Ever since my childhood days spent watching Full House, I’ve always wanted to visit San Francisco. We actually planned on visiting it on our future road trip up the west coast, and then he booked a golf commercial that was shooting in San Fran, so we decided to drive up on a mini road trip together!
Saw some windmills on the drive up on the I5, which reminded me of the drive to Palm Springs! Missin’ it.
Anyway, we weren’t going to be spending a whole lotta time in San Fran, only a full day actually, so I had to decide on the specifics beforehand.
We reached San Fran in the evening on Sunday. First thing on the list we decided to do? Check out the Golden Gate Bridge from Crissy Field!
Then we hit up Ghiradelli Square and Fishermans Wharf because it’s basically right beside it. I thought it would be basically like Santa Monica Pier, and honestly, it basically was. Just more fisherman-y.
We also scoped out a place (Boudin Bakery) we wanted to eat at eventually. They had a tomato soup bread bowl, and it may be a lil strange, but I’ve never actually had soup out of a bread bowl, and I’ve always wanted to try it. So we decided we’d eat there on our last night in town.
The next day he was going to be shooting the commercial, and we weren’t sure when he’d wrap. It ended up being pretty late so we didn’t get to explore San Fran at all that day. We just picked up some Vegetarian Chinese food from “Enjoy Vegetarian” which was AMAZING. Definitely go there if you’re in town.
The following day was our final day because in case you didn’t know, San Francisco is expensive AF. So we decided to try and do as many things as possible!
First up?
Lombard Street! It’s that crazy steep zig-zagging street.
We parked at the top and walked down, then… we had to walk back up. Exhausting AF. Especially if you’re as out of shape as I am. Also, with asthma! Next up on the list? Haight-Ashbury for some thrifting. We stayed here an hour and I only took one shot of the street, and not even a very good one. But here it is:
Honestly, I could probably spend an entire day here. The vibe is a lot like Silverlake in LA or Kensington in Toronto, AKA my kinda place. There were some great vintage shops all up and down Haight Street from Stanyon Street to Central Avenue. Time was a-wastin’ though so we had to move along to our next stop…
Alamo Square and The Painted Ladies!
Recognize it? Full House intro anyone? It’s a pretty good view, but such a tiny park!
After that, we decided to visit Chinatown. We accidentally stumbled upon a heart on the way. Apparently, these are all around the city?
There was a Starbucks across from here (Dragons Gate) where I fueled up. Honestly, it was one of the tastiest coffees I’ve had in a long time. Just a blonde roast with some steamed soy, a pump of sugar-free vanilla syrup, and I added some packets of my own stevia and monkfruit. So. Good.
There’s only one street where all these lanterns are hanging. You start at Dragons Gate which is at Bush Street and Grant Avenue. Then you walk North on Grant Avenue.
After visiting Chinatown we went to see the Golden Gate Bridge from the other side.
Unfortunately, it was cloudy AF and we could barely see the bridge! We should have gone over there when we got to San Fran the first night because it was so clear… but hindsight is 20/20… and cloudless!
This is the Golden Gate Bridge View Vista Point. You just drive over the bridge and take the first right. There are another couple of viewpoints that we wanted to check out called the Golden Gate Viewpoint and Battery Spencer on the Marin Headlands side.
The views from this side are definitely better than from the Crissy Field spot we went to on the first night. So if you ever visit San Fran for the first time, definitely hit up this side first, especially if it’s a clear day.
Finally, we decided to grab a bite to eat from the Boudin bread bowl place I mentioned before at Fisherman’s Wharf.
We split the tomato soup in a sourdough bread bowl, spring salad without chicken, and the grilled cheese on sourdough. It was pretty freakin’ good.
After dinner, we decided to get a sundae from Ghiradelli Square. We got the “Ocean Beach” Sea Salt Caramel Sundae because he loves hot fudge and I love caramel.
Mmm… tastes like compromise. Lol. Actually, it was vanilla ice cream, sea salt, caramel sauce, and hot fudge topped with whipped cream and sea salt. It was good, but honestly, there were little gobs of salt which was kinda gross. Overall still good though. I kinda wish you could get a half-sized one though, it was A LOT. We could barely eat all of it!
After our sundae, we figured we had over a 5-hour drive home so we’d better get on the road before we were too tired.
After listening to a handful of podcasts we got home around 1 am. All in all a pretty cool trip. It was a little weird because even though I didn’t think I had preconceived notions about San Fran, I guess I did. It ended up being very different than I imagined it. It kind of reminded me of Toronto which was kinda weird! Maybe it was all the streetcars? Overall it was fun because I love exploring, but I was happy to come back home to LA. Would I go back again? Honestly, only if it was for work or free cause it was expensive AF. Definitely way too expensive in comparison to the other places we could go. But I’m glad I got to see everything! Another thing checked off of the list.
Next up, Portland and Seattle!
Until next time,
