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Read moreSan Francisco Travel Diary: Day Two
ABOUT OUR DAY
Day 2 began very early, we set off around 8 and we had no real plan for the morning. We decided to stop when our noses could no longer handle the fabulous smells coming from Beach Street Grill Organics. Dustin had the Fresh Crab Benedict- LOOKED awesome, tasted better, but I will let you guys be the judge of how it looks! We ate outside and the weather was perfect. February is actually a surprisingly great time to visit San Francisco. Of course, we were coming from the arctic soooo….. UPDATE: Unfortunately when checking links in 2022, Beach Street Grill has permanently closed.
OUR ALCATRAZ TOUR
After breakfast, we headed to check in for our reservations at the Alcatraz Excursions tour. From breakfast to Pier 33 it was about a 15-minute walk, perfect to undo the yummy food we couldn’t tear ourselves away from. With a little time to spare we stopped at Pier 39 to watch the sea lions- they were hilarious to watch! I am in love with them….they are an attraction all on their own!
The Alcatraz tour is streamlined and organized a definite plus when your time is limited. It is a short boat ride over to the island and then we were able to walk around the island on our own. They had an audio tour, I usually don’t love the audio tours but this one was interesting and informative. We learned so much about the prison itself and the day to day life of the prisoners and guards. This tour was not one to miss, take the time to book a tour with them. Just make sure you do it a couple of weeks in advance because they fill up fast! They also have a night tour, and I was told that needed to be booked even further in advance. The cost was worth the experience for sure, we would recommend doing it to anyone. Has anyone ever done the night tour? I'm not sure it would be for me…..ghosts…spoooooky!
The tour took 3 hours from start to finish including the boat ride times. We starting walking back towards Pier 39 to find some grub. We stopped at Eagle Cafe. We sat outside at the bar on the patio and saw the most amazing views of Alcatraz, the bay and Pier 39. A great place for people watching if I might add. The french fries were great, we both got the Crab Salad sandwhich. It wasn't what we were expecting but it was fine.
OUR LUNCH AND AFTERNOON
After lunch we walked by the bay all the way to the beach in front of the Maritime Museum. We took our shoes off and walked in the sand. They had a foot shower to wash off the sand and then we headed to Ghiradelli Square for a sweet treat. We got our chocolate squares and sat on the grassy hill for almost 3 hours. Being from Minnesota, the sun was a stranger and we couldn't be happier to be laying in the sun. There were dogs and people everywhere just relaxing, it was perfect! We headed back to the hotel to change for dinner.
DINNER TIME
We started our evening with oysters on the half shell and a glass of wine at the Wines of California Wine Bar. It was the perfect setting, we sat on the patio and watched the boats on the water. They had the prettiest lights and it was peaceful in the middle of the busy pier. Further down the pier at Hana Zen is where we had dinner, the sushi was amazing! We reccommend the Lion King roll, only a bit obsessed with Disney....its fine.... We ended our night by sitting on the benches listening to the sea lions on the pier, amazing! UPDATE: Unfortunately when checking links in 2022, both of these places have closed.
WHAT TO READ NEXT
San Francisco Travel Diary: Day One
WHERE WE STAYED
When we were planning our weekend getaway to San Francisco, we knew we wanted to stay in Fishermans Warf. Most of what we wanted to do and see were there so we decided to stay at Holiday Inn Fishermans Wharf. This hotel was perfect for what we needed it for. It was close to everything, and it was a great place to crash for the night, with such short trip- we knew we wouldn’t be in the room often. It was reasonably priced and the staff was great, they let us check in at 10 AM rather than the standard 3 PM- for free I might add!
ABOUT OUR DAY
We knew we wanted to maximize our time in San Francisco so we booked the earliest flight Friday morning. We arrived around 9:15 and got to our hotel at 10:00, we were hungry because our stomachs thought it was lunchtime for sure. We checked into our hotel and immediately went to find food. I had never been to In & Out Burger so obviously we ate lunch there.
After lunch, we set off to explore. As a rookie mistake we started walking uphill (we seriously recommend NOT doing that)! We started walking and walking and walking...and while it was fun, we ended up wearing ourselves out from too much walking. We should have utilized some public transportation and saved our feet from the abuse. We ended up taking the trolley from Fishermans Wharf to downtown San Francisco. The trolley took us right to the center of Union Square, where we found one of my favorite activities a plenty....shopping.
We didn’t spend much time in downtown, we did a bit of window shopping and then took the trolly back to Fishermans Wharf. We waited for about 30 minutes to get on the trolley but could have saved a lot of time walked up the street a bit and just hopped on. TIP: Just make sure you have your ticket ready if you go that route! We got off the trolley and headed back to the hotel to change for dinner.
We basically ate our way through San Francisco and we weren’t mad about it. We headed out from the hotel on the hunt for drinks. We stopped at Franciscan Crab Restaurant for drinks and calamari. We sat at the bar and the views were amazing. Drinks, Calamari and views...the trifecta of awesomeness. After we walked further to the pier, and stopped to eat dinner at Fog Harbor Fish House! Our service was fantastic and so was the food. Dustin had an entire Dungeness crab and I had the lobster mac n’ cheese. YUM! Can you really go wrong with lobster mac n' cheese? After all this yummieness and being completly full.... we were exhausted from traveling and walking {and eating} so we headed back to our hotel to pass out in a splendid food coma.
