San Francisco getaway!!
OK, summer/fall 2015 was a busy time for me. Soon after Squamish Valley Music Festival, my next trip was to SF! It was a short, but one of the most memorable trips. I went with JAM and JCS. Main goal of the trip? Food, of course, and also some sight seeing.
We went to eat at a bunch of different restaurants; we even went for a fancy dinner one day, because....because we're cool like that ;)
We tried to schedule our day so that we go to a certain area and spend our day around that area, so that we don't waste time. It works out great. Plus we took Uber everywhere (except for a couple of times when we took the bus), so that saved us a lot of time, too! We left YVR Thursday morning and arrived back in YVR Monday evening.
BTW, highly recommended, guys, buy a CityPass when you're in SF, especially if you're there to explore the city (in addition to eating-out, of course)!! The CityPass includes passes to 4 different attractions around the city and also gives you 7-day Muni/Cable Car pass.
Moving on.
After OSHA, we went to walk around town and went to one of the malls (I can't remember the name of this shopping mall), but it was by union square. And later that night, we went to Exploratorium! They have adult nights on Thursday nights, which happened to be the day we arrived. It was fun! It's similar to adult nights at Vancouver's Science World, but the Exploratorium seem newer and nicer. The Exploratorium admission was included in CityPass. I can't seem to find any pictures of us at the Exploratorium. It is highly possible that we were too busy ooh-ing and ahh-ing and trying different things there. HAHA.
On Friday, we went to grab our Muni/Cable Car pass (included in City Pass) and took transit to Fisherman's Wharf. We started our day by eating at In n Out Burger, and continued to the Codmother. Yes, we ate twice for breakfast, please don't judge. We then walked to the Aquarium by the Bay, which was included in CityPass. Personally, I would not recommend the Aquarium By the Bay. it was quite small. If you have a car, apparently the Monterey Bay Aquarium is way nicer....unfortunately we didn't rent a car.
We didn't spend too long at the Aquarium By the Bay. But afterwards, we went on the Blue & Gold Fleet cruise ,which was fun, because we got to go underneath the Golden Gate Bridge! This is also included in City Pass.
That night, we went back to the hotel to get changed, and went to Saison for a nice dinner. Correction; it was a splurge. But it was so delicious! That Uni....to die for.....
OK fast forward to Sunday, we went to Great America. and rode on roller coasters. yash! we rented a car and drove there (I think it was about an hour drive?) and we purchased their fast-pass so we saved time lining up. We were able to go on a couple of the rides twice because we didn't have to line up.
So we headed back to the hotel using Uber (because we're too tired to bus), bought some food next door to our hotel, and sat at the hotel lobby to try to breath. We felt gross and sweaty from biking. And that's when we realized we screwed up big time on our flight!!!! By the time we realized it, our flight would have left in 2 hours. OH F^%#^&*!!!!! So we got Uber, told the Uber driver that we're desperate. Got to the airport less than an hour before boarding. Somehow was able to check in, told the agent at the counter that we absolutely need to get on this flight, and we got escorted through security (thanks, Alaska Airlines!!!!!). We ran through the airport, and we made it to the gate probably 2 minutes before they closed the door (we were, of course, the last ones to get on). holy crap.
When we got on, we were sweaty. my heart rate was still through the roof, a combination of nervousness for not catching the flight and also from running. Guess what was the next thing we did? We took out our wet-wipes, and started wiping ourselves. LOLLLLLLLLLL. The lady sitting across the row gave us a weird look. Sorry, lady, you would definitely prefer us to do this now, rather than spending the next couple of hours smelling our stankkkkk.
That marks the end of our trip. What a great way to end the trip! LOL.
We went to eat at a bunch of different restaurants; we even went for a fancy dinner one day, because....because we're cool like that ;)
We tried to schedule our day so that we go to a certain area and spend our day around that area, so that we don't waste time. It works out great. Plus we took Uber everywhere (except for a couple of times when we took the bus), so that saved us a lot of time, too! We left YVR Thursday morning and arrived back in YVR Monday evening.
BTW, highly recommended, guys, buy a CityPass when you're in SF, especially if you're there to explore the city (in addition to eating-out, of course)!! The CityPass includes passes to 4 different attractions around the city and also gives you 7-day Muni/Cable Car pass.
As soon as we arrived, we had lunch at Osha (it was a couple of blocks away from our hotel). We stayed at a hotel a couple of blocks away from Union Square
Mmm..spicy duck.
Moving on.
After OSHA, we went to walk around town and went to one of the malls (I can't remember the name of this shopping mall), but it was by union square. And later that night, we went to Exploratorium! They have adult nights on Thursday nights, which happened to be the day we arrived. It was fun! It's similar to adult nights at Vancouver's Science World, but the Exploratorium seem newer and nicer. The Exploratorium admission was included in CityPass. I can't seem to find any pictures of us at the Exploratorium. It is highly possible that we were too busy ooh-ing and ahh-ing and trying different things there. HAHA.
The Fisherman's Wharf
We didn't spend too long at the Aquarium By the Bay. But afterwards, we went on the Blue & Gold Fleet cruise ,which was fun, because we got to go underneath the Golden Gate Bridge! This is also included in City Pass.
the cruise
The bird wanted to be in the pic!
This woman saw us trying so hard to take a selfie with the bridge, and kindly offered to take our picture. HAHA. Fail. The picture turns out really nice, though!
That night, we went back to the hotel to get changed, and went to Saison for a nice dinner. Correction; it was a splurge. But it was so delicious! That Uni....to die for.....
We decided that we should do something more educational on Saturday, so we went to the California Academy of Science. We took the bus there. Again, I know that I was ooh-ing and ahh-ing all the time we were at the Academy. It is very well kept. They had an aquarium section, they had an outdoor section (rooftop garden), they of course had exhibitions. After our minds were satisfied, we went to visit Dolores Park because we heard that it's the cool place to hang out in SF! It's a huge park that was newly upgraded (new/clean washrooms). You can bring your own alcohol, and hang out with other people there. We brought playing cards and attempted to play Monopoly Deal, which proved to be a challenge because it was quite windy outside. It was very cool to people-watch, too, at the park. Before we went to the park, we lined up for about half an hour across the street
And I have to mention that I was (in my head) screaming like a girl when I found out they had free wifi at the park. WHAT?? Although, maybe I was the silly one, since we were, afterall, in San Francisco. Perhaps it's not new news that they have wifi at public places. I've been living in a cave.
Dolores Park
OK fast forward to Sunday, we went to Great America. and rode on roller coasters. yash! we rented a car and drove there (I think it was about an hour drive?) and we purchased their fast-pass so we saved time lining up. We were able to go on a couple of the rides twice because we didn't have to line up.
And finally, it's Monday. We have satisfied our food craving. We have satisfied our inner geeks. Now we have to satisfy our body. So what did we do? We biked over the Golden Gate Bridge! We took the bus to the pier, and rented the bikes, and the biked over the bridge. Holy man. It's been years since I've been on a bike. Thank goodness I still remembered how to bike. LOL. I was, though, having trouble keeping up with JCS....that jerk....left me and JAM behind while we were huffing and puffing trying to overcome that hill....
Halfway through the bridge, I thought I was going to pass out. So I asked if I can sit down for a bit. LOL. and I tried my best to look for a shaded area, this little corner is the most shaded area on that bridge. And they thought it'd be funny to take my half-dying picture.
Anyway....the view was amazing! I couldn't complain! and the weather was so nice. Once we got off on the other side of the bridge, there's a ferry that we could take back to the pier to return our bikes.
So we headed back to the hotel using Uber (because we're too tired to bus), bought some food next door to our hotel, and sat at the hotel lobby to try to breath. We felt gross and sweaty from biking. And that's when we realized we screwed up big time on our flight!!!! By the time we realized it, our flight would have left in 2 hours. OH F^%#^&*!!!!! So we got Uber, told the Uber driver that we're desperate. Got to the airport less than an hour before boarding. Somehow was able to check in, told the agent at the counter that we absolutely need to get on this flight, and we got escorted through security (thanks, Alaska Airlines!!!!!). We ran through the airport, and we made it to the gate probably 2 minutes before they closed the door (we were, of course, the last ones to get on). holy crap.
When we got on, we were sweaty. my heart rate was still through the roof, a combination of nervousness for not catching the flight and also from running. Guess what was the next thing we did? We took out our wet-wipes, and started wiping ourselves. LOLLLLLLLLLL. The lady sitting across the row gave us a weird look. Sorry, lady, you would definitely prefer us to do this now, rather than spending the next couple of hours smelling our stankkkkk.
That marks the end of our trip. What a great way to end the trip! LOL.
this is us during layover on the way home. Typical. What to do when there's nothing to do? get on our phones. sigh. i hate to be one of those people, but i know i am.
ohh, and look what we found when we were unpacking at the hotel?? leftover nutella sandwich from Squamish Music Festival (see my previous blog post).
Gross. HAHAHA. it was squashed inside the backpack.
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