What To Do With A Day in San Francisco

Our adventure in San Francisco was a success!

We spent the day in San Francisco to see what the city had to offer. What did we find? Keep reading to find out!

San Francisco is spectacular! I fell in love with that foggy city after spending only a day with it. I keep telling my husband I want to move there. We arrived at the San Francisco airport around 7:30am. It was pretty empty and quiet at that time – an awesome, stress-free start to our trip. We hopped on the BART from the San Fran airport and took a 30 minute ride to the Embarcadero stop. We headed towards the Ferry Building under the gray morning sky. The streets were empty and quiet as we walked past the skyscrapers of San Francisco.

There was a farmer’s marketing being set up in front of the Ferry building. We later found out that it’s one of the largest in the state – pretty cool! We also had a pretty great view of the Bay Bridge from the backside of the Ferry building.

Not much was open for the first few hours we were in San Francisco, but we walked along the ocean until the city woke up. It was pretty cold by the ocean and I’m SO glad that I brought an extra sweater. If you’re walking along the piers, make sure to stop by the exploratorium and sit in the awesome megaTHRONE (get it, like megaphone?) outside. The two thrones are far away from each other, but if you sit with one person in each and whisper you can hear each other. Science rules!!

We ate breakfast at The Eagle Cafe on Pier 39 – an adorable little cafe with a deck that over looked the ocean. Pier 39 is the place where all the sea lions come and lay out. We didn’t actually see any sea lions on this trip, but we did see (and eat) some delicious french toast!

Once the city woke up, we headed down to San Francisco’s very own Fisherman’s Wharf! Such a cool place to see. I love all things vintage and being there was like a blast from the past. There were giant, vintage neon signs and a vintage arcade called the Musee Mechanique. The Musee Mechanique was my favorite place that we went during our trip! It was full of old coin operated arcade games and the best thing – free admission! We spent about an hour playing the different games. So much fun!

We walked along past Fisherman’s Wharf and visited the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park to see some old ships. It was cool to learn a little more about the history of San Francisco. This park was also free!

Ghirardelli Square was the next stop on our adventure. It’s a beautiful brick building with lots of random corridors AND free chocolate samples. Fun and delicious to explore.

At this point, we were tired of walking so we hopped on one of those double decker tour buses to see the rest of San Francisco. The bus was pretty affordable and it saved us a lot of time and energy while allowing us to see the whole city.

The bus took us to all the tourist-y parts of the city. We drove past the amazing skyscrapers and victorian style buildings. I love architecture and San Francisco has some of the most beautiful buildings. I highly recommend stopping by the capitol building.

We couldn’t leave San Francisco without seeing the Golden Gate Bridge! We took the bus across it to really experience the whole thing. It’s so huge! One thing I thought was interesting and sad was that there were signs posted along the bridge with suicide hotline numbers. I guess the bridge is also famous for suicides, which makes my heart hurt.

After the bridge, we stopped by the Palace of Fine Arts to see the gorgeous grounds and architecture there. Constructed in the early 1900s, the Palace of Fine Arts has amazing sculptures, massive pillars, and a peaceful reflecting pool. There were cultural dance performances on the lawn in front of the reflecting pool. Definitely the most gorgeous place we visited!

We had to go see the Painted Ladies! These adorable houses are lined up and pretty just waiting for you to take a picture with them! I wonder if their owner knew that they would become such a popular destination when they agreed to show them in the opening of Full House.

For anyone that knows my husband and I, you know that we LOVE Disney. So we had to make a stop at the Walt Disney family museum. This museum is like stepping into Walt’s family scrapbook. It takes you through his life from birth to death and really pays tribute to his legacy.

We spent quite a bit of time in the museum, then hopped back on the bus to give our tired legs a rest. The bus drove past other popular sites such as Haight – Ashbury (where the hippie movement began) and the twisted street of Lombard. We went back to Fisherman’s Wharf and grabbed a quick bite. The sun was setting on San Francisco and we started the walk back past the piers to the train station. We took the train back to the San Francisco airport and waited for our flight back home.

The trip was incredible and I can honestly say I left my heart (at least a part of it) in San Francisco!

XOXO,

Just Jonquille