Just like in every city, we always have a list of places that we really want to go to….
You either pick up these places from TV shows or movies you watch, or Instagram.
I am proud to say that in less than 48 hours, I was able to go to all the places in San Francisco that I had put on my “San Francisco Bucket List” which was five years in the making… five years of wishes, and it was all about to come true!
I’m going to be listing every attraction that I had always wanted to go to, where I got the idea from (like which TV show or movie), and why I wanted to go there.
You may notice that a lot of the ideas came from one particular TV show, but if you’re a fan of that show too, you’ll figure it out.
Typical Tourist City Strolling
The places in the city where no one would have no idea where you are if you don’t caption the photo…
Let me just say though, San Francisco is a really beautiful city. It had really nice cool weather as well, so I can actually put up with long walks.
When we first arrived in the City area, it is really nice.
However, when you take photos of it, unless you tell someone that it’s San Francisco, they wouldn’t know that the photos are from San Francisco….
Nevertheless, I love the city – I didn’t get bored strolling through the city at all! There are a lot of places to see, but they don’t scream “We’re at San Francisco!!”
Like if you look at some of the photos I’ve taken, would you know that I’m in San Francisco, or I’m just back at home in Sydney?
So there are some films and TV shows that take place in San Francisco, but they don’t usually film in the places that we passed while strolling to the city. It’s more of the most famous attractions you see.
However, I have always wanted to go to the city of San Francisco – not because of TV shows or Instagram pictures, BUT because I genuinely wanted to see the whole city…
Riding the Cable Car
Have you ever been to a place that is of high height, where you’re more afraid of your phone falling off, than you falling off?
Same thing happens when you’re riding the Cable Car.
Okay, first things first, I have always wanted to ride the Cable Car because of a particular show’s theme song – Full House!
Really sad for those who haven’t watched or, or who have but don’t like it (wish I could insert a thousand eye rolls on here).
But it’s true, I’ve always wanted to ride the Cable Car because it looked fun in the theme song of that show. Funnily enough it has nothing to do with me saving time and energy on doing more walking – it was for the experience.
I was so excited when we were just waiting in line to get into the Cable Car… and I usually hate waiting in line.
I guess I was distracted by my excitement of holding on to the tickets (yes, I have an obsession for holding onto nice looking tickets that screams “I’m at [insert city or famous attraction]”).
My excitement for just holding on to the tickets before we got to the actual game/theme park, attraction (yeah I’m referring to the NBA game, Disneyland, and this Cable Car) is pretty weird, but come, they’re tickets!!
I mean, my Cable Car ticket says – “World Famous Cable Car”!
Okay, enough about tickets, time for the actual Cable Car ride.
First of all, it was full BUT we got a good front side view.
I was about to have the greatest time of my life, but at the same time was about to be very scared because of my phone.
The good thing was that the Cable Car doesn’t go fast, so I didn’t have to worry about anything flying off. But since there are no seatbelts, it was crucial to hold on with one hand.
However, I couldn’t miss recording precious moments right? So, I held my phone on my other hand, and it was actually easier than I expected!
It was really fun, I got to record footage with my phone, and my Go Pro – I had two devices on one hand! You’d hear screaming from any of the videos taken… but it wasn’t me (pinky promise!).
But once I felt that I had enough footage, I stopped recording and taking photos and enjoyed the rest of the ride. We were able to stop at anytime, until we got to where we needed to be.
Eventually, we got to our stop and we got off the ride – it was extremely fun!
I was so happy that I got to tick that attraction off my list… and I even forgot about why I wanted to go on the Cable Car in the first place once I actually got on the Cable Car.
Not even once did I think about the cast of Full House doing this.
The Painted Ladies (the Full House, HOUSE!)
If you’re not a Full House fan then don’t even bother reading this part because we went here literally because I love the show.
Okay to say the truth, the Full House “house” is not on this street, but this street is shown in Full House.
It took a bit of a walk to get here and find it. Before we came here, we heard of some of the tourist tips about going over here. That tip was the most obvious one, but for some reason, people still don’t follow it – DON’T take photos on the steps of the house!!
Apparently tourists still mistake one of the houses for the Full House “house”, and the residents get really mad.
Well, as for me, I didn’t really need to take a picture in front of the house any way (even if we were allowed to!). I was just happy that I got to see the Painted Ladies street.
So pretty much, for some reason, the Full House theme song started popping into my head.
Also when you think about it, it’s kind of weird and funny at the same time that a street of houses has become a tourist attraction.
Moving on, when you take photos, the view is really pretty.
The line of houses line up together perfectly, and what’s not seen is that there is a whole lot of green where people go and have picnics – it would’ve been a great day for it, except we didn’t have time and I don’t really like sitting on grass.
Overall, even though this “tourist attraction” is just a line of houses, I had a blast. I had fun (and all I did was look and see!).
I had a blast just looking at a street of houses – no restaurants, no rides, no shops… just houses, says a lot about how fun I am doesn’t it?
Although I feel like it would be harder to have fun at a street of houses for some people.
Lombard Street (Crookedest Street)
So I have always wanted to go on Lombard Street. Why? Well all I remember is seeing this street on some people’s Instagram feed and thought it’d be pretty cool to see (no TV show this time!).
It was one of those places where it is hard to find on the GPS. You put the address in, and you get some random street and house, and you still have to walk far to get there.
Finally, you’d eventually get there (without getting lost for a bit!). You’re up on top, and the view is really beautiful, and you can even see the zig zag of cars on top as well. Imagine driving through there! (that’s on my bucket list).
First of all, walking down the street isn’t that hard, you just go…. down. You only go zig zag if you’re driving. When you’re walking, you’re just walking along the side.
I think I should note is that I feel sorry for anyone who lives on this street (because there are a lot of houses!). Like so many people going through this street like all the tourists, and you live in the centre of that? How do you do that?
We had taken photos in front of really cute gardens, which we found out that it was someone else’s house, whoops.
Anyways, we spent a little bit of time on the top before we went down. The reason why was because there was no cars on the crooked street… and we wanted to see them from up top. (Logic right?).
Soon enough, cars started driving through, and we started walking down. And miraculously enough (at least for me and my sis), we didn’t make any stops along the way (it probably was mostly because we couldn’t do so anyway as there were also people behind us)
We then got to the end of the street… then the middle of the road. This was because all the photos we took on the sidewalk for all sideways, and we were so picky we wanted it in the dead middle(our logic again…?).
For some reason, the street became traffic. Like it was completely empty with only one or two cars going through. However, once we got down, all the cars just came in…
It’s funny how far people go to take their photos – like stand in the middle of the road when there are cars there… (yeah we were one of them). BUT we waited until there were no cars that were driving for us to take our photos, we weren’t going to die during our holiday.
FOOD of the TOURIST DAY
The most important review – the FOOD!
Okay, we had really good food all day, but there was one food that I really enjoyed and I’m craving again as I’m writing it.
It’s the waffle bowls from Ghirardelli’s!!!
Like I love having ice cream in a waffle cone… but in a waffle bowl? That’s a whole other level! The only time I would ever have ice cream in a cup or bowl.
So lets just say – if you love ice cream, and love eating it a waffle cone, I’m sure you’ll like it in a form of a waffle bowl – the best part is, the waffle bowl has extra chocolate!
You know that feeling of satisfaction after having a whole of productivity – that’s how spending your day ticking off your bucket list is like!
So we went to so many other places where I ticked off some places off my San Francisco bucket list, I wrote a Part 2 plus a dedicated post to one of my new favourite attractions…
