Yusaku and I just spent the past week in San Francisco for my Spring Break. I wanted to record all the details of our trip on the blog so I can have it /remember it in the future. We flew out early in the morning Easter Sunday and with the time difference, got into San Francisco around 11:00 a.m. Unfortunately, it was cold, rainy, and windy on Sunday. Once we got to the hotel, we headed out to grab some lunch and checked out a few shops around Union Square, but the crummy weather kind of forced us back to the hotel to sit around for the rest of the day. I must admit I was little disappointed that this was how our trip started out. Even though thing didn't work out exactly how I hoped, the forecast for the rest of the week was much better.
We got an early start Monday morning and rode a cable car down to Fisherman's Wharf. Not long after we got down there, it started to rain. Luckily, we had bought an umbrella the day before and the rain was not as heavy so we kept walking around. We walked down to Pier 39 where we got to see the sea lions. As excited as I was to see them, I was equally excited to find a public restroom (those were few and far between, which is kind of an issue when you're pregnant!).
We hopped back on a cable car and hopped off at the top of Lombard Street and walked down. We finished off the day by taking a bus to the California Academy of Sciences Museum, which was very interesting but extremely crowded. There we saw a rainforest exhibit and a show at the planetarium among other things.
Tuesday was probably my favorite day. We decided to rent a car for a day and headed across the Golden Gate Bridge to Muir Woods. We caught a free guided tour when got there and after the tour was over continued walking on our own for a while. It was beautiful! After we left there, we headed to Sausalito and had lunch. We ate at a restaurant on the water and took a nice rest in the sun by the water afterward. After our rest, we checked out the shops. It was a very cute little town.
On Wednesday, we saw Japantown, Alamo Square/the Painted Ladies (brought back great childhood memories of Full House!), and the Japanese Tea Garden. This was probably the warmest day we had, which was great.
Thursday we took a very steep hike up to Coit Tower and then rode the elevator to the top of the tower for a great view of the whole city. We also got to see some of the wild parrots that live on Telegraph Hill. We headed to the Embarcadero area and ate lunch outside of the ferry building. We finished off the day with a night tour of Alcatraz. We got a nice tour of the bay on our way there. It was interesting and less creepy than I thought it would be with the exception of the hospital.
Friday we went to the Botanical Garden and rode the bus to the beach. We went to Japantown for lunch and after a little rest, went to Ghiradelli Square for some ice cream and souvenirs before calling it a night. All in all, it was a fun, busy trip, but by the end my tired legs and I were ready to come back home.
