Snapshots of San Francisco // Piers, Margaritas, and Sea Lions

Happy Wednesday friends! I hope that you are surviving if not enjoying summer! :) 

Back in April, KC and I went to San Francisco for business and also vacation. During the conference we stayed in the city and did fun things in the evenings, and on other days we explored even more. Today I'm sharing some of the pier areas, and some of the downtown restaurants we ate at. Stay tuned for more, we did a lot! :)

This is food heavy since it has so much "conference day" food in it! haha

Eat: We ate at a diner, but all of the photos came out blurry. It was ok. Pretty standard food. But very close to where we were staying. We ate at a Mexican place called Colibri Mexican Bistro, which was also near to where we were staying. It seemed kind of "fancy" but... not really in a good way. A lot of the food didn't sound great, and it was kind of overpriced. The little chicken tacos were great, and margaritas are always good. ;) Here the margaritas are strong, served in a short cocktail glass, and $12. Jesus Cristo! The Mexican molten cake was right up KC's alley and pretty good. We took our time there, but it wasn't my favorite meal. I did like the traditional decor though. We also went to Zero Zero. A pizza/Italian place somewhat close to where we were staying. They had a really cool bar scene. It seemed to think it was pretty cool by using 00 grade olive oil... which really doesn't matter to me. Anyhow, the cocktail menu was really fun. KC got a good one! We also tried the Margherita pizza - which is our fave and was really good. Soft Serve seems to be an "in" thing in SF. So we tried some with a molten-y brownie after our pizza. We shared all of those things. Thank goodness. :) My favorite place for eating during these days was The Ferry Building. It is like a big open market with food stalls and vendors. There were shops and restaurants too. We had cookies and milk at the cookie bar at Cow Girl Creamery and they were GREAT. We also had coffee. :) 

See: Hyde Pier. There was an adorable group of swimmers who were mostly 60+ a bunch of men in speedos, and one lady with a surfing top. They were swimming laps out in the bay. Holy cow that must have been freezing! They were so cute, and vibrant. Hyde Pier is also neat you can see the old ships and various parts of ships. There are museums and gift shops. The wind makes it pretty cold over there. If you want to see the Sea Lions you have to head to Pier 39 - which is a trek away. It is very touristy (shopping, kid stuff, arcades...etc.) but also has sea lions. If you can't figure out where they are just follow the smell. They are very very very stinky. You can hear people in all languages saying "stinks" or "smells" it was too funny. Though they are fun to watch. They are like large sea dogs. Clearly I was excited as evidenced by above picture. We took the cable car out to the piers.

Shop: We didn't shop a lot here, but The Ferry Building had some lovely market-y / boutique stall shopping. We got postcards here, there is also a bookstore. :) If you like touristy shopping Pier 39 has that and Hyde Pier is near to the Ghiradelli store. 

Do: See the sea lions, the swimming club, the old ships, the cable cars, the ferry building and the pretty views of Alcatraz/The bridge from the water. :)

Favorites: The Ferry Building and the cute elderly people at the swimming club. Also the sea lions!! :)

New Experiences: Seeing that swimming club (you guys it's just adorable)! Seeing sea lions up close (not in captivity), ordering soft serve from a sit down restaurant.

Random Tip: We did The MUNI passes in SF. We purchased them at a Wallgreens near our hotel. They were $40 each with unlimited (bus, cable car, trolley, etc.) rides for 7 days. No one ever checked them, but it was cheaper than paying each time. After all the cable car is $6 each way!

Anybody else think elderly people are the cutest? I hope I am that cool when I am 60+.

Have you ever smelled sea lions? LOL

Anybody else love markets and market shopping?!

Upcoming California Posts: Japanese Tea Garden and The DeYoung, Japan Town & The Beats, Conservatory of Flowers & Mission, Stanford & Google, and Pacific Coast Highway! 

Happy Travels!

Alexandra