Traveling: Northern California, Part 2 {San Francisco}

San Francisco is my absolute favorite place to visit.  Aside from heading for some time at the beach this is my favorite!  Jon and I have been sneaking away here since before we were married for some time just to feed our wandering, adventurous souls.  When we were planning our vacation, we knew there were some things we wanted to do with our boys in the city that were things we love, some things we hadn't done before, or some things that only one of us had done.  In the past, we had already done the Academy of Sciences, Exploratorium, Knob Hill, Fisherman's Wharf with the kids and we knew we wanted to tackle this trip differently.  Let me just preface this by saying, all of those are WORTH going to!  You should totally plan a trip to do ALL of those things.  We will eventually do those all again because some of them the kids were much smaller (like Weston probably doesn't remember most of them!).

We left our relaxing hotel in Asilomar, and headed in search of coffee (Starbucks in Morgan Hills did the trick!) and drove up to South San Francisco to our hotel, checked in and summoned our Uber.  (summoned may not be the right word, but it kind of is, right?).  We decided that in order to do as many things as possible, it was cheaper to stay outside the city and take Uber in.  We love the BART, but Uber is definitely cheaper when there are four of you.

We stayed at this Vagabond Hotel, which was nice and clean with an okay breakfast (we still kind of joke about it).   The exterior isn't all that great, but then again, you can't judge a book by its cover. We were really only there to sleep. . . this leg of the trip did not include hotel lounging.  If you've never tried booking hotels in the summer in SF, then note: it's really, really expensive.  This hotel backs up to the Bay and  it's gorgeous!  Completely worth NOT being in the center of a big city!

Enough about our hotel.  We took an Uber into San Francisco to the Embarcadero area since we were going to the afternoon Giants game.  AT&T park (although it may have changed names recently. . . i don't know) is probably one of the most beautiful stadiums I've ever been to.  Even if you aren't a baseball fan, I highly recommend a game because the view is like no other and the food is really good (read garlic fries!).   They also have these slides that kids can go through and Weston managed to do it before the closed it after the game. 

After the game, we decided to wander up the Embarcadero to the Ferry Building (Embarcadero and Market) and then up Market to the Union Square Area for some shopping (the kids were anxious to find the Lego Store, of course!).  Walking the city is my favorite.  It makes my heart so excited just writing this post! 

The Ferry Building is one of my favorite go-to spots.  Inside there are some super cool shops and eateries, which was great, because we love food and in order to keep our kids walking the way we do, you must feed them as often as possible.  I'm pretty sure we are raising our boys to be foodies!  And honestly, this is the spot to find all sorts of local, delicious food!  Plus the back side looks out onto the Bay.  We grabbed a snack of ice cream (Jon and Ethan) and macarons (Weston and I) and headed out to the back to enjoy the shade of the building the cool breeze of the ocean in front of us.

Once we were rejuvenated, we headed towards Union Square for some shopping and eventually a late dinner.  Across the street from the Ferry Building are these cool fountain/art structures with paths that go through the water falls.  It's safe to say that we spent some time playing here before starting our walk.

As we walked through the Financial District, we found the coolest coffee shop, called Cafe X.  You walk in, order a coffee on an ipad and then watch a robot make it.  The best part was we were able to get it with Oatly oatmilk and to date, it might be the best latte I've ever had.  Also, probably the cheapeset!  (This one cost less than $4. . . and we had it with Oatly!).  It's been 9 months and the kids still talk about the robot that made our coffee.  Also, it was 5:00 and we had done a lot, so coffee was perfect!

We also made sure we stopped by historical landmarks.  This one (I think) is where everyone met after the earthquake and fire in 1906.  We had gotten a What Was Book about the Earthquake and fire for Ethan to read on this trip, and for him he got to see History kind of come alive.  It's one thing to read about things, but to see them first hand. . . is so worth traveling.

We hit our favorite shops for a little bit of shopping and of course, found the Lego Store.  And finally some dinner at the Food Court at the Westfield Plaza. . . and they had Pressed, which was a great way for us to end the night before once again summoning an Uber driver and heading back to our hotel.

The next morning, we woke up and ate breakfast, and then found another Uber driver and headed back into the city.  This time, we headed for the Golden Gate Bridge.  Jon and I had never done this together and Jon had never walked across the bridge.  I walked across it in the pouring rain back in high school, so it was nice to do this as a family.  We only made it half way (it's a long walk) and Weston was really uncomfortable being so high above the water.  One minute he was fascinated and the next minute he was scared and holding our hands for dear life.  We walked about half way and then headed back to explore the area. 

The Golden Gate Park area has docents walking around showing the history and telling how often it's painted and with the exact color or paint they use.  Plus, they have these models of the bridge that show how it is built and how it moves with the earth, like during an earthquake.  Weston, was very fascinated by this!

Then, we headed down the pathway to the Fort area.  There's some beach, a little aquarium, and a some really old fort buildings.  We explored for a bit and then once again summoned an Uber to get to the Mission District for two very important things.  Food, coffee, and the San Francisco Mission. 

Our first stop was the famous bakery, Tartine.  I am just drooling thinking about all those beautiful laminated dough treats we devoured for lunch (it's vacation. . . all food rules get thrown out the window!).  These were definitely things you dream of!

We found a delicious coffee place nearby called Stanza Coffee and our latte was delish!  Not as good as our robot coffee, but definitely worth the visit.  Plus, the iced coffees were served in mason jars!  So cute!

Then we headed to check out the Mission.  This was the third mission of our trip and this one was kind of pricey, so we skipped checking out the inside and just marked it off as we've been there. It's super cute and fun to see how each is so different and how they have been restored.  But, they all have the signature 3 bells. . . which is probably one of my favorite things to look at!

This marked the end of our time in the Mission District.  We pretty much came for food and the mission.  We decided to head to Fisherman's Wharf for some fresh crab and some wandering, so we summoned yet, another Uber to take us to the other side of town. 

 Crab at Fisherman's Wharf is my favorite.  There is NOTHING better than fresh crab from the waters you are right next too!  Also, its sort of a mecca for street entertainers and this one was fun!  He used Ethan and well to throw bowling pins and it was incredibly entertaining.  

Then Jon got a fabulous idea to take a boat ride by a random docked boat.  I mean, it wasn't that random, but it was cheaper and when these boats aren't being used for fishing, they like to offer inexpensive cruises.  So we jumped on one and bundled up for our super spontaneous adventure that was so cool!  The boat took us out and around the Golden Gate Bridge and told us all sorts of random factoids about Alcatraz, the houses on the Bay, and even the bridge. . . and even threw in some crazy puns.

By the time we got back from our boat ride, we were all starving because our delicious bread, coffee, granola bars, apple sauces pouches were wearing off and we needed some dinner.  We headed to Pier 39 and tried out Wipeout Bar and Grill.  The food and service were great!  We wandered around, looked at Alcatraz through those quarter machine things and looked for sea lions (they love to hang out between Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39.

We were starting to get tired, but headed up to Ghiradelli Square for some chocolatey treats.  The past few times we had gone, they had been remodeling it and it was nice to see it done with some new life.  We even ran into people we knew from home.  While Jon and Ethan headed to the cafe for an ice cream Sunday, Weston and I had fun exploring the shops. My favorite shop is called Lola and they have the cutest gifts and really fun things!  It's been there for years, leasing different areas of the square.  The night we were there, there were activities all around for kids to do and live music.  We could have stayed for hours (and we were super tempted by the new mini golf place located on the street level of the square).  We summoned our Uber and headed back to the hotel.

Here's are the quick links to our hotels, restaurants and other important info you might be interested in:

 HOTEL:
 Vagabond Inn Executive Suites

FOOD:
Wipeout Bar and Grill
 Tartine
Stanza Coffee
Cafe X
Humphry Slocombe

Other:
Bay Cruises


You can catch the first leg of our trip here.