San Francisco - A Walking Tour

Dom and I were so excited when we got the invitation for his friend Lauren's wedding in San Francisco.  I have never been there, so we decided to make it a mini vacation.  We coordinated child care with friends and family and booked our tickets Wednesday to Sunday.

So we got in yesterday, late afternoon, and got settled in.
This morning we slept in a bit (8:15 is sleeping in now - sad I know), then we got up and ready to start exploring the city. 

We walked down to the Ferry Building after grabbing a quick breakfast at The Melt.  There's a really great market inside - coffee shops (yes plural), meat market, seafood, and other specialty foods, along with some little cafes/restaurants, and other cute shops.

Behind the building, we walked along the pier and enjoyed the view - including the Bay Bridge.

After picking up some 3 day transportation passes, we walked to the nearest trolley stop to catch a ride to Chinatown.

Looking out the back of the trolley, back towards the Bay Bridge.  We had still yet to see the Golden Gate Bridge, and were on the lookout as we traveled. 

Our first trolley.

The Chinatown Gate.

One of the stone lions at the gate.

We walked through Chinatown from one end to the other, stopping in some of the souvenir shops along the way.  It was so colorful!

Then we walked some more, through Telegraph Hill.  There was a really cool record shop with guitars and other string instruments everywhere!

And across the street was this awesome Antique Map and Book store.  We passed by Little Italy and the Red Light District...

Up some crazy steep hills...

on the way to Coit Tower.

At the top of the first set of stairs, we were rewarded with our first view of the Golden Gate bridge off in the distance.

We took the elevator to the top of Coit Tower to check out some more amazing views.  The Golden Gate Bridge,

downtown,

Alcatraz island and Pier 39.

Dom at the top of the tower.

Me outside of Coit Tower.

Then we walked down the Filbert Street stairs.  They zigzagged back and forth down the very steep hillside from the tower, down to the street a few blocks from the waterfront.  We started at Pier 33, where we purchased our tickets for the Alcatraz ferry for Saturday morning.  Then we walked to the famous Pier 39.

Sea Lions at the pier.

Being goofy tourists.

Lots of restaurants and cafes had live crabs right out front just waiting to be somebody's lunch.  We enjoyed a bread bowl of clam chowder on the pier, did some browsing in all the shops, then continued walking towards Fisherman's Wharf.

More shops and restaurants.

Colorful boats in the marina.

At the head of the Hyde St. Pier we continued acting like tourists, posing with the giant anchor and paddle wheel.

Then we walked to the end of the pier, checking out some of the historic tug boats and ships.

A couple of the tug boats.

We walked up to Ghirardelli Square and checked out some of the cute boutiques there.  Still full from lunch, we didn't get any of the famous ice cream, but did have a sample of some chocolate.  

Walking a few more blocks back towards all the restaurants, we stopped in an Irish pub to sit down and enjoy a couple beers and some live music during happy hour.

Then we went back to Pier 39 for dinner.  We chose the Eagle Cafe and had a great view of the sunset while we both tried oysters for the first time.  Then we shared a Dungeoness crab for dinner.  It was so delicious - and messy!

We ended our night with another trolley ride towards Union Square, it actually had to stop about halfway because of an accident further down the line.  So we did some more walking.  We went to a super fun dueling piano bar, then walked back to the hotel.  

It was a LOT of walking in one day, but we saw sooo much and had a lot of fun too!