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| Photo by: Lily Ha |
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| Photo by: Lily Ha |
A couple of years ago I decided I didn’t want to spend my
birthday in Calgary doing the same thing anymore. I decided I’m going to try and travel every
year to a different city for my birthday if possible. First city I choose to explore was San
Francisco. I did some research to see
what there was to do in this city and I found there was actually a lot to see
in each of the district they have.
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| Photo by: Lily Ha |
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| Photo by: Lily Ha |
We stayed in
Union Square which was in the downtown area so
it was really central to everything. A
block away from our hotel was the famous
San Francisco cable car system. This
is the last manually cable car system in the world. The cable car will
take you from Union Square to Fisherman’s Wharf and you can get off to do some
exploring between the two destinations.
Video by: Lily Ha
This guy was pretty cool. He was able to make music from a lot of things that you would never think to use to make music.
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| Photo by: Lily Ha |
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| Photo by: Lily Ha |
Day 1
So the first thing we decided to do and get out of the way
was to do some outlet shopping. I really
enjoy the
Premium Outlets change but there aren’t any actual outlets in the San
Francisco area. There are four Premium
Outlets nearby and all were about an hour away.
So we rented a car and started driving north. We stopped at two of the outlets and that
took pretty much the whole day so on our way back to San Francisco we were
stuck in good old traffic.
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| Photo by: Lily Ha |
Day 2
We took a Sonoma and Napa Valley wine tour. This was a full day event where we travelled
the countryside stopping at several different wineries for tours and
tastings. This tour started at 9:00 am
so you really have to pace yourself on how much you drink at each winery. We stopped for lunch at Yountville’s Vintage
1870 for lunch and there was a lot to choose from.
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| Photo by: Lily Ha |
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| Photo by: Lily Ha |
Day 3
Today we decided to have a more relaxing day and just explored
the city. We started at the
Grace Cathedral. From there we went to the
San Francisco Cable Car Museum. Next we hit up
Lombard Street where
a section of this street is the crookedest (most winding) street in the
world. It was very interesting to watch
the cars drive down this street.
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| Photo by: Lily Ha |
After all the walking we decided
to head to
Fisherman’s Wharf for lunch.
Here you have to try the famous clam chower in a sourdough bread
bowl. It was very satisfying. After the chower you can eat the bowl where
it soaked up all the flavor of the chowder too.
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| Photo by: Lily Ha |
Next came the
San Francisco Bay’sAquarium, followed by check out the checking out the sea lions at
Pier 39, and
lastly we took an
Alcatraz night tour. The
Alcatraz tour took about 3 hours in total and it was very interesting. When you are in certain parts of the penitently
it was a little creepy. There were also
a few cells that were unlocked where you can stand in them to take pictures. Depending if the sun has set you might be
standing in the cell with minimum light.
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| Photo by: Lily Ha |
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| Photo by: Lily Ha |
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| Photo by: Lily Ha |
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| Photo by: Lily Ha |
Day 4
Today I decided to take another excursion,
the
Sausalito and
Muir Woods excursion.
My friends weren’t really interested in this so I decided to do it by
myself.
Sausalito, a small,
Mediterranean-like town, is filled with charming art galleries and shops,
waterfront restaurants, cliff-hanging cottages, and great views.
After Sausalito I headed off to see the Bay
Area's last uncut stands of old-growth redwood in the Muir Woods National
Monument.
I took the Nature Trail into
the heart of the forest's cathedral-like groves for views of some of the oldest
trees in existence.
This took about 3.5
hours so when I got back to San Francisco I meet up with my friends for dinner
and to do some partying.
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| Photo by: Lily Ha |
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| Photo by: Lily Ha |
Day 5
This was our last day in San Francisco
but our flight wasn’t until 7:00 pm so we decided to do a bit more exploring
around the city. We had bought the City Pass
so thought we might as well check out some of the attractions that are included
in the pass. The pass included things
like the
California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
(
SFMOMA) and de Young Museum or Exploratorium. We used our City Pass to the Muni and check
out all of the above. By the time we
were done it was time to say goodbye and head home.
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| Photo by: Lily @ SFMOMA |
Hope you enjoy the pictures and video.
Hey I really liked your post about your birthday at San Francisco! I can tell by the way you wrote that you really enjoyed your time there. San Francisco is one city on my places to go. Those are some really nice pictures you took.
ReplyDeleteI have been to a few cities and California and what you wrote about how there is so much to see in every district also seems to be true down at southern california like San Diego and Los Angeles. Not to mention great weather.
Hey I love your pictures and the layout of your blog. I could tell that while you were there you really enjoyed it and the way you told a story as to what you did each day. With your post you made me want to visit San Francisco!
ReplyDeleteI hope to go there sometime and click as many wonderful pictures as you did and do those great activities like the Alcatraz night tour and the Aquamarine.
I love San Fransisco! Riding the cable car is a definite must as it is one of the most famous figures when one thinks of San Fransisco, next to the Golden Gate Bridge of course.
ReplyDeleteOther than creepy, how did you find Alcatraz? Unfortunately I was unable to take a tour there, but it has always been one of the top items on my to do list. Was the tour interesting throughout or did it end up being somewhat boring?
Beside be creepy Alcatraz was pretty interesting. The rental audio help with a lot of the explanations. If Alcatraz is on your to do list I'd say do it at night for sure but make sure you book early because the night tour always fills up and they only offer it a few nights out of the week.
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