Day 2, California Trip

Day 2
We woke up at 8am the second day, which felt like 11am.



Feeling pretty good, we got ready, ate some yummy cheese omlets at the hotel's "continental breakfast", and headed out to see San Francisco. We walked one block, turned right, and could see the water already. One more block away was the Walgreens (hello, Dr Pepper!) and good souveniers. One more block and we were on Jefferson Street - the main road along Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39. You can see the map - it was very close and a great location.
Also, before we left, I thought we should bring the stroller for Kara, even though she hasn't been in one for a year or so, just because we would be doing so much walking - it turned out to be a GREAT idea! She loved it and we didn't have to walk at her pace.


We saw Fisherman's wharf first. Then, continued walking along Jefferson Street until we got to Pier 39.




Let me say, the weather is pretty much always terrible - foggy and cold - and the fish stentch is unbelievable. It is so incredibly beautiful that no one remembers how much that part of the city stinks!!

Here are the sea lions. We saw just a few first, then we saw a bunch.





Here's the write up explaining why they're there.


We could see Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge from Pier 39.



Then we continued walking on Pier 39 to the big tourist area. They had a two story merry-go-round, which Kara went on twice, and then we got our caricature done. This was something we had on our list to do since my mom and her sister did it way back in the day. I think it turned out really well!




After this we headed out for lunch. We went to In and Out burger, which is just a fast food restaurant in California, that was awesome. They put russian dressing on burgers - genius!!

Then we headed back to the hotel so we could ALL take naps. And we did! At least 3 hours. Then we left for dinner. We made this night our big, fancy dinner night and ate right at Fisherman's Wharf at a restaurant called Alioto's. (You can see the Fisherman's Wharf sign in the background.)


My mom had Crab Louie, which was very expensive and very small. :-( I had Alioto's house salad (which had raisins, pine nuts, and other goodies on it - yum!), and chicken Alioto (which had artichoke hearts and mushrooms on it - yum, yum!), then we all got dessert. I had a cake I had never heard of before called Sacrapatina. It was an almond flavored cake that was very sweet and delicious and went perfectly with my decaf coffee!

Even though we already had dessert, we headed over to Ghiradelli Square to see if we could buy some chocolate. Unfortunately the museum and tour closed 10 years ago, so they just had a store where you could buy the same thing you can buy at the grocery stores here, only more expensive, so we took some more pictures and went back to the hotel.



(We did see a cool place called Kara's Cupcakes in Ghiradelli Square, so I took a picture of Kara next to it.)



When the little one starts rubbing her eyes, you know it's time to do baths and bed!
What a great day!

Comments

Elisabeth said…
love the pictures! I can't believe it was cold in California! Doesn't seem right.
jessicaday said…
When you check out a map, you'll see San Francisco is the same latitude as we are here in Maryland. And, being right near the water, it's pretty much always cold. Once we left the city, it was warmer. :-)
Vicky said…
LOVE the caricature!!!
Anonymous said…
Kara's cupcakes! I love it!