In an alternate life, I think we might have moved to San Francisco. It is such a beautiful place and I feel like we only just got to see the surface of it all on our recent trip. I was absolutely nervous because I was going to Alt Summit for my very first blogging conference but we decided that since the conference was only a day and a bit long, we should go for a couple days as a family and check out a really cool city. I have never packed so many shoes or accessories for a long time and this time we were going with carry-ons. It‘s nice that we are part of the trusted traveler network because it made pre-check way less stressful.
We arrived late at night so we decided that once the kids woke up the next morning we would see what they wanted to do. The sweet hotel we stayed at, the Kimpton Hotel Monaco San Francisco, had left them some little trolley gifts and of course that’s all they could think about once they woke up. (I am really loving Kimpton hotels lately-they have really been so thoughtful on our past few stays!)
After we all grabbed our (free!) coffees and hot chocolates, we headed to where the trolley turns around near the Urban Outfitters but for some reason the trolleys were really slow and we had to wait a long time. It was so worth it when the trolley finally arrived and the guys’ eyes were beaming because they were doing something they remembered from the books we read before we came. (We only bought a day-pass but in hindsight my husband at least should have bought the City Pass for himself because it included a lot of activities we did as well as a 7 day trolley pass. It might have given us a couple more trolley rides and maybe saved us about 20 bucks.)
The trolley took us to the pier where we hung out on the wharfs and checked out the neat little stores. It was very chilly even though it was July and we needed sweaters, long pants and jackets.
With two active boys, getting a good picture is a little difficult, but they had a fun time just exploring.
And we ate breakfast at the Boudin bakery on the waterfront and I couldn’t help but buy their trolley bread. This bakery has always been my favorite stop in San Francisco. I adore the romantic idea of a bakery that’s been around so long with such delicious food.
I also wanted to see the Fortune Cookie Factory in Chinatown so we got back on a trolley and headed that way. We had some yummy food at Hunan Home’s(they have some great lunch specials) and found the little shop down an alley. You need to pay 50 cents for a picture and we bought some cookies (the hubby’s and mine had the same fortune!). It was definitely an experience.
Our night time plans fell through when I realized my guys weren’t going to be able to sit through an actual sit-down dinner. I had a reservation at Cafe Zuni but had to cancel it and I’m not sure if kids can actually go there anyways. (I also heard this pizza at Pizzeria Delfina is really yummy and so we’re definitely going back here next time.) We ended up at a really sweet cafe: La Boulange. It was a little like a coffee shop, but had salads, desserts and really amazing kids’ meals. The guys ate a pasta and chicken meal for around 5 dollars and the hubby and I had some delicious salads and sandwiches.
We were all so exhausted that everything tasted amazing and we were definitely ready to sleep and get ready for the next day. The only party animal in the room was our crazy fish Bubbles who was the most active fish I’ve ever seen in my life.
(PS. just a little FYI from a mistake I made: make sure you actually check the opening times for places. We stopped by Dottie’s True Blue Cafe, but it was totally closed the day we went there. We also use Opentable a lot to make sure we actually get a reservation for places that we want to go, or reserve a place as a backup just in case places we’re trying to go to have ginormous lines.)
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)
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