April 1, 2023

Today was a sunny day in the mid fifty degrees. Do not let the sun fool you, it is cooler and breezy in San Francisco.

We started our morning walking down to the Ferry Building for the Saturday Farmer’s Market. The Ferry Building has merchants inside the building, as well as vendors set up in tents all around the perimeter on the weekends. If you are in San Francisco on the weekend, stop by the Farmer’s Market at the Ferry Building. While we were there, we grabbed some food and coffee and sat outside by the water. There was food, fresh flowers, crafts and more food. So much food.

At the Ferry Building, we met up with our Tour Guide. Maria. We booked Maria on Viator, Here. I wrote a short review here. Maria showed us some of the foods in the Ferry Building. We had frozen hot chocolate, empanadas, and tea service and dim sum. After this we walked up to the North Shore for some Italian desserts and a Slice of Pizza. On our way, we ran into the “St. Stupid’s Day Parade”. It provided some entertainment, but it made streets a little extra crowded.

After we parted ways with our guide, we decided to head down towards Fisherman’s Wharf. We walked by Pier 39, which semed a lively and touristy place. We enjoyed the views of Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Seals.

As we headed towards Fisherman’s Wharf, we saw advertisement for a WWII Submarine tour. Jack has been really interested in WWII lately, and we told him if we saw anything in San Francisco, we would visit it. On our way down the pier to the Submarine, we ran into the Musee Mecanique. Our guide, Maria, had suggested we visit this, but I guess I didn’t understand what she was referring. If you end up in San Francisco, save about 30 minutes to visit this place. It has so many old coin operated games and entertainment. We spent $20 in quarters and had a blast. Once done at the Musee, we visited the submarine.

While at Fisherman’s Wharf, we had to visit The Buena Vista and try the Irish Cream coffee. The story goes that the Irish Coffee was brought to the United States via The Buena Vista. The Hyde Street Cable Car stops right outside The Buena Vista. The kids had the Hot Chocolate. We had to get back to the North Shore for supper and we realized Lombard Street was on the way. One thing that Google Maps does not show is the incline it takes to get there. We climbed almost straight up to Lombard Street.

We walked down Lombard Street and then continued down Lombard Street to the North Shore Area. From the Fisherman’s Wharf to the North Shore was very walkable (although hilly) and felt very safe. The North Shore area is the Italian area of San Francisco and the restaurant we ate at was a classic San Francisco Italian restaurant, Original Joes.

After dinner, we walked through Chinatown back to Union Square to our hotel. Many stores were closing down as we walked through Chinatown but felt very safe through Union Square to our hotel. It was still daylight when we went through, and that is probably for the better.

20599 steps for the day.