San Francisco Weekend
Day 1
For our family weekend in San Francisco, we stayed on Fisherman’s Wharf at the Fairmont Heritage Place, Ghirardelli Square. It was a boutique luxury hotel that primarily featured apartment style rooms. We stayed in a two bedroom loft style room with a beautiful view of the bay and Alcatraz Island.
As soon as we checked in we headed over to the Powell-Hyde Cable Car Terminus and we queued up for a cable car ride. The line was long; it probably waited 30 minutes or more. We rode the cable car until we got to Chinatown where we hopped off.
In Chinatown, we walked through the main shopping area, stopping for a delightful tea shopping experience at Red Blossom Tea Company; our host took excellent care of us explaining to us the varieties of teas. She let us try a couple of different kinds.
We took a cab back to our room and got ready for dinner. We met by brothers Steve and Tom a Scoma’s on Fisherman’s Wharf. It was just a short walk away. It was alot of fun meeting with Steve and Tom.
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Day 2
For our first full day, we checked-out bikes from our hotel and peddled from Fisherman’s Wharf over the Golden Gate Bridge and over the hills to Sausalito. From there, we took the ferry back.
Heading West along the waterfront. We started by peddling on the north most section of Van Ness, curving left up the hill on McDowell Rd to Black Point Battery. Following the road down the hill it connects with Marina Blvd. We followed the nicely marked bike trails along the water front past the Marina Green, Crissy Field as the road become Mason St. At a fork in the road, we go up the Crissy Field Ave hill, stop for pictures at the top of the hill. Then we head up the final stretch, called Battery East Trail, up to the entrance to the bridge.
Entering the bridge. The entrance to the bridge divides between bikers and walkers. For today, only the east side, the pedestrian side, was open. So we bikers were sharing the bridge with other bikers and walkers. The biking/walking entrance area was a little congested and you had to queue up to get on the bridge.
Riding the Golden Gate Bridge. The biking/walking area was about three bike lanes wide. Two-lanes for bikers and one lane for walkers; traffic was mostly going north, but some heading south. We had to be careful because some of the walkers and bikers were not going single file and clogged things up a little. It was ok; we were all having fun, we just had to be careful. On one side are cars going 50 mph and on the other side is the edge of the bridge over the San Francisco Bay… the guard rails were good, but a little unnerving.
Sausalito. We stopped a couple of times on the bridge; there are a couple of sections that are wider and easier to stop. When we finally got to the North end of the bridge we took a brief break then headed on to Sausalito. The peddling was up one steep hill, then a fast, steady downhill ride into the center of Sausalito. The city has a designated bike parking area. We parked and then had lunch at the Napa Valley Burger Company outdoor cafe on Bridgeway.
Ferry. We timed our lunch to finish to catch the Sausalito Ferry. There were two lines, one for pedestrians another line for bike riders. The bikers enter the ferry and parked their bikes in the lower level. At least half the passengers on our boat were bike riders. The ferry is nicely equipped to handle bikes.
Our ferry ride was a nice smooth boat ride directly from Sausalito to the Pier 41 along Fisherman’s Wharf. We got some nice pictures of the bridge and Alcatraz Island. When we docked at the pier, the walkers got off first, then the bike riders. We bought tickets on the boat.
Sea Lions. As a treat, we got to see the Sea Lion Harbor right next to Pier 41. It looks like dozens of them are living a section of the dock. Lots of people came to see them.
From the pier we rode our bike back to our hotel… what a fun ride!!
Background: Cathie and I did this bike ride 5 years ago. This time we took Liz and Mike. What a delight to share this experience with them.
The bike ride was too much for me. I hurt my knee. For the rest of the afternoon, I stayed in the hotel and Cathie and the kids went to the Hayes Valley area to go shopping. They liked the area so much, they came back and got me and we had dinner at the Absinthe Brasserie.
Day 3
After yesterday’s bike ride over the Golden Gate Bridge, yours truly was hobbled. While not serious, I need to stay off my feet. For our second day in San Francisco we opted to take the Hop-on / Hop-off tour of the city. I swore I’d never take one of those double-decker buses, and now here I am taking one, and in the end, it worked out great, I learned alot and the whole family had fun. We signed up for the Super Sightseeing Tour service.
The bus route. We started at the origin point for the bus route at Fisherman’s Wharf. We headed west along Lombard street, winding our way past the Palace of Fine Arts to the Golden Gate Bridge. We went north over the bridge, then turned around and headed south back to the city. We headed south along Park Presidio Blvd to the Golden Gate Parkway, looped around some of the key sites, then headed east over to the Haight Ashbury neighborhood.
We zigzagged over to Alamo Square, then took McAllister St east to the Civic Center. The tour bus then winded its way over to Union Square and Chinatown. We then headed north on Columbus Ave through the Little Italy area, past by Telegraph Hill / Coit Tower and the famous Lombard St. The bus then closed the loop and headed over to Pier 33 and headed north along the Embarcadero to our starting point.
Tour Guide. The 2:30 bus tour was highlighted by a fantastic tour guide. Our guide, Sep was alot of fun. He told us little factoids about each site we passed, sort of like from a script, then he interjected humorous side jokes and snarkisms. Both informative and funny. The bus was a hop-on / hop-off format. We thought we’d be getting off at a few of the stops, but we were concerned when we got back on we would have a tour guide as good as Sep. So we stayed on the whole loop.
A couple of new things for us: Golden Gate Park was really nice. I had no idea how nice. Also, Haight-Ashbury was really nice; so nice, in fact, after our bus ride, we took a taxi back and spent the rest of the afternoon there. We enjoyed driving by Alamo Park and seeing the Victorian Houses, and as we went through Union Square was a high end shopping area that we thought we’d skip, but we ended up going shopping there, after all, the next day.
After our bus tour we had lunch at Bistro Boudin near Pier 39 on Fisherman’s Wharf. We checked our bike back in, then took a taxi down to Haight-Ashbury. Jack sat at a nice cafe; Cathie and kids walked along Haight Street. They bought a couple of t-shirts from the colorful Jammin on Haight and walked by the Jimi Hendrix House . Jack chilled the Cafe Cole.
For dinner, our hotel recommended the Ventcello Ristorante on Nob Hill. We had a view of the Bay Bridge, which looked great all lite-up at night.
Day 4
We had to leave for the airport at noon, so for the last morning of our San Francisco Weekend, we started the morning at Darren’s Cafe. Our hotel recommended this place be in the early morning, locals eat breakfast there. Sure enough, when we got there, it was one of the few places that was open and it was full of people. The family ordered normal breakfast food, but Liz ordered Vietnamese Pho — Darren’s has a fun mix of foods. We liked it!
After breakfast, we walked over to the terminus for the Powell/Mason cable car line. The line was pretty short; we hopped on and road all the way down to Union Square. We found a Uniqlo store and got some nice clothes.
With a little bit of struggle, we found a taxi and got our selves back to the hotel and packed and left for the hotel.
I was thrilled that we were able to squeeze in two family vacations this year. I am very happy!