A late afternoon flight from Mexico and we’re back in the USA on Christmas Eve – San Francisco to be exact. We stayed in the city for 2 nights before renting a car and driving down Highway 1 towards Los Angeles. This was the final leg of our honeymoon and I can’t believe we’re almost at the end.
The last 5 weeks has been incredible! All the countries that we’ve been to and the sights seen. If only we can do it forever!
It will be a quiet Christmas for us this year as we’re away from our family but we’re going to enjoy it. I wished it snowed on Christmas but I don’t think it really snow in San Francisco, or does it?
ACCOMMODATION
Parc 55
After our 6 week stint backpacking around South America, Cuba and Mexico, San Francisco was a welcome respite because it meant I didn’t have to stay in hostels anymore, even if they were private rooms.
We stayed in Parc 55 Wyndham for the 2 nights and it felt so luxurious. Not just that, it is also in a great location – Westfield was adjacent to our hotel and all the other shops were walking distance. Major damage to our credit card was imminent!
Location: 55 Cyril Magnin St, San Francisco, CA 94102, USA
Price: From AUD$580/night. Book Parc 55 on Booking.com
EATING DIARY
Commonwealth
We’ve really enjoyed treating ourselves to something nice at each place that we’ve visited and the same goes for when we were in San Francisco. A quick search on the internet yielded Commonwealth and we were successful in getting a reservation just before they closed for the Christmas/New Year holiday period.
Read about our food experience here!
Ferry Building Marketplace
We walked down to the Ferry Building Marketplace to find out that there was a Farmers’ Market on that morning! What luck! We had a great time browsing around all the stalls before settling down for breakfast.
I had the Porchetta Sandwich based on the Best Italian Culinary traditions from the Roti Roti Gourmet Rotisserie stall. It was Pork Loin rolled into the Pork Belly with Crispy Skin on and spiced with Organic Fresh Herbs, garnished with Onion Marmalade and Curly Cress/Arugula. I don’t like sandwiches and I am not a fan of bread usually but this sandwich was absolutely delicious!
We then walked through the Ferry Building to the back outdoor area where we found a bench to have our breakfast while taking in the view. The best seats for breakfast.
Alfonso Scunatelli’s Famous Fishwich (formerly
Sally’s Famous Fishwich)
On our walk around the Bay, we saw loads of locals and tourists enjoying either the dungeness crabs or clam chowder. It kinda cemented the idea that we should also give it a try. If they are doing it, it must be good, isn’t it? We decided on the latter as it was less messy, randomly picked a place that was teeming with people and got ourselves one to share. So Good!
THINGS TO DO
We didn’t plan to slow down but after a hectic backpacking itinerary, we felt like it would be nice to get a breather before our drive down the coast. It probably didn’t help that the Alcatraz tour we booked before arriving in San Francisco got cancelled too and due to it being Christmas, we knew it was going to be difficult to find something else to do so we decided to just relax and soak in the Christmas atmosphere and festivities. Even so, these are a few things we got up to:
Ferry Building to Aquatic Park Pier Walk
This is a lovely walk to do especially if the day is nice. It looks like a really long walk but there are so many places to check out and poke around. We set aside about an hour to leisurely walk from the Ferry Building to the Fisherman’s Wharf but because we paused at so many places, stopped to enjoyed a bread bowl of chowder and even extended our walk to the Aquatic Cove that by the time we finished, it was almost lunchtime! Except we weren’t hungry because we already had our chowder mid-journey!
It was truly an enjoyable morning spent! As you can see from the photos, it wasn’t just a simple walk. We did a lot within that one walk and for next trip, I would do this walk again but put aside more time! I would have loved to walk to the very end of Pier 7, check out the Exploratorium, spend a bit browsing around the shops and the Aquarium at Pier 39 and also go up to Black Point. Those would be my tips for you too if you’re going planning on doing this walk.
Ride on a Cable Car
There was no way that we were going to leave San Francisco and not ride a cable car so we did! We caught one from the Fisherman’s Wharf area back to the city centre and it was fab! I don’t know if they were all decked in Christmas colours but ours was it was so fun! Really get you in the Christmas spirit!
Golden Gate Bridge
It was a really quick stop and snap as the heavens opened not long after we arrived. The plan was to drive out to the Golden Gate Bridge to get our touristy photos taken and then on to Muir Woods to explore the area but that plan got thrown out the windows and we decided to just head back to the warm and dry hotel room and wait it out. It pretty much poured the rest of the day so that was a good idea!
