San Fransisco... the coolest city on earth!

Wow!  San Fransisco... what an awesome city!

Not only do they have the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge, but they also have several awesome and fun sites to see.  So many that it's impossible to see them all in one day... as we found out.

Coming over the bridge was incredible!  Scott and I both found ourselves gawking at the humongous structure.  Maria thought it was pretty cool too.

We paid the toll to enter the city and quickly realized that a large truck with a 34 ft. trailer attached is no way to tour this city.  We missed our exit right off the bridge and found ourselves in the middle of busy and extremely tight intersection.  We got out of there as quick as we could.

We headed to a southern suburb where we stayed at a campground right on the ocean.  It was quite nice and we chose to run to the local market and make some dinner rather than head into the big city.  That would be left for the next morning, where we got an early start and made the most out of our busy day.

Our first stop was of course, the Golden Gate Bridge.  We walked around, took some pictures, and then decided to drive into the city.

We just happened to be on the right route to drive down the crookedest street in the world... Lombard St.  This isn't a very good picture of it, but it quite crooked and steep!

We were also able to take in all the beautiful row houses and architecture.  Each of the houses had beautifully trimmed hedges and gorgeous flowering bushes.  Some homes were brightly painted, others had awesome gated entry ways, and most had iron balconies.  This city was definitely turning out to be MORE than I had expected.

After Lombard St., we parked the truck down by the pier and headed out on foot.  We came to Pier 39 which was lined with tourist shops and restaurants.  There were fishing boats, sail boats, and seals!

Right in the middle of the pier was a carousel, in which Maria got to ride.  She chose the dolphin. :)

There was also a candy shop with barrels and barrels of candy and saltwater taffy.  Quite appropriate for being by the sea.

Maria caught eye of the candy cigarettes.  Something which took me by surprise considering the negative views on smoking these days.  However, it sure did take me back to my childhood.  I used to go to the gas station down the street from my house and buy these.  I'm sure I felt pretty cool with one of these in my mouth. Maria walked away empty handed.

The seals were fun to see too! I didn't expect to see them around the corner just sitting there like sardines.

I think Maria could've stayed and watched them all day.

Further down the street was Fisherman's Wharf.  We actually didn't spend much time here because we had so much other stuff we wanted to get to that day.  It was bustling with tourists as well as...

street musicians!  

This steel drum quartet made me feel like I was in the Caribbean.

We decided to take the old cable car up to Chinatown.  Little Ginger was hanging onto the pole like a pro.

It was fun to do and we're glad we had it on our to do list.

Chinatown was amazingly beautiful.  The main street was decorated with lanterns and flags, and the shop windows were so bright and cheerful.

I wish we would've had more time to spend here to grab a bite to eat.  I'm sure the Chinese cuisine is pretty impressive.

We met up with a friend of Scott's who lives in the city at The Irish Bank.  It's a bar and restaurant close to Chinatown.  We grabbed a Starbucks and headed to catch the F train back to our vehicle.  We wanted to see the Mission district before dark.  Unfortunately, we didn't know exactly where we were going and it was getting late.  The Mission is supposedly filled with many large, beautiful  murals.  We'll have to check them out the next time we visit... which I'm sure won't be too far off.

I bought a pair of John Fluevog boots, which I'm really excited about and then we were off, back to the campground.  On our way though, we happened to be driving past Twin Peaks.  We took the windy road up the hill to discover this beautiful site.

We're so glad we were able to see San Fransisco at night.  It's wonderful how things just work out like that.


Overall it was a wonderful trip to the city by the bay.


Can't wait to go back!