San Francisco Vacation – Day 2 – 4.29.12

Day 2 was our first full day in San Francisco so we needed to start the day off right. We headed back down to the Ferry Building and had brunch at The Market Bar. I had some pecan pancakes or something like that; they were very tasty.

After that, we wanted to get the touristy Fisherman’s Wharf out of the way, plus we wanted to activate our CityPasses. I highly recommend buying those by the way. You spend 70 bucks and get to ride unlimited Muni buses and cable cars, plus all the major museums (California Academy of Sciences, DeYoung, Legion of Honor, SFMOMA, Aquarium on the Bay) in the city. We probably got our money’s worth by the second day with just riding the Muni buses.

As you might have heard, San Francisco is really hilly. So walking that after awhile would be hell for me. Plus that morning, I stupidly tried to fix the hotel curtains from a soft chair and landed awkwardly on my ankle and it still hurts. So riding the Muni buses is probably the best option for getting around the city. Cable cars are fun but waiting for them are a bitch. Everyone likes to wait down by the turn-around thing, so just wait 1 or 2 stops ahead of it if you want to get on the cable cars to ride. Those are expensive if you don’t have a CityPass too. 6 bucks for each ride! Waiting for the Muni buses can be a pain in the ass as well, especially if it’s cold at night or you’re in a sketchy area.

So Kristen and I walked to Aquarium on the Bay to activate our City Passes for the week and to see some sea critters. The aquarium is the smaller of the two aquariums in area and probably not worth of price admission. It’s decent but not very big. But the aquarium I think is worth it if you have the City Pass though. With that said, it was cool seeing the fishes, sharks and other things swimming over your head. We walked along Fisherman’s Wharf, checked out a cool gallery from landscape photographer Rodney Lough, and then went to chill in Ghirardelli Square for a little bit. Was just nice to relax in the park and watch people swimming in the freezing water and quick-moving fog by the Golden Gate Bridge.

We took our first cable car ride from there. It’s a fun ride, just sucks having to wait for the cable cars. We took that to the top of Lombard Street and got off there. There were a ton of people in the road taking pictures of the famous crooked road. At the bottom of the street it felt like the road was a celebrity and everyone else were the paparazzi. I wanted to get my shots and then get out of there. I’ll do the touristy things for only so long before I start to feel icky about myself. After that, Kristen decided we should try to find this honey company at the end of Lombard Street. For some reason, that was the address she got and we ended up walking up and up to Coit Tower. And still couldn’t find any damn honey. I wanted to strangle her haha. So we walked back down into Washington Square and around Little Italy/North Beach.

From there, we took a bus to the Marina District, which has some nice restaurants and bars. I called it “The Brodom” because it felt very hipster-ish/preppy to me. We decided to get some food at The Tipsy Pig, which ended up being really good. At one point I had to use the bathroom and there were no stalls or anything. I hate that! Felt like a prison bathroom to me. Of course, stage fright kicked in and I sat there for a good minute without anything happening. Maybe I needed to turn the faucet on haha.

After getting some dinner at oh, 3:30pm, I wanted to walk to the Presidio that was down a few blocks. I wanted to head to the Letterman Digital Arts Center, and walk around the campus for ILM and Lucasfilm. I wanted to see the cool Yoda fountain and see if I could peek into the windows haha. Took us a bit of time to find where the fountain was but finally found Yoda but came with a price. At some point walking in the Presidio, I lost my nice Streetwise San Francisco map. It was only the 2nd day of the trip and lost the damn map! Doh! Thankfully I could use my phone and use Google Maps for the rest of the trip. Another dumb moment on my part is realizing just now if I went during regular business hours, I could have went in the lobby and saw a small Lucasfilm gallery and some movie memorabilia. Oh well. I guess when I work for them I’ll just see that stuff everyday haha.

The Entire Gallery

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Tags: 24-70mm f2.8, Aquarium on the Bay, cable car, California, ferry building, Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli Square, Letterman Digital Arts Center, Lombard Street, Lucasfilm, nikon d300, San Francisco, SF, the marina district, the presidio, travel, travel photography, travel tips, vacation, Yoda, Yoda fountain