Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Northern California Trip: San Francisco

Golden Gate Bridge, lighter

Finally! The last part of the California trip. Still physically depleted from our Yosemite backpacking experience, I decided the best way to spend our only full day in San Francisco was to loll about Fisherman's Wharf. We took a Blue & Gold Fleet Bay Cruise which took us under the Golden Gate Bridge and rather close to Alcatraz Island. We even saw a herd of porpoises!

Alcatraz Island, lighter
Be sure to book your Tours of Alcatraz Island (above) a couple months in advance, or settle for a Bay Cruise.

Afterwards, we had a tourist-y seafood lunch on Pier 39, watched the sea lions that live there, wandered the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park (mmm, old boats), and bought lots of chocolate from the Ghirardelli factory. We were even able to squeeze in dinner with a Pittsburgh friend before passing out back at the hotel.

Swim

More photos of San Francisco are up on my flickr account, here.

San Francisco from the Bay Sea Gull
Alcatraz Island Seeing the City
Flowers Outside Ghirardelli Factory San Francisco Buoy San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park
San Francisco Bay Cruise Golden Gate Bridge

13 comments:

  1. Alcatraz was amazing! I went 2 years ago and wasn't really excited about visiting the island, but had to kill the day while my friend was at work. I went on a Friday and they had a special gardens tour. It rocked. Hope you enjoyed it too!!

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  2. Your photos remind me of my travels around California more than a decade ago now. Makes me want to go back and do it all again, looks like you've had a wonderful time too. Great pics.
    X

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  3. Just found your blog, I actually live here in SF so it's cool to see all the cool pics you got. I forget this is a tourist destination sometimes :) I really want to see Alcatraz again after seeing your pic and I'm glad you had a fun time in the city. You got some great photos. Hope you enjoyed it here. Following you now
    xoDale
    I have a fashion blog here in SF if you have time
    www.savvyspice.blogspot.com

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  4. San Francisco is such a great city!

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  5. Awww, I love the picture of the sea lions. There are so many of them!!!

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  6. such a beautiful place!! sea lions are my favourites :)

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  7. I love the idea of seeing Alcatraz..but I think the bay view experience looks much more pleasant than actually setting foot in the place.

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  8. I had the chance to visit San Francisco a few years ago, and I've wanted to go back ever since. I loved it!

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  9. Seems like quite the trip you're going on here, I hope everything is alright and well. You must be having a lot of fun, nice pictures too, something to remember.

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  10. Aww this post made me miss California! I'm from Sacramento so I've definitely been to S.F. a number of times. Glad to hear you had a good time and experienced a lot!

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  11. Sounds like an amazing trip! I didn't do any of those things when I was in San Francisco - Well, I did go to fisherman's wharf

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  12. great photos :) i wonder what the weather is like there right now.. it's cooooooold here in ny and when i was in san fran in june it was super chilly. hmm. i just would like to find a place where it's still summer.. brr.

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