📅 2022-Sep-24 ⬩ ✍️ Ashwin Nanjappa ⬩ 🏷️ travel, usa ⬩ 📚 Archive
Notes from the several trips to San Francisco.
In the middle of the Bay Area heatwave of summer 2022, we decided to cool off one day in SF.
Parking: Finding weekend street parking in SF is near impossible and there is also a high chance of cars parked outside being broken in. With this in mind, we booked a day-long parking spot online at the Pier 39 parking garage (cost $15). We arrived at the garage around 10AM and found that it was already pretty full - so don’t arrive too late. This garage is right in front of Pier 39, so it turned out to be super convenient.
Pier 39: The pier itself is a touristy place - restaurants, shops selling trinkets. We saw sea lions sunning themselves nearby and there is Alcatraz in the distance. Though the pier was empty in the morning, it was super crowded when we returned back there in the late afternoon.
SS Jeremiah O’Brien: Strolling along the seaside, we saw this WW2 supply ship that has now been converted to a floating museum. It was fun to see the insides of the ship and the Normandy beach diaroma was especially nice.
Fisherman’s Wharf: Strolling further along the seaside brings us to this other touristy place with seafood restaurants. We had some decent fish sandwiches at the Chowder Hut.
Cable cars: Strolling further along brought us to the Hyde and Powell starting point for the cable cars. We bought 1-day passes on the MuniMobile app for both adults and kids (cost $13 each). This is definitely one of the must-do things in SF. Cutting through the hills of SF is such fun. Do note that the waiting line for the ride back from Market St was super long (more than an hour).
Warnings: Even though we were strolling along these touristy places in the middle of a weekend day, SF’s homeless/drugged/nude people were visible occasionally. And filth could be seen in some places. Especially when with kids, be prepared for difficult questions.