During our time camping in San Rafael this past July, we decided to make a day trip to San Francisco. It was only about a 40-minute drive and it was well worth it. I feel that I got to see quite a few things during one days time.
After we found a reasonably priced parking spot via Spot Hero, we decided to head to Chinatown to find some lunch.
While we were looking at menus in the various restaurant windows, a lady from one establishment came out and basically invited us in. We felt rude to say no, plus we were starving, so we just went with it.
It turned out that going inside was a great decision! We got some great Chinese food and had a great experience.
After we ate, we walked down to the Port of San Francisco. Our original plan was to get some vegan ice cream at a shop there that we found online. Unfortunately, they no longer served vegan ice cream. That was okay though, it was still nice to walk around and explore more of the city.
After walking around, and up and down, the many hilly streets, we decided to get our car and explore a couple of places that were not so easy to reach by foot.
Our next stop was the Painted Ladies. I have always wanted to see them in person, and parking in front of them was surprisingly easy!
Afterwards, we wanted to see Lombard Street a.k.a. “the crookedest street in the world.” I thought our GPS may just take us to the bottom so we could watch the cars slowly descend. Our GPS had other plans, because we ended up going down the street ourselves.
As we approached the 5-mile per hour street sign, I figured that it was about to get interesting.
Every turn was basically a stop in the road, so there was no going even the designated 5mph. The houses and shrubbery around the street are all very beautiful, and someone even parked their Porsche in a spot on the street that I am assuming lives in one of these houses.
Our last stop of the day was the Golden Gate Bridge. We had visited it once before, but not quite like this. We even visited one of the beaches that is almost underneath the start of the bridge.
It is quite a lovely area, and there are many parks and beaches to explore around the bridge.
Have you visited San Francisco? What was your favorite thing to see or do?
-Haley
