I love doing touristy things, and San Francisco has no shortage!
A couple weeks ago MJ and I headed down to Pier 39 to explore the tourist scene and satisfy my craving for battered and fried fish.
…oh! And to see the sea lions! Actually, the entire trip down was to see the sea lions. I had been down near Pier 39 on a previous visit, but somehow managed to be completely oblivious to their existence. Seeing them was a must!
The weren’t as “loud as smelly” as people have reported, but there actually weren’t too many the day we visited. Still, it was great to finally see them! The rest of the pier was deliciously text-book tourist area (did I mention I enjoy tourist traps too?). We were able to easily find a place to satisfy my fried fish craving with some salmon fish and chips and round out the meal with some fried donuts.
Last weekend it was a trip down to Ferry Building. OK, calling it a “trip” is a bit of a lie, we live within walking distance from there! We had gone here for lunch last summer when I was visiting but I didn’t get to see the Farmer’s Market during that trip.
This time I got to see the whole market, browsing stands of vegetables for inspiration to possibly cook some fresh meals using some of them as ingredients in the near future. Ended up picking up some fresh bread and cheese for consumption later and stopped at the Namu stand for some fascinating “asian-inspired street food” which was quite a treat.
We decided to catch a street car home, I hadn’t been on one since my first visit out here back in May of 2008. It was packed, but well worth it for the novelty. That evening we spent hanging in with a nice bottle of wine and enjoying our bread and cheese goodies from the market.
Yesterday I did a bit more tourism, this time by meeting up with soryu2 who was in town visiting from Germany with plans to visit Coit Tower at sunset. So we met for dinner at Olea and then took a bus over to Columbus and made the trek up to the tower – taking some of those famous San Francisco streets so steep that they have stairs.
And we caught the sunset over the Golden Gate!
It’s been a fun few weeks so far and I’ve barely scratched the surface of things to do here. Last weekend we went through a detour north of the city and ended up driving through The Presidio of San Francisco park at dusk. We were able to stop and spend some time looking out on to the Pacific. I missed living near the ocean so much! I’m so glad I do again now. I’ve also been pretty busy with local F/OSS stuff (including a conference! and lots of LUGs!) but that’s for another post.