The next morning, we boarded The Big Bus and began our journey to see the city! First on our list was to see the Golden Gate Bridge. It's not surprising why it's so famous. It truly is a sight! At first we were just going to walk a little on the bridge, but then I thought, we should walk to the whole way across. The kids weren't too happy about it, but when they got done, I know they were proud to say they walked the whole Golden Gate Bridge!
After walking all that way, we ended up in Sausalito and ate a very delicious lunch at Napa Valley Burger Company. We did a little shopping before getting back on The Big Bus and heading back to SF.
Looking at blogs before we left, we all wanted to find the fortune cookie factory. It took some wandering and more wandering until we finally found it. This is a picture of us wandering. (You can see more of the factory in Sarah's video which will be at the end of this post.) We walked around China Town and Union Square and spent most of this day getting off and on The Big Bus to see the sights.
The next day, we ate a hearty breakfast in the hotel and then began our journey to see the windiest street, Lombard Street. We had to hike some serious hills before making it to the bottom of it and then, I made our kids walk up it and then back down. They sure did a lot of grumbling but I know they are all glad they did it!
At this point, we split up and the older kids went to Madame Tussauds wax museum and I took the younger kids to Ripley's Believe It or Not museum. We were all impressed with what we saw.
We couldn't go to SF and not go to Alcatraz. We all enjoyed the boat ride over and back and being able to see the city from a different perspective. We all learned a lot from listening to the tour but I'm pretty sure, Levi enjoyed it the most. He loved it so much he asked for us to buy him some comics that tell about the escapes that were made from Alcatraz and he has read and reread them many times since. Hope he's not learning too much!
The Baked Bear was just down the block from our hotel and so we had to stop and try it out. They make custom ice cream sandwiches which includes choosing cookies, donuts or brownies for the outside, different flavors of ice cream for the inside and different toppings to complete the ensemble. They were definitely one of my favorite things I ate while there!!!
A trip to San Francisco wouldn't have been complete without a trolley ride. We had heard that they are the most beautiful at night and we couldn't have agreed more. We loved our ride!
On our last day, we got back on The Big Bus and spent the morning at the Academy of Sciences. It is known for it's white alligator, Claude, who is pretty cool looking but it has an amazing rain forest, aquarium and natural history museum. We were all impressed and enjoyed our time there!
In the afternoon, we got back on The Big Bus and stopped at a corner grocery store to get Bi-rite ice cream and then walk to Alamo Square. This ended up being my favorite thing we did all week. It was just so relaxing and we sat and talked about all of the fun things we had done. All of the kids have watched Full House on Netflix so to see the iconic "Painted Ladies" was a highlight for everyone.
Later, we went back to Fisherman's warf for more shopping, dinner and enjoying all there is to do there.
It was fun to think about my grandma Eileen living in this beautiful city and taking advantage of the many things to see and do here more than 70 years ago. Perhaps she even rode in this street car.
PLEASE watch Sarah's video about our trip. It really does a fabulous job of showing our amazing time in San Francisco!!
On our last night, we accidently ran into Angie's best friend, Teresa and her kids in a park where Sarah was flying her drone. They were driving Sophie back to Bend the next day so we knew they were in town but it was pretty cool to see them in the great city of SF!!
On our last day, we got back on The Big Bus and spent the morning at the Academy of Sciences. It is known for it's white alligator, Claude, who is pretty cool looking but it has an amazing rain forest, aquarium and natural history museum. We were all impressed and enjoyed our time there!
In the afternoon, we got back on The Big Bus and stopped at a corner grocery store to get Bi-rite ice cream and then walk to Alamo Square. This ended up being my favorite thing we did all week. It was just so relaxing and we sat and talked about all of the fun things we had done. All of the kids have watched Full House on Netflix so to see the iconic "Painted Ladies" was a highlight for everyone.
Later, we went back to Fisherman's warf for more shopping, dinner and enjoying all there is to do there.
It was fun to think about my grandma Eileen living in this beautiful city and taking advantage of the many things to see and do here more than 70 years ago. Perhaps she even rode in this street car.
PLEASE watch Sarah's video about our trip. It really does a fabulous job of showing our amazing time in San Francisco!!
On our last night, we accidently ran into Angie's best friend, Teresa and her kids in a park where Sarah was flying her drone. They were driving Sophie back to Bend the next day so we knew they were in town but it was pretty cool to see them in the great city of SF!!
