California Road Trip Day 7 Part 2 - San Francisco

To read more about the planning of our California Road trip go here. To read about previous stops on our trip, click on the following links:

Day 1(San Diego)

Day 2 (LA)

Day 3 Part 1 (LA)

Day 3 Part 2 (Yosemite)

Day 4 (Yosemite)

Day 5 (Napa)

Day 6 Part 1 (Napa Hot Air Baloon Ride)

Day 6 Part 2 (Pacific Coast Highway Beaches)

Day 6 Part 3 (Glamping)
Day 7 Part 1 (Half Moon Bay and Muir Woods)

California Road Trip Day Seven Itinerary

In preparation for day seven, I had the following in a folder: an itinerary for the day, printed driving directions, and copies of reservations for our restaurant and hotel.

7:30 a.m. - wake up, get ready and check out of glamp site

9:00. a.m. - breakfast in Half Moon Bay at 3-Zero Cafe

11:00 a.m. - see the California coastal redwoods of Muir Woods
1:00 pm. - walk the Golden Gate Bridge

3:00 p.m. - drive the down the infamous, steep curves of Lombard Street
4:oo p.m - check into the Hilton, rest and clean up for dinner

7:00 p.m. - sushi for dinner at Ozumo
8:00 p.m. - walk to Ghiradelli Square for dessert
9:00 p.m. - walk back to hotel
11:00 p.m. - get a good night's sleep

A few pics of our day.....

After visiting Muir Woods, we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge one last time.  Although, this time we pulled off of the exit for the bridge view and officially began our sightseeing of San Francisco.  There’s no better first stop for sightseeing than this infamous red bridge.

Finding parking was difficult, but once my we achieved that task picture taking was a must!

Our original plan was to walk across the bridge and back.

Matt got about half way before getting too cold and coming back.

I didn’t even make it that far.  I was not anticipating how cold it was going to be on that bridge, especially with the wind!  Let’s just say that I did not dress for the occasion and was really wishing I had my North Face jacket with me.  I told Matt to meet me in the visitor’s center when he was done, because I couldn’t handle the cold in my flip flops and cardigan.

After visiting the Golden Gate Bridge, we visited the second most famous thing in SF, Lombard Street. 

The line to drive down this famous, windy road stretches for sometime.  Going up is a steep, long wait. 

And going down is quick and over before you know it.  I wouldn’t do it again, but it’s just something you have to say you did if you’re visiting SF.

After the scenic drive, we checked into our hotel.  Hotels in SF are expensive.  There’s no way to get around it.  In my research, I found that one and two star hotels were not good for us location wise, and three star hotels were about the same price as four star hotels.  I also found that location was one of most important things for us in SF, because we planned on walking everywhere.  Like NYC, parking in SF is a nightmare, so best advice is to sightsee SF without driving. Taking all of that into Consideration, Pricelining a hotel was too risky.  We wouldn’t be guaranteed a good location, and parking garages at hotels are super expensive.  That meant that I also needed to research a hotel that had a public parking garage nearby our hotel and was also safe and affordable.  When all of those things were taken into consideration, we sucked it up and paid more than we wanted to for the Hilton in the financial district of SF.  It was the best price we could get for a nice hotel in a good location. 

The Hilton was nice.  It was a typical four star hotel.  The rooms were nice.  The bay view was a nice touch, although the windows were pretty dirty.  Internet access was only free in the lobby.  The parking garage across the street was only $30 a day, instead of the $50 a day that most hotels charge.  The hotel was in a central location for sight seeing.  The only thing we couldn’t walk to was the Golden Gate Bridge, but we did that on the way into the city.  While the hotel says that it is in the financial district, it’s really right across the street from China Town.  Even the décor of the hotel is Chinese.  Overall, we had a nice stay at this hotel.

After cleaning up in our hotel, we were ready for our dinner reservations.  One of the only requests that Matt asked for on our trip was that I find a great place to eat sushi.

The result of my research was that Ozumo was the best place to get sushi in SF.

It’s pricy….

…..but it’s really good.

It was only a mile from our hotel, so we walked here for dinner.

Matt got his sushi for dinner, so I got my Ghirardelli for dessert.

Ghirardelli Square is well known in SF, and is home to the original Ghirardelli chocolate factory.

It was a two mile walk from dinner to dessert and another mile back to our hotel, so the three mile walk made me feel a little bit better about devouring my hot fudge sundae:)

 

Ghirardelli was definitely a great way to end our first night in San Francisco!