|| Ready for a day of exploring this city by the bay, we took advantage of staying on the Sausalito side of the bridge and took the ferry into the city for the day. And we decided this would be a pretty great way to get to work every morning! The kids insisted on sharing a single seat right up front and were a little squirrely. We seemed to be the only non-locals on the ferry and the kids did their best to entertain them, whether they wanted to be entertained or not! Every one was completely quiet, doing their best to ignore our children, but when Cruz said something along the lines of “everyone is on their phone” I caught a couple smirks around us (as well as noticed a few people put their devices away and grabbed their books or looked outside!
A half hour ride to the beautiful ferry building...
Back on dry land, we went in search of the cable cars! This proved much harder than we thought it would be. We finally bailed and called an Uber to take us! Cruz asked our driver four hundred questions about his job, like how much it would cost to drive us back home to Iowa, as well as how much it would cost to drive two inches. ;)
|| There are three cable car "routes" in San Francisco and they all go different places and directions. You can buy a one-way ticket to the end of the ride, or buy an all day pass and hop on and off. But in order to take advantage of this, you have to know where they're at. I'm not sure we ever really figured the cable car thing out, but it was a definite must-do. We took the Powell and Hyde car which took us up and down the steep streets of San Francisco, including the famous Lombard Street and the Union Station area. We waited in line for about 30 minutes and happened to time it perfectly and were the first people on the next car, scoring us a front row outside seat for all the action.
The streets were steep, the cars went faster than I expected, and it was a thrill for us and the kids. We took the car all the way to the end, grabbed some lunch at an Irish pub, then hopped back on to Lombard Street.
|| San Francisco is truly a unique and beautiful city. Surrounded by water and mountains, the backdrop in every direction was eye-catching, but the different levels of elevation right in the city were what made this place so unique. Especially when walking! You seriously had to take it slow walking down the streets and walking up was a chore! Lombard Street, known as the curviest street in the country, was beautiful. And busy!
Standing at the top of Lombard!
And the bottom!
|| Our next stop was Alamo Square where the famous Painted Ladies are. We had heard from other people that this was pretty underwhelming, but I couldn't disagree more! We grabbed some coffees at a little coffee shop, popped a squat on the huge green space directly across the street, and the kids played and played at the playground. The weather was literally perfect and I could have stayed here all afternoon.
|| There is something I love about a pretty park in the middle of a big city. The kids made quick friends with a group of kids playing soccer and Cruz fit right in.
|| With tired feet and whiny kids, we found the ferry building and hopped on the 5:00 ride back to Sausalito. And the ride back was even better than our early morning one. The afternoon sun was warm and plenty of people in suits were enjoying a happy hour cold one on the deck, talking business and baseball and lots of other things. My cold Pacifico tasted amazing and I once again decided that taking a boat home from work was most definitely the good life. Although the $45 ferry ticket rides for four would get rather pricey. :)
The Golden Gate Bridge on one side, the Bay Bridge on the other...
|| And back to our home away from home. We didn't anticipate spending as much time at our hotel as we did but it made for such a great landing pad. We'd mosey in sometime around happy hour, grab some wine and fruit and cheese, and play UNO or Phase 10 on the patio. It was the good life!
Next up, Part 2 of our Thursday to come...
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