The Browning's do San Francisco, CA: June 27-30, 2017

I never thought much about traveling. Well, until 2013. After some unfortunate family events, I made myself a promise: travel as much as you can until you have children. Every summer since then we've traveled. We left the country 2 summers in a row. Last summer we stayed in state and did smaller vacations. This year we decided to take 2 medium vacations. So, in June we traveled to San Francisco, California. It was Mr. B's and my first time to travel there. We spent 2 1/2 days exploring the beautiful city in northern California. The weather was about 40-50 degrees cooler than here in Texas, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. What I learned was that I should just picture Texas in February and I'd get northern California in summer time. It was chilly and windy throughout the majority of our trip. The sun would peek out and warm us up for a bit in mid-afternoon. Since we were near the water most of the time, the temperature was much cooler. Here are some of our adventures on our trip:

Tuesday, June 27:

We caught a 9:00 AM flight out of Dallas (more like 10:30 since it was delayed). Me, being the early bird that I am, got to the airport nice and early. I just don't like to feel rushed. When I feel rushed, I get cranky. No one wants a cranky Ashley.

We are on our way...it was a long 3 1/2 hour flight. I had to potty so bad throughout most of the flight. I refused to use the bathroom on the plane. I'm a teacher, so I know how to hold it! Despite the awful C boarding passes we had, we got decent seats!

When we arrived we had to figure out how to use Lyft for the first time. Neither one of us have ever used a ride share app before, so we were learning as we went. We actually ended up using Lyft quite a bit throughout our stay. We got a ride to our Air BNB in Daly City. It was a quaint little room that was perfect for us. It was a 20 minute walk from the subway station (which we also learned how to use, along with the bus, while we were in town). We walked the first couple of times to the station, and on day one we walked back from the station. However, we quickly realized that it was just better to catch a cheap Lyft ride and save our feet. We caught the subway to down town on Market Street and made our way to China Town to explore. 

Lots of neat structures in the city. 

We hit up several of the shops. We didn't find anything to purchase, but we enjoyed looking at all the Asian culture. 

We stopped at the "Floating Boat" for some sushi because when in China Town......

We opted to order off the menu instead of grabbing random sushi off the floating boats. I'm a California roll kinda girl anyway.

Beef Teriyaki rice bowl

No silverware means we had to eat with chop sticks. I got frustrated at the end and used the serving spoon because ain't nobody got time.....

We stopped at a Chinese bakery and didn't recognize any of the pastries. So when the customer in front of us asked the man behind the counter what they were known for, we just bought the same as he did. It's called a Moon Cake. It's like a biscuit with a type of jelly (but stickier and not as sweet) in the center. I really enjoyed it. Mr. B thought it made him sick because he didn't feel so well after eating it.

After China Town, we caught the subway back to Daly City and explored the shopping center that was near our house. We ate at a pizza place for supper before coming home to watch TV and rest our tired feet. Despite being in the airport and on a plane for half the day, we clearly got in some exercise on day 1!

Wednesday, June 28: 

We wanted to spend the whole day at Fisherman's Wharf today. We had a sunset cruise set for 7:00 PM that night, so we explored the wharf and Pier 39 all day. 

We had to get a selfie by the water! We forgot to get a selfie stick....again!

Overlooking Pier 39 from one of the balconies

Because we needed a picture with boats in a harbor in the background

The famous sea lions at the pier

We mostly just walked around during the day going in and out of the shops and eating food. We caught a street show with a magician. Here are some scenery shots of our day at the pier.

An actual WWII war ship and submarine

There were several informational signs like this around the pier, but this was the most interesting to me: Pier 39 would be an island if a huge earth quake hit!

View of Alcatraz Island

San Francisco skyline from the pier

The Ferry Building

We had to take these pics outside of Bubba Gump Shimp (we would eat here on Thursday)

We ate lunch at Chowders and got some yummy fried seafood

For dinner that night, Mr. B had a Philly cheese steak and I had to get some chowder in a sourdough bread bowl....I wasn't leaving SF without eating that!

We ended our evening with a 2 hour sunset cruise around the bay. We sailed around Alcatraz and Angel Island, Sausalito, Tiburon, Richardson Bay, and went under the Golden Gate Bridge. The cruise had a nice appetizer spread and live music. It was very cold out on the deck, but we braved the cold for some scenery shots as we went under the GG bridge.

Views from the boat

Mr. B couldn't have captured a better shot of the Pacific Ocean as the sun was setting on the water

I might be a tad obsessed with this shot.....

We had numerous pics taken of us on the boat with the GG bridge in the background, and my hair was doing crazy things in every single one of them. Thank you, wind!

See the hair situation???

Day 2 was not as active on the walking front as day 1, but we still got a lot in! We were thankful for Lyft by today. They gave us a ride back to the subway station so we didn't have to wait on the bus. We also hitched a Lyft ride from the subway station back to the house so we didn't have to walk back in the dark.

Thursday, June 29:

We slept in today. We were so tired and sore from the past 2 days that we decided to take it easy today. We had plans to go to Golden Gate Park and explore, but we decided to save that for another time. We did want to check out the bridge from land. We hopped on the bus from the subway station that took us to the bridge. We walked around the area and the tourism building before deciding to walk across the bridge. We grabbed lunch at one of the cafes and bought an over priced croissant and coffee. The choices were limited and we were starving. Due to the cold temps, the crazy wind, and the extreme soreness of our feet, we opted to walk half the bridge before turning around. After the bridge, we caught a Lyft ride back to Pier 39 to finish exploring and to buy my picture frame (I always get a picture frame from the places I travel to). We watched another street show and explored more of the pier. We ate dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp. We shared the shrimp mac n' cheese and the shrimp platter. We called it an early night and went back to the house. We had a really early flight the next morning.

The GG bridge finished construction in 1937, so this year they celebrated 80 years. Here is the garden display.

View of the Pacific from atop a cliff

A piece of the bridge

Scenes of the bridge from land

My most favorite pic of us from the trip!!!

Views from the bridge!

Yep! We walked on the Golden Gate Bridge! It was such a cool feeling being up there!!!

Snack on the pier: Nutella crepe with garlic fries (snack of champions)

Our shrimp platter from Bubba Gump

I'm a mac n' cheese snob, but this was legit! I'm actually kind of sad I had to share it with Mr. B.....

Our final pic on the pier with the view of Alcatraz in the background! 

We left bright and early Friday morning. We were up at 3:30 and at the airport by 4:15. Our flight left at 6:10. We were back in Dallas by lunch time. We loved our trip! We have already decided we must go back and stay longer so we can do some day trip excursions in the area. We will be back, San Francisco! You're just too beautiful to not revisit:)