Because did you really go to San Francisco if you didn’t go to these places?
What was definitely on this trip’s bucket list were these two places – they are the places that basically screamed “We’re in San Francisco”.
It was on November 2018, just after the time there were lots of fires happening around California. The air quality was very poor so we had to be more mindful of the air we were breathing in…
Fisherman’s Wharf & Pier 39
If I am going to be honest, although I knew that Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39 are one of the highest known attractions in San Francisco, I only wanted to go here mainly because I saw clips of it in the Full House theme song….
I mean, if I wasn’t a fan of Full House, my San Francisco bucket list would’ve been a lot smaller. I’m not even sure I’d put Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39 in my list because I’m not even a fan of fish.
One bright side of the air quality was that it made the photos look very professional because of the colour in the background, and it made really great background pics!
Since we arrived at Fisherman’s Wharf in the morning, we weren’t having any seafood just yet. Since there wasn’t a lot of people yet, it was a great time to take photos without any photobombers… although looking back at the photos now, having a person or two in the background doesn’t completely ruin the photo, although that is still debatable sometimes.
Just like we did the other day, we did A LOT of walking. I mean, I don’t like running any marathons, but when it comes to walking around a city that you love, it doesn’t really matter. In fact, I think I walked more miles today more than an actual miles in a marathon…
So if there’s a time to go to Pier 39, it’s in the morning, where it’s not that crowded, and most importantly… lines for anything are SHORT!
And also, you can take your own personal tourist pictures without worrying about being in the way of other people, you can actually take tourist photos in peace, what more can you want?
There are also plenty of places to eat in Pier 39. This time round however, we only went to a Corn Dog stand and ate a Corn Dog as a snack, it was still the morning. Even though it was only around 10:00am, it felt like 1pm already, I think maybe it’s because we woke up early….
What’s kind of nice that no one really talks about is how cool the store signs are. Don’t you love how professional looking and aesthetic they all are?
We did get snacky again (after 10 minutes), so we decided to get some donuts, mini donuts at least. As you can tell, the worst part about being on holiday is that we are always eating.. A LOT.
Can I just also give a shout out to whoever who took this photo? They made plain donuts good looking…
oh wait I took it… did I just compliment my own photography skills? Yes.
I donut care if you’re gonna judge me!
Everyone is going to stop reading now are they? Whoops.
Surprise, surprise, we went to another food stand 10 minutes later BUT it was to get a drink. I ended up getting a lemonade (REAL lemonade – Australia, don’t just get sprite and expect it to be passed off as “lemonade”, Get. It. Right!).
Also, one thing to know, I love to be carrying something . This is because it makes a perfect prop for me to cover up my awkward hands since I never know what to do with them in photos. I mean, what will my hands be doing if I wasn’t holding this lemonade?
Eventually as it gets later, in the middle of the morning, obviously more people start coming in. Let me just say though that Pier 39 looks like a mini town in the 1800s.
I did find this place really incredible though, I loved how photogenic this place was.
When you walk out a bit, you get to see the ocean. You get to go on an actual pier, and you can see the view up close through the binoculars they have there- yeah no.
You have to pay for it, just to get a closer look.
Is it worth it? Well I guess I’ll never know because I didn’t really have to see everything up close anyway… I do have my camera phone that I can just zoom into.
Also, when you’re out, you can also see A LOT of seals (I think they are seals…). They are all chilling out on the pier, and even though they are just laying down, you can hear them, they’re loud.
Yeah, you can’t see them up close or anything, but you can take pictures of them. You’ll only find this interesting and exciting if you never have seen seals in your life, like I did – I got excited like crazy.
To sum up my time in Pier 39, it was a short look around, but I had so much fun.
Even though I did more walking than I would in a charity marathon, I had so much fun.
Even though Pier 39 is known for its food and I didn’t even eat that much, I had a lot of fun … I think you all get the point now?
So now hopefully I just pier pressured people to come to Pier 39 if they ever go to San Francisco? 😉
I just lost more readers didn’t I?
Golden Gate Bridge
Okay – so maybe if you don’t go to Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39, that’s completely okay, you don’t really miss out on much.
BUT if you don’t go to see the Golden Gate Bridge? That’s a whole different story.
I’ve been to so many bridges but I still CAN’T GET OVER this one (if you got the pun, I assume you’re a pun lover too!).
So, because of the air quality, the golden gate bridge didn’t really look golden, but it made the skies look really pretty in the photos.
We were originally going to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge, but the air quality was so bad we gave up halfway. We were okay with it though because we already have nice photos of it already….
It’s funny how when you’re a tourist, you can have a blast anywhere you go, just by taking photos of famous landmarks…
Although I hated the air quality, and how it got really annoying, the bright side of it is that it made the background of the photos look nice, especially the Golden Gate Bridge…
I don’t know if you can tell in the photos, but I’m smiling through the annoyance of the air quality.
We knew that we weren’t going to stay here for very long – not even 30 minutes. It was really smokey and I was also getting tired. But we still managed to take a few more photos…
I really do love the Golden Gate Bridge though. I haven’t been here in a while, so I always want the photos updated. It’s a really pretty view and I guess that made the fun outweigh the annoyance of the air quality (just realised I talked more about the air quality than the actual Golden Gate Bridge).
If there was one favourite photo of this whole trip – it’d be this one. It practically screams “I’M AT SAN FRANCISCO”
Because if you don’t go here, did you really go here?
FOOD of the DAY!!
Not really though because we ate a lot of good food during the day, so I’m just going to mention the honourable mention.
We did stop by a chocolate shop at Fisherman’s Wharf where there was A LOT of chocolate. However, the only thing we really got were the caramel apples which were delicious…
The chocolate shop did look nice though…
I’ve got to say – the caramel apple was AMAZING. I got the Rocky Road one, and it practically is a dentist’s enemy. At least an apple a day keeps the doctor away (the doctor never specifically said not to include caramel apples!)
And this was pretty much the last desert of this trip because the next day we left to go back to Sydney. In 48 hours we ticked every attraction that I wanted to go to in San Francisco – my bucket list was completed!
I love doing bucket lists for cities we go to, making me want to travel again…
Bye for now San Fran!!
Read Part 1 if you want to read (or don’t, it doesn’t really matter which order you read the in)
You can also read the other part as well
