Tuesday & Wednesday / San Francisco

We were all excited about our 2 day stop in San Francisco and it didn’t disappoint. We arrived on Monday evening, and after checking into our hotel, headed down to Fisherman’s wharf and Pier 39 for some sightseeing and dinner.

We ate at PierMarket on Pier 39. It was a bustling evening at the restaurant, but we were fortunate to get a window table, just in time to watch the sun set over the Bay.

I got a bit over excited about the food and ordered a starter of garlic fries for us to share, which was a mistake, because I had forgotten that a lot of American restaurants bring you a basket of free bread to graze on while waiting for your meal, and so I filled up on bread and chips before our main courses arrived. Thankfully, John was faithful in his role of meal-finisher and helped me out when I could eat no more.

We walked back to our hotel via the wiggly section of Lombard Street and China town, although we weren’t particularly successful at finding the heart of China town, so I didn’t manage to capture it on camera. I did find this brilliant street display of books that periodically light up, strung from wire between the street lights.

On Tuesday we did a whole lot of walking about the city and waiting for a long time to catch the tram to Haight Ashbury. We paid a visit to Macy’s where the boys enjoyed coffee and cake on the rooftop terrace in The Cheese Cake Factory while Becky and I shopped. Except neither of us bought anything, and I lost Becky and spent half hour going up and down and around the 7 floors of Macy’s trying to locate everyone.

{Sipping a latte on the rooftop terrace of Macy's in the Cheesecake Factory restaurant}

 {If you look closely you can see Becky and me next to the 'S'. One seriously enourmous sign!}

In Union Square there was this wonderful heart statue that looked just like a mirror with a reflection of The Painted Ladies occupying the heart, but it's just a very clever painting rather than a mirror.

After walking for a good long while to get a view from the bridge we got to the edge of the water to see the Golden Gate Bridge classically shrouded in the mist that it’s famous for, making it a very difficult subject to capture!

Next stop was Haight Ashbury – hippie central. We popped into a fruit / food market to stock up on lunch supplies and I stumbled upon Blue Bottle Coffee which I had hoped to find, after reading Elise’s recommendation. I bought a bag of the Mexico Chiapas Proish beans, which I’ll have to wait until we’re home to try.

We went out for dinner at Chambers restaurant in the Tenderloin District. This was another recommendation from Elise and wow, it was amazing. We would never have discovered it if it wasn't for my blog reading, and I love this about the big old world of the internet. The food was absolutely delicous with plenty of gluten free options. I ate the pancetta wrapped chicken roulade and I would happily eat it again and again and again.

{The walls were lined with bookshelves filled with thousands of records}

 {one of the two bars in the restaurant with the most fun sign in lights}

We left San Francisco early on Wednesday morning and took a detour on our way to Yosemite via the golden gate bridge in the hope that we might just get a better view of it. We knew it was unlikely as the mist is even heavier in the morning, but we still enjoyed the experience of driving over the bridge.