San Francisco

My favorite city I’ve never been to is San Francisco. I’ve always told friends and co-workers. Honestly, I’d never been to California until 2019, when the entire family went to Disneyland. Laurie and myself went back to Disneyland in 2022 on an Adventures by Disney trip but I’d never been to Northern California. So when my long-time friend from middle school, Dave, said he was traveling to San Francisco with his wife, Stacie, for their 30th wedding anniversary, I was excited to meet them out there.

This past Memorial Day weekend will mark Laurie and I’s 25th Wedding Anniversary, so we kinda are celebrating two wedding anniversaries and just getting back together with friends I haven’t seen in a very long time. Leading up to the trip we were really stoked to go to San Francisco and see the city. We had no other plans to travel the rest of Northern California, which was fine with me. We were only gone for 5 days. As much as I desperately wanted to go to Yosemite, it was a 15-hour tour and hiking involved, which neither my wife nor friend was in a position to do.

We landed at SFO on Monday in the early afternoon. It was a six-hour flight, and we got up extremely early, as we always do, so by the time we got there, we were starving and kinda pooped. We were staying at the RIU Plaza Hotel in the Fisherman’s Wharf area. Pier 39 was within walking distance, where shops and restaurants were. After cleaning up and grabbing jackets, we headed out to Pier 39 and ate at Pier Market restaurant. We ate outside. It was a little cool, but the sun was out and felt great. I remember I ate cioppino, which is a San Francisco original, like a hearty seafood stew that was absolutely delicious. Clams, mussels, scallops, and fish in a tomato-based broth broiling hot and served with sourdough garlic bread, and I was in heaven, especially because we hadn’t eaten that much up until then.

We walked into some shops and went to the pier’s edge, made a left, and watched the sea lions sunbathing on the floating docks. You couldn’t help but hear them barking from around every corner of the pier. They were very loud, but watching them was very peaceful at the same time. Knowing we had nowhere to be and nothing on our schedule for the rest of the day. We did not stay out late, I think we were back at our hotel around 7:00 pm New Jersey time and 4 pm local time.

Tuesday, we were supposed to meet up with Dave and Stacie later that afternoon as they were headed to San Francisco via train. Dave had decided to take the train from Kansas City to San Francisco. However, there was no direct train from K.C., so they had to take a train to Chicago and then on to San Francisco.

We had a hop-on, hop-off bus scheduled for the bulk of the day. The bus tour was a round trip of 2 and 1/4 hours. We took the bus all the way around the entire route and back to Fisherman’s Wharf. Then, on the second go-around, we stopped off at Chinatown to get some lunch. I asked the attendant at the stop we got off at about a lunch recommendation, and he told us the House of Nanking for Hunan-style Chinese was not too far. We headed there and got a table outside in the street. They had a covered semi-permanent wooden structure in the street directly in front of the restaurant. It was a little cool, but the delicious food warmed us right up. I ordered Szechuan chicken, and Laurie ordered fried rice, which they made right before us. It was freakin’ really good. We tumbled onto the street, got lost looking for Trader Joe’s, and then returned to the bus stop. On the way back, I stopped in a local famous landmark, the City Lights Bookstore. This was the place to find far-left books and lots of poetry from all over the world, including local authors.

We headed back on the bus and made the trip around, including across the Golden Gate Bridge, and then stopped at where we picked it up originally in Fisherman’s Wharf and headed back to the hotel to meet up with Dave and Stacie. By the time we got to the hotel, we didn’t have to wait long; Dave and Stacie were already down in the lobby. We exchanged hugs and greetings, and I could tell Dave was aggravated about something while standing by the front desk. Apparently, they lost his reservation for the night (long story), but he took it in stride and didn’t make a scene.

We met them for breakfast the next day early—the breakfast buffet started at 6:30 a.m. It wasn’t until we went to the buffet the day before that we realized how busy this hotel really was. The buffet was packed by 7:00 a.m.! We surprised our friends as Laurie, and I paid for a really nice tour on Wednesday. We started out by going to Muir Woods to see the famous redwood trees, followed by a trip to Sausalito, and finally, we went on our own to Alcatraz. We had to catch an Uber to our meetup point, around the downtown area, where we met our driver, Robert, a German, complete with a thick German accent. We picked up a total of 8 other couples at the meetup point, and we were off to Muir Woods. Not too far out of the city but up an extremely windy road was the National Monument Muir Woods. Our tour did not include the admission to Muir Woods, but it was only $15.00 each. I paid for all four of us to enter, and I could tell my friend was planning on paying us back somehow- I didn’t know when. Once past the entrance, a wooden footpath is wide enough for wheelchairs and pedestrians to pass each other. The climate was cool and serene; very, very humbling to be in the presence of these towering trees. The first thing Dave noticed was how straight the trees were. We were a slow group of four so we only walked maybe a quarter mile out and started back due to time constraints. However, I noticed there were trails off the main footpath that you could go exploring.

After loading back in the Sprinter Van, we headed back down the windy road back towards San Francisco but took a right before the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito, a small, affluent, quiet little town famous for what I have no idea. But once we got there, we had an hour for lunch. The girls heard that there was a deli up the block from where we parked and had a gorgeous view of the bay. So that’s where we decided to eat lunch. Lunch was outdoors, literally across the street from the bay. It was warm, and the sun made it feel much warmer. It was a gorgeous day, and I won’t forget eating there with friends outdoors and enjoying a stunning clear view of San Francisco Bay.

We quickly walked back to the van and were whisked away to Fisherman’s Wharf, where we were shuttled by ferry to the island of Alcatraz as a group. The ride was very short, and once we got on the island, we quickly went the wrong way to the self-guided tour. The four of us finally found the pickup point for our audio recorders to listen to a story as we went through the prison. It was very eerie and a little creepy to be amongst an actual prison that once was in use. Going in and out of the prison cells and rooms and listening to the story brought the prison back to life- which was a little unnerving. Alcatraz was a maximum security prison from approximately 1930 to around 1960. Mother Nature had a lot to say about the longevity of the prison. The salt air and the wind took their toll on Alcatraz. We waited around 15 minutes or less for the ferry and returned to our hotel.

Afterward, we headed back out for dinner. My wife had previously called several restaurants to find out which ones served clam chowder without bacon. Laurie has a severe intolerance to anything fried, especially bacon, after her gall bladder was removed several years ago. One restaurant, an Italian seafood joint located on Pier 39, again had clam chowder without bacon. So the four of us headed there as my friends were very easy as to where they wanted to go for dinner. When all was said and done, Dave and Stacie picked up the check for two dinners during our stay, and my wife almost had a conniption, but Stacie and I both told her that Dave would be mad and take it personally if we intervened. We had a marvelous dinner and enjoyed catching up with Dave and Stacie. Dave has been my best friend since Middle School and has been with Stacie for as long as I can remember. Stacie and Laurie picked up where they left off since we last saw them, which was a long time ago. I honestly don’t remember how many years, but our kids were A LOT younger when they both came to New Jersey.

Dave and Stacie had to jet the next day, but they had to pick up their rental car before they left. I went with Dave, and my wife stayed with Stacie. Afterward, we came back to the hotel, and we said our goodbyes. Laurie and I had a date with the Disney Family Museum across town in the Presidio. I first heard of the Disney Family Museum from a t-shirt that one of Walt Disney’s former artists, Floyd !!@#$# , was wearing when we met him on our trip to Disneyland back in 2022. I was going to surprise my wife with the tour, but she found out about it before we left on the trip. I had already bought tickets by that point.

We took a ride share to the Presidio, where the Disney Family Museum is, and we started a tour around 12ish and finished around 2ish. We purchased the combo tickets for the special exhibit ‘Dogs and Cats’, but the main museum was really fantastic. I would highly recommend it to any Walt Disney fan. The ‘Dogs and Cats’ exhibit was cool but short and kinda fun, but the main museum was definitely worth it. We hit a ride share up again and headed back to the Fisherman’s Wharf area, where we ate a late lunch.

We had previously talked about doing a walking tour, like a ghost tour, but anything we found was either ghost-hunting or not exactly what we were looking for. However, Laurie eventually found a walking tour of the Haight Ashbury area that told you about Jim Jones, the Zodiac Killer, and various other murders and true crimes in and around that area. Again, we hit up a ride share and got dropped off around Haight Street, where we met our very eclectic host. Robert was right out of a movie. He spent a lot of time on the streets of Haight and Ashbury and seemed to know many other people on the street, including artists. Robert regaled us with his exploits as a peace activist, avid drug user (as anyone was during the 60s and 70s in the area), and all-around fixture of Haight and Ashbury. Laurie and I enjoyed the tour a lot, but I think the other tour members we were with either didn’t enjoy it or were bored. At least, that’s the impression we got. The only bad part was that as the evening wore on, it became much windier and cooler. We were sorta dressed for the occasion, but my wife was still cold. By the time we left, it was approaching nighttime, and Laurie didn’t feel comfortable staying in the area for a quick bite to eat, so we high-tailed it out of there and headed back to our hotel.

The next day, we only had the morning until we had to leave for our flight out of SFO. We wanted to ensure we had a good breakfast, so we again stuffed ourselves at the buffet and then headed out to catch the cable cars by the Buena Vista cafe. Riding on the cable cars was the last thing we would do before leaving.

Before I close this post, I want to say how much I feel in love with the Buena Vista cafe. My wife was a good sport, and we went there four times, I think. The bar’s decor and feel with locals and tourists, cops, and the waitresses and bartenders made an eclectic mix. I really, really loved that place. If you ever go to San Francisco, look up Buena Vista Cafe directly across the street from where the Cable Cars end, close to the Fisherman’s Wharf area.

We were very blessed to spend time with my friends, the Williams, in such a colorful and fun city. This vacation was the highlight of my year. I was in Walt Disney World in January, but this was much more my speed. My wife and kids have other trips to Disney planned, but I will not be there as I will be working.