September 5th was our busiest day!
We woke up to calmer weather -no wind! And the bay looked so very beautiful in the morning light.
We made our way to THE Lounge for breakfast and then took an Uber to Union Square. Because it was our first ride, we got $20 off, and the ride ended up costing 7 bucks total! Our Uber driver was unfamiliar with the city -we only found this out as we got OUT of his car -and ended up taking us through some pretty scary-looking streets. He dropped us off at Macy’s, and we quickly walked very closely together to find the nearest trolley to get us AWAY from Union Square.
We weren’t interested in shopping, and we were pretty sure those scary streets we passed were going to pounce on us at any given minute.
We waited in a line to hop a trolley for a while which didn’t annoy us because we were in AWE of the people and city, but others weren’t so enraptured…
“This is IT. Honey, get the girls. We are taking a TAXI. This is RE-DICULOUS.”
I began wondering if maybe I was handling the whole thing wrong. Like, maybe I should be more fraught with indignation. But that’s just not my style, so we took a selfie instead.
Not pictured: angry man next to us with two girls and a wife and NO TAXI.
The 3-day bus passes we’d picked up at the airport covered trolley rides, and I was pretty excited about it. I knew Alice would love to see pictures of the trolley since she is a dedicated Daniel Tiger fan and often drives around toy cars, pretending that they are a trolley.
Danny and I rode on the outside. He carried our back pack in front so it wouldn’t get whacked by passing cars.
Riding the trolley was so fun -definitely a highlight of the trip for me! As we climbed the hills and then went down, down, down the slopes, it was SO HARD (seriously, I don’t think I was given enough credit for my restraint) to not throw my hand out and break out into, “The HILLLLLLS ARE ALIVE!”
Danny, on the other hand, is a cop. And a cop is a cop even when he’s not coppering.
He spent the ride very much aware of the dangers around the people around him… every time I leaned out, he should have liked to reign me back in forever. He’s always in the business of protecting. It’s not something he can just shut off. But I’m so glad I caught it on camera.
I leaned out to take pictures of the trolley tracks and streets! So cool.
Our first glimpses of the ocean came when we hopped off the trolley and onto a Pier. We stopped to make some new, sea-faring friends and it felt kind of like “Oklahoma!” when they singing about cowboys and farmers being friends. Desert-dwellers and sea-faring folk should be friends.
We walked along a pier filled with old ships. We could take tours, but the price wasn’t right. It didn’t take long for us to realize that the price wouldn’t be right ANYWHERE except in an old arcade on the wharf where you could play some games for a dime.
From there, we could see the Ghirardelli Chocolate sign, so we walked up that way.
There were lots of shops and things in Ghirardelli Square, but we weren’t interested in BUYING stuff, we were interested in DOING stuff, so we bought two bars of chocolate to snack on while we did stuff around the great, big Pacific drink.
What I loved about the whole thing was that no matter where you were, you could almost always see the sea.
I read a plaque outside one of the chocolate stores and right behind it was the ocean!
From there, we walked out onto a long cement dock. It was crumbling and there were signs to stay off certain parts, but there were fearless fisherman who couldn’t care LESS about warnings, and they were fishing their little hearts out. Apparently, you don’t need a fishing license!
The waters were so clear!
From there we got our closest glimpse of Alcatraz… until Danny and I hopped a cruise ship later that afternoon and circled around it like hungry hawks.
After our pier walking, we made our way down to the official HEART of Fisherman’s Wharf:
By this time, we were hungry for some lunch. We looked around for something to eat, and there were A LOT of options and A LOT of people! It was Labor Day weekend, after all. We finally decided on a restaurant called, “Fisherman’s Grotto” and again split a plate. Prices, prices!
We had crab enchiladas, and they were so good! It’s safe to say that Danny and I ate exclusively chocolate and seafood while we were in California.
The view from where we sat was so fun, and we even got to watch a sea lion bobbing and swimming around. So cute!
Is it weird that I loved the OLD STAIRS? I loved the old carpets and the old creaking and the thought of HOW MANY YEARS AND PEOPLE they’d seen!
The restaurant was a brief break from the noisy masses of people, music, and birds outside. When we stepped back into it, we were refreshed and refueled.
Near the restaurant we found an old arcade filled with games from the 1880s to present day. We walked through and promised we’d come back later on, and we did! After our ferry ride, we hit up the old arcade with some change we’d picked up from a candy store. It was so fun! We smashed pennies to our heart’s content and Danny paid a quarter to find out what kind of lover he is.
He was told he was a tender lover.
Oh, the jokes. Those old games are the BEST.
Right outside the arcades, there were some restored WWII goodies. There were torpedoes, a submarine, plaques and a full-sized restored war ship! We wanted to tour the submarine and the ship so bad, but it would have cost $100 for us both to go on both. We contented ourselves with pictures instead.
From there, we decided to spend some money on an hour-long cruise under the bridge and around Alcatraz. I’m going to save the second half of our day for another post because this is just getting WAY to picture-y. I’m making a shutterfly book with the pictures from our trip and it’s over $100 right now. AH! What is with my shutter-happy finger? Also, shouldn’t I have a better camera if I’m going to be snapping so many pictures so often? Might as well make the quality worthwhile!
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