hill as this (except the times we hiked up mountain sides). We were such typical tourists – both of us holding our cameras, pulling out numerous maps trying to figure out where we were going. At least everyone around us was doing the same thing so we fit right in.
After several hours of walking around and seeing the same crappy tourist souvenirs in all the stores, we left and drove out to Ocean Beach – a beautiful beach with tons of sand. Brent took some pictures and we hung out there until we left to meet our friends for dinner. My friend Jen, who I was best friends with throughout my teenage years now lives in San Francisco (she works for Adobe/Macromedia). We met up with her and Peter (her husband) for dinner. Oh and they also took us to this store called Fry’s – this huge electronic/computer store – Brent really liked it there! We had an awesome dinner and the restaurant was sort of closing up around us. We were talking up a storm and hadn’t even realized how long we had been there and how late it suddenly was. I haven’t seen Jen for 3 years so it’s funny how as soon as I saw her it was like no time had gone by.
We leave first thing in the morning for our drive down to Anaheim, but we will be stopping along the way in Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara and some other places along the coast. Most likely we won’t have internet until Thursday night so probably no more blog entries until then.
Lunch at Boudin Bakery
The hill we walked up
At the top of the “Curviest Road in the World”
The sea lions
The Golden Gate Bridge in the distance
Sad how things often don’t actually compare to what we imagine them to be, hey? Sounds like you’re having a great time though, and I’m really enjoying reading about it.
I love that last picture of the bridge! Glad it’s going better for you now.
My favorite picture was the steep hill. Oh gosh, I would have died walking up that! Well I take that back, I would have even attempted walking up that. Jess you should be a writer! I love reading your blog!
oh Jess sounds like you guys are having a great time and break. I am happy for you both. the windy road wow.. how cool is that..
Looking forward to seeing what you get upto next.
Hope Brent’s back is holding up.
Sea Lions how cool…..what an adventure this has beome for us all…..have fun!
WOW!!! Your photos brought me back to the last time I was in San Fran!!!
How awesome!!! Thanks for reminding me how much I like that city! Too bad you didn’t love it that well … thinking you might have been to places you loved better … need to go travelling with you guys!!! =)