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San Francisco

I was going to post typical pictures in a lengthy Facebook album, but there’s so much to say about the hilly city on the coast!

To be frank, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to going to San Francisco. I wanted to spend my four day weekend beachside working on a tan (more like adding freckles). Josh has never been “northwest” so he wanted to explore while we are still childless! We were considering Portland or Seattle. I’ve already seen Seattle, and something about traveling to Portland on the 4th of July felt wrong. Thus, we landed on San Francisco.

I perused a few travel sites and flights, and to my surprise, we booked our trip a week out at a relatively decent price.

Day 1.

The morning of July 4th, we headed to the airport and hopped on a flight with Alaskan Airlines. We upgraded our seats to the first row at a relatively cheap cost. The plane felt more like a discoteca with the purple paneling, but we had a pretty easy flight.

We got a Lyft to travel into the city and were dropped off at our hotel. Josh and I planned on leaving our bags at the counter and walking the city until check-in. I greet the front desk clerk and she so kindly checks to see if we can check-in early. I give her my name. Spelling. Dates of reservation. Show her my confirmation email. We go back and forth, but there is no “Perry” staying at this hotel. A few minutes into it, we realize…I led us into the wrong hotel. Apologies.

After finding the RIGHT hotel, we drop our bags off and I suggest we walk to Fisherman’s Wharf. A measly 40 minute walk right?! I forgot we were in San Francisco. Josh and I sweat our way up and down the hills and take in the city. It was sunny and beautiful and so steep!

Our first stop at Fisherman’s Wharf: Boudin Bakery. Famous for their clam chowder bread bowls. HOWEVER, a sweaty pregnant Allison could not fathom a hot meal after a 40 minute hike. We both get crab sandwiches and we regret it to this day. Woof.

We then hop on our only scheduled event of the trip, a ferry ride around the bay. It was cold!!! We chose to sit inside the cabin and drink hot cider. They provided an audio tour that described literally anything you could think of around the bay. We sailed past Alcatraz and looped under the Golden Gate Bridge. Josh and I quickly took pictures outside before racing back inside to keep warm. If you do anything in San Francisco, I 100% recommend doing this!

After our ferry ride, we made our way to Pier 39. July 4th festivities were in full swing! Live music, crowds, and many street vendors selling hotdogs. Josh and I found the famous dock of sea lions. It. Was. Our. Favorite. Part. Of. The. Trip. They are HUGE! And so loud. Josh and I were smiling like kids, laughing at the playfulness of these sea lions.

|| (Here-lies a story that Josh may kill me for, but it shall be known). There was a hat store at Pier 39. Josh had been eyeing a Jaguars hat that he already ordered and that was currently being shipped to our Vegas home. It was also at this store. He tried it on and it fit. This is a great feat for Josh. He will even admit he has a big head, and many hats don’t fit. He talked himself out of buying the hat, but as we were about to leave, panic swept over and HE NEEDED THIS HAT. Our ride arrived and there was no time to go and get it. He begrudges me to this day. lol When we arrived home to Vegas, he quickly tried on his Jags hat…it didn’t fit. Many weeks later, and many phone calls to varying hat stores in Vegas...he has the hat!||

Anyway, we got in our Lyft and headed back to the hotel to check-in and catch a nap. As we woke, we noticed it was REALLY foggy out. I questioned if a fireworks show would happen. We decided to grab food and talk it over. Surprisingly, hardly any restaurants were open except Cheesecake Factory. The 1.5 hour wait led us to a local diner. Quaint and very much like Waffle House. I looked at Twitter for an update on local fireworks. Introducing “Karl the Fog” — a local phenomenon the great San Franciscans named. Every 4th of July, they wait to see if “Karl” will make an appearance. This year he did. We decided to go back to the hotel, eat a slice of cheesecake we ordered from the counter as we left The Factory, and watch the national fireworks on television. A much warmer plan!

Day 2.

Our hotel was connected to a little restaurant called Jasper’s. If you denied cleaning service each day, you received a $5 coupon to Jasper’s. Needless to say we ate there often, including breakfast on day 2!

After breakfast we walked to Union Square and looked at some local art vendors before heading to the Museum of Modern Art. Military got in for free! (what what) BUT the Andy Warhol exhibit cost $10 so we paid up. It was neat to see all of his original art, but I felt the crowds of people didn’t exactly create an environment to really appreciate it. Josh and I agreed that much of the museum art was just plane weird. Maybe we are too small-minded. LOL

Our next destination: The Painted Ladies! A friend of a friend suggested we grab sandwiches and ice cream at a market called Bi-Rite, and have a picnic overlooking the houses. This was tied for first for my favorite thing we did on the trip! It was beautiful weather, dogs were running around playing fetch, couples were cuddled under trees. It was magical. PS. I ate my ice cream before my sandwich. Ahhh…

I somehow managed to talk Josh into walking ANOTHER 40 minutes to the Golden Gate Park. Though this time, the trek was not as hilly. Our first stop was a conservatory, and honestly our only regretful $$ spent. It was overpriced for the small space. Pretty. But pricey. We then rented bicycles and made our way through the park. FYI, this park is a 10 mile loop. (lots of exercise this day) Josh LOVES to ride his bike fast. Again, there are hills. I spent much of my time breaking on the downhills and trying to catch my breath on the uphills. I had this overwhelming fear that if Josh got out of my sight I was going to die. So my sweet need-for-speed husband stayed close. We saw the ocean (surprisingly dirty), the famous windmills, and a large pond. By the time our 2 hour limit was up, we were both exhausted.

We got a Lyft to take us to Chinatown. At our driver’s recommendation we ate at Good Mong Kok. There was a long line, but moved quickly. I just pointed at what I hoped to be Dim Sum and handed the woman my card. I expected the bill to run around $25 like every other meal we had thus far… To my surprise it was $3.50. WHAT?! We walked to Union Square and enjoyed our very cheap, very delicious meal while watching skaters try to land a jump. The skating escalated to a teenage word war between a security guy. “Biggest hater of 2K19” as they called him. Josh and I got a good laugh.

At this point we had a solid 4 hours of daylight left, and it felt wrong to head back to the hotel. We were both exhausted, but we didn’t go to San Francisco to watch tv. My phone was already dead, so Josh got us an Uber to Coit Tower. I wanted to watch the sunset from the highest point in the city. My pregnant body finally caught up to the amount of exercise we were doing that day. I could barely make it up the stairs to the tower. At the top we realized it was closed *sigh*. Josh tried ordering a ride back to the hotel…but then his phone died.

Our plan A was to hail a cab. Our plan B was to find a phone charger. I reallyyy didn’t want to pay for a cab so I was onboard when Josh mentioned plan C; we walk back 2 miles without GPS. We stopped and asked for directions a couple of times. We actually had a great time walking back. We referred to ourselves as Lewis and Clark. Exploring America!!!!

Once back at the hotel, we crashed.

Day 3.

We woke up early to make our rental car reservation. Today we were going to drive the Golden Gate Bridge on our way to see some Redwood trees! I was TERRIFIED of Josh driving the hills of San Francisco. But I knew I couldn’t do it. He surprised me yet again with his ability to “punch it”.

The drive across the bridge was way shorter than I expected, but cool either way. We made our way up and over more hills to the John Muir monument, about 30 minutes outside the city. As we get closer we see signs that say “reservations required”. We kept going anyway. When we reached the ticket guy…yup, we needed a reservation to park. There is NO news of this on the internet btw. He suggested we park at the beach and walk the 3 miles up to the park entrance. After day 2, we weren’t in the mood for a major hike. Luckily, we parked on the shoulder with a few other cars about a mile down the road.

The park was free for military. (woop again!) It was just as amazing as I thought it would be. Josh had never seen big trees. You could hurt your neck if you look up too long. Again, if you ever go to San Francisco, GO HERE! It was beautiful and quaint and neat to think you were just outside the city. We bought shirts (kind of a park tradition for us) and made our way back to the car.

We drove to Muir Beach and sat on driftwood, watching families lather on sunscreen and boogie board. It felt right. Josh and I picked out “our house” on the coastline, but both agreed that we’re Atlantic people.

Then it was time for food! I was especially excited to eat lunch on the coastline of Sausalito after googling this cute little town. We chose a restaurant called Barrel House Tavern. It was SLAMMED with people. We ended up getting perfect seats out on the deck over-looking the bay, albiet chilly. We walked around downtown and got ice cream directly after (which offered one free scoop to military!). As we go to pick up our car from a valet lot, the guy took forever to come to the window…and then charged us for another hour of parking 2 MINUTES past our allotted window of time. I was livid and started to argue with the guy. This momma-to-be was not about to get ripped off. But I felt silly arguing with a guy while eating my free ice cream, so we just got in the car and left. Whatever.

We were capital “E” exhausted after that and decided to go scout a location to take a Golden Gate pic, however, all scenic points were closed. We hiked a small trail on the San Francisco side of the bridge and luckily caught some good ones while the sun was shining! A short hike back to the car, and we decided to ride the coastline in our rental. It was neat to experience the city on our own terms, in our own car!

After riding around town and me FREAKING out over the hills (literally thought we would flip upside down), we went to the hotel for a quick nap before our last stop of the trip — a San Francisco Giants game.

We were skeptical walking up to buy tickets…everyone had on many layers. We’re talking fur coats and ugg boats. Josh was gentleman enough to lend me his wind breaker to wear over my single sweater. We caught 5 innings and a grand slam before calling it quits due to the cold. COLLLLLLDDDDD COLD. Our night was capped with street sausages and warm showers.

The next morning we got a Lyft back to the airport and flew home with ease (this time not in front row seats).

My must-do list if you have limited time in San Fran:

My must-have list:

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