Today he was all mine to explore together. My previous solo days were awesome (day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4). I know Beach did not have much of an idea how much I planed to do, although I did give him the plan. As we only had one very full day to take it in and that we did! There was so much, in fact, that I needed to break it down into two posts!
We stayed at a very welcoming Airb&b with a fabulous view and great location! Beach fried us up some eggs with gourmet meat, we found a place to keep the car and we were off.
Well sort of....after several blocks and the sun coming out a bit more Beach realized that he had forgotten his sun glasses so we got in some extra walking, on Beach Street no less, to go get them!
We stopped by Fisherman's Wharf and grabbed a pick, it was nice and quiet and I knew that would not last for long.
I had previously bought a CityPass for this day for us. Such a great deal and way to see many things. The selling point, though, was a ride on the Big double decker tour bus.
This would be a great help in the transportation department, while giving us a wonderful tour experience of the town we would get no other way.
Our first hop off was in Union Square. Unfortunately, it was also the most frustrating part of the day in that one of the things we wanted to do was sold out and we wondered around for a bit trying to find a certain coffee spot (Uggg to bad GPS). All this while not being caffeinated left me irritated.
We finally made it to one of Beach's stops, Blue Bottle Cafe, with a line (though a short one) out the door.
However, it was quick enough and we enjoyed watching all the processes go down (while taking visual notes for our future cafe).
I could tell it was a local favorite spot!
Honestly I wasn't a huge fan of the coffee (sour anyone) and Beach ended up finishing mine.
We were close enough to another shop to make it worth the trip...this time very novel.
In a mall like building, the corner spot had a robot make me a cup of deliciousness.
It was a fairly quick process...
And comes a long way from the "cappuccino machines" that I recall from college.
My dairy free latte had a new to me special ingredient! Perhaps something to incorporate in the future?
Next we waited briefly to get back on the bus and head to another area of the city.
Along the way we spied many interesting things, like a man literal shooting up on the side of the road in the tenderloin area...
and then a blast from the past!
Our next jump off spot was the California Academy of Sciences (a part of our GoPass).
While not a super large place, it did have some interesting features, including this albino alligator.
My favorite thing, by far, was the planetarium show, which blew my mind. It was a full theater and we almost missed our spots, as there were a couple things I wanted to check out first. I'm sure Beach loved it too, as it was the longest we sat down all day.
We waited in line a bit (something I've learned I'm really not good at) in order to see the butterfly exhibit and walk around and up in a circle.
And there were some butterflies around that were beautiful.
Perhaps it is because I have been to some pretty fantastic butterfly gardens in the past (i.e. in the keys and Costa Rica) that I was surprised how little of this there was.
The aquarium I would have liked to spend a bit more time at but that was when Beach was anxious about the show.
I did stop to touch this little guy, as I couldn't help it. I was surprised in how hard it was.
God makes awesome things.
Another interesting thing is the rooftop of the building is pretty unique.
It is located in the middle of Golden Gate Park, which I would have loved to spent more time exploring as well. You get see the De Young Museum across the way.
We stopped to spy a couple more interesting things on the way out.
We debated on if we should visit the art museum but decided that since it was also apart of the GoPass and so close we should just check it out!
After waiting in another long line to get in, we found some compelling exhibits!
Perhaps my favorite was these astounding scenery pictures with light....blown away!
Side note....the serious look is not the best for me...even if it is for a fun picture.
Beach captured these pictures....he has always been a fan of lines.
The best part, by far though, is it's observation tower! The amazing views all along the city!
With a couple of more pictures it was time to hop back on the bus!
We were now headed over the Gold Gate bridge where we had awesome views as it was not to foggy.
The other side took awhile to get around as it was packed with tourist getting their shots! We opted to not to be one of them.
With both of our phone batteries close to dead, we discovered that we had mistakenly left our charger in the car. So that meant changing some plans, a bit of a detour and a long walk up hill to get there. Along the way we passed tons of cars waiting to go down Lombard Street. On our tour we learned that sometimes people wait as long as 4 hrs to do so! Crazy... and to think I just accidentally drove down it the night before...no lines!
So it was a fun unintended stop as we joined the other tons of people who were walking as well.
With so many bright colors it was a fun sight.
Once we made it to the car and then to Fisherman's Wharf again, we had a few minutes to spare.
I had been dreaming of this very thing and took Beach to have an authentic sourdough bread bowl with clam chowder right near the water! And yes it was amazing, Beach agreed!
While that was a TON for one day, we were not done yet by any means...
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