Arriving at SFO
Our flight from Dublin stopped in London and went straight to San Francisco, which meant 11 hours of lots of movies, snacks and little rest, especially when we were flying over Canada and fell in love with the glaciers and mountains.
We arrived at SFO around 7pm on Saturday (11/26/2016) and followed the airport signs to the BART, a little train that takes you to the city center. We laughed a lot at the vending machine tickets not at all intuitive, but after some time racking our brains, we were on the train heading to our hotel station. The tickets cost about $8 per person and it took us half an hour to get to Powell Station, which is the closest station to the Union Square.
Our accommodation in SFO
This square and its surroundings are a great place to stay because of the variety of shops, restaurants and markets. With this information in mind, we headed to the beloved Booking.com and we choose the Hotel Stratford, which had a much more affordable daily rate than the rest of the hotels in the region (and of course that's why it's nothing special, or rather, it's a basic one, a little worse than an Ibis).
We walked about 10 minutes from Powell Station to our hotel along Powell Street and I thought the street was really cool, with lots of well-known stores, lots of people walking around and taking pictures, and a really good vibe. Since we were exhausted from the trip, we bought some snacks at Walgreens and went straight to the hotel, where we had a great time. check-in, we had dinner in the room and passed out until the next day.
Day 1 – Sunday (11/27/2016)
We woke up around 4 in the morning because of the jet lag bizarre (8 hours time difference from Dublin), we got ready quite calmly and when it was 7 o'clock, we went to have the hotel's continental breakfast. Toast, butter, jam, milk, non-natural juices, muffins, oranges, milk, coffee and tea. It was enough.
I'll tell you everything about our itinerary in a moment, but I want to show you the attractions we saw on this map so you don't waste time if you want to know about others. We saw the basics, take a look:
Our itinerary
We left the hotel and headed to Powell Station to catch the city's famous cable car. When we arrived at the station, the line was huge and to make matters worse, it was raining, but we could see that some cable cars were leaving empty while others were full.
Taking the cable car
We discovered that the empty cable cars went all the way to the Fisherman's Wharf but they didn't stop at the top of the Lombard Street, a winding street that is one of the city's postcards. We decided to take these same ones and drive to this cute street on Monday, as we thought we would spend a lot of time in line (tip: go early!).
Since this station is one of the final stops, you can see how they turn the tram to make it go in the opposite direction. It's completely manual – pretty cool!
We got on the tram and paid $7 per person to the tram conductor, who, like the driver and most of the people around us, was of Asian origin. I found this very peculiar, because you end up not feeling very much like you're in the United States, I don't know... their English is hard to understand and they're not very friendly, so you don't feel that comfortable walking around, you know?
Shopping at ROSS
We got off at the last stop of the tram and walked to a store called ROSS Dress for Less, which Celo already knew but I didn't. This store, as well as the Marshalls, sells branded items at a great discount, a real outlet. I highly recommend visiting these 2 stores if you need something branded and don’t want to pay a lot. In our case, we took the opportunity to buy coats, because that’s what we wear the most in Ireland, right?
Fisherman's Wharf
We walked to the Fisherman's Wharf, which is a port region full of stands and seafood restaurants and shops souvenirs. I confess that I didn't think the place was anything special and as it was too early to try the delicacies, we passed by there very quickly...
Pier 39
We walked to the Pier 39 and this one really makes you feel like you're in the United States: they created an environment that reminded me of the streets of Disney, with lots of restaurants and cool shops. Everything is well decorated, there's music, lots of people taking pictures, there are several artists doing crazy things and you can even see some cute sea lions up close that lie on some signs in the middle of the marina (probably put up by the city to attract more tourists). I thought it was much cooler than FW, but it has a different vibe. fake and everything is expensive, of course…
We thought about leaving there and walking to our next tourist attraction (Ferry Building) and then go back for lunch, but since everything is quite far away and we didn't want to spend money on the bus, we thought it would be better to have lunch earlier even though we weren't very hungry.
Having lunch at Bubba Gump
We went to the famous Bubba Gump, which was inspired by the movie Forest Gump, and although the atmosphere is pretty cool, the food is nothing special. We ordered two shrimp appetizers (the house specialty) that were tasty, but lacked salt, seasoning, I don't know... I think our problem is that we went in with high expectations, so I suggest you go in with them really low and everything will be fine! Oh, and be prepared to pay 12 % extra fee + at least 15% tip...punk,right? I thought so too. But then try to relax and enjoy the view from the restaurant…
Burger at In-N-out
Celo was in the mood for a burger at In-N-Out - one fast food which has everything fresh and is therefore a success on the West coast of the country (I recommend it!) – so we went back to FW and also took the opportunity to visit the chocolate shop Ghirardelli.
Ghirardelli Chocolates
We bought some different chocolate bars on the second floor of the store and thought we would try the best chocolate in the city, according to some blogs, but as it was full of people and we weren't hungry, we let it pass.
Ferry Building
We walk all the way back to the Ferry Building – a nice walk with a few interesting views – and we loved what we saw inside this building. They opened several restaurants, cafes and shops inside it as if it were a market and the place looked really cool! We wanted to sit down and eat oysters, but it was so crowded and we were so tired that we let it pass us by again.
We continued walking towards our hotel, but now we took an avenue full of very tall, mirrored buildings, Market Street. One more beautiful than the other…
Shopping at Marshalls
We entered the Marshalls (I talked more about her at the beginning of the post), we bought our 2G cell phone chip for 36 dollars at T-Mobile and then we entered the store Uniqlo to buy the best coats ever, and best of all, on sale! When will this store open in Dublin, huh? I highly recommend it!
Dinner in the room
We stopped at the hotel to rest a little and then tried to go to dinner at the restaurant. Cheesecake Factory, on the top floor of the store Macy's, but as the line was huge and we were too tired to wait (the jet lag (didn't forgive), we went back to Walgreens and bought chicken salads to have in the room for dinner. At least we got to see Union Square lit up for Christmas. <3
Day 2 – Monday (11/28/2016)
We woke up a little later (5am, yay!), packed our things, had breakfast the same as the day before, did the checkout and we walked about 10 minutes to the Alamo company to pick up the car we rented through website RentalCars.
Renting a car
In less than 10 minutes we were putting our bags in an automatic car with a giant suitcase, in other words, nothing like what we asked for (we always take those cars without manual suitcases – the cheapest ones, you know?). I felt rich and since Celo's license was expired, I was the one who had to drive the whole time, unfortunately...
Alamo Square
We drove to a little square called Alamo Square, because that's where there are some cute little houses known as The Painted Ladies. They are so cute, as are all the little houses on the streets around. I found this area to be the most beautiful in the city. I highly recommend it! 😉
Lombard Street
From there we drove to the famous Lombard Street, the most winding street in the world, and we had the pleasure of driving down it, even though I was quite scared at first. It is wide, so you can go down it without much effort and very slowly, because of the amount of cars doing the same thing. Look at this cute street:
Golden Gate Bridge
We then continued to one of the most famous bridges in the world, the Golden Gate. It is so imposing with its red metallic structure…I thought it was great!
We crossed the entire road and then stopped at a viewpoint on the right side to take some photos and enjoy the view of SFO. Celo thought it would be a good idea to drive to some viewpoints on top of some hills and off we went too. Just look at the views:
Zooming in now to see San Francisco in the fog…
Salsalito
We then passed through the cute town of Salsalito, but since we had to drive to the Yosemite Valley and I'm a slug + I don't like driving at night, nor do we stop to eat or walk around the city. I think it must be worth it, because it's really cute, but it will have to wait for next time...
We drove for many hours on the road to YV and I told everything about it. in this post.
Summary itinerary of the entire trip
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