The City by the Bay

This has been our first visit to San Francisco and we have thoroughly enjoyed it.

On Wednesday, we started off the day by hanging onto the outer edge of a cable car.

It’s important to not only hold on and hope you don’t drop your cell phone or camera or yourself, but also don’t slam into any vehicles you might pass. Because that is a possibility. Trust me on this.

We ended up at Lombard Street, which is known as the most crooked street in the world.

The views from Russian Hill out to Alcatraz aren’t too shabby:

A bit later, we ended up on a boat cruising around the bay — out to the Golden Gate Bridge, around Alcatraz, and back:

After that, we hopped on another cable car and ended up in Chinatown: After that, another cable car ride:

We also passed by the most fabulous thrift shop EVER:

The purple pageant gown in the middle is on a male mannequin.

On Thursday, I met a friend for a walk and coffee at Crissy Field, which is near the Golden Gate Bridge. My friend introduced me to Dynamo Donuts and I then shared the introduction forward with my family:

In the upper left corner, those are bacon maple donuts (2) with a caramel glazed below them. In the middle, vanilla bean (2) with a lemon thyme at the bottom. And then two spiced chocolate on the right. I rarely eat donuts and never crave them, but I can assure you that my mouth tasted every single flavor in that box. And I definitely want more.

After our fortifying treat, we embarked on an exploration of the Golden Gate Bridge.  The bridge is 1.7 miles long, but we went only about a third of the way across. It’s a beautiful bridge, but we had already walked a lot and still had more walking to do.

After that, we hopped on a bus — we’ve been using our feet and public transportation totally since we got here — and popped down to Golden Gate Park for a little looking around. We walked through only a small part of it, but one of the interesting things we saw was this tree:

After that, Pete and Grace went off to ride more cable cars, while Ellie and I went back to the apartment — a journey that was a combo of buses and walking. According to my Fitbit, I walked around 10 miles on Thursday.

One thing we did not do was take a tour of Alcatraz. Unfortunately, we didn’t know until last week that tickets are sold in advance and that they go quickly. As of this writing, they are sold out for the next month. But, no worries. We’ll be back to San Francisco, I just know it.

Totally random note: Have you noticed the weather and skies in the photos? The temps have been in the upper 50s and low 60s, with alternating fog and sunshine. After nearly two weeks of protecting my skin like a champ in southern California, I am currently sporting the worst sunburn I’ve had in a long time, which is impressive when you consider that on Thursday I was dressed like this:

And most of the time, I had a scarf wrapped around my neck. Yet somehow, I managed to get fried. Oy.

On Friday, we’ll have just enough time for a tiny bit more exploring, after which, we’ll be flying home.