SAN FRANCISCO: A Bumpy Start With a Smooth Finish

If you’ve been following along on Instagram, you know my trip to San Francisco started out bumpy…but I’m happy to say it ended on a high note. It’s important to experience those bumpy/challenging days every once in a while so we can fully appreciate all the good ones!

Some moments on this adventure have been hard. I get frazzled and wonder what made me think I could do this…by myself, no less.

And then I breathe. 

I pick myself up and know I have what it takes to keep pushing forward because it’s gotten me this far in life.

So what was so challenging about this leg of my trip? I didn’t stay in San Francisco proper–I stayed in an Airbnb in Oakland to save money. Yes, this pseudo-country girl raised in the South stayed in Oakland.

The Airbnb itself was nice (I had a small room in a house with a shared bathroom), but getting into and back from San Francisco took over an hour and a half every time. And that was AFTER I spent an hour figuring out how all the transportation systems worked.

I had to walk 17 minutes through sketchy parts of town, under overpasses avoiding broken glass and poop to get to the nearest BART station, then ride into San Francisco and hop on whatever buses or streetcars to get to where I needed to be. Then I had to do the opposite going back, AND make sure I left enough time to make it back during daylight. [And before you comment about Lyfts or Ubers, a one-way to San Francisco was $60-70. Even for the THREE-MINUTE drive from my Airbnb to the BART station, it was $15 but I paid it when I took my bags to leave town.] 

But you know what? I’m still here, and maybe one day I’ll give San Francisco (proper) another shot.

What I Did

I started my first full day in Oakland/San Francisco spending a frustrating hour at my Airbnb figuring out train and bus schedules. Once I finally made it into San Francisco proper, this was the first thing I spotted and I took it for a sign things were looking up.

I made my way to the Golden Gate Bridge where I took a walking tour led by a retired geologist, and walked part of the way across the bridge.

Also, I don’t know what they’re doing over in The Presidio (a former military post that’s a park, and the neighborhood where Golden Gate is located), but it smells GOOD. When the ladies I met on the tour hopped off the bus with me, we all turned to each other and said the same thing! And look how vibrant it is.

Also located in The Presidio is the Walt Disney Family Museum. The really cool thing about this museum is while it holds Walt Disney’s awards and talks about the parks and some Disney movies, it overwhelmingly focuses on Walt Disney as a person, his family, his story, and creative process. I was so inspired! I felt like I was seeing things just when I needed them most, especially correlating to my writing journey. One cool point that struck me was Walt’s creation of Mickey Mouse on a train ride!

“Mickey Mouse to me is the symbol of independence. He was a means to an end. He popped out of my mind onto a drawing pad…on a train ride from Manhattan to Hollywood at a time when the business fortunes of my brother Roy and myself were at lowest ebb and disaster seemed right around the corner.”

– Walt Disney

My second day in San Francisco, I made sure to get out early to make the most of the day. It was a mad dash of all the touristy things I could possibly do, starting with riding a streetcar! I had breakfast at Boudin Bakery at Fisherman’s Wharf followed by a Blue and Gold Fleet Bay cruise that traveled under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz.

After watching the sea lions for a bit, I took some selfies at Umbrella Alley, then headed to the Castro to pay respects to Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in the history of California and a personal hero of mine since I learned about him in high school.

From the Castro, I dashed to Alamo Square to snap a picture of The Painted Ladies, most notably seen in the opening credits of Full House before hopping on a bus to visit Lombard Street a.k.a “the crookedest street in the world.”

Notable Eats

• Boudin Bakery – Belgian Waffle: Oh. Em. Gee. Boudin Sourdough was one of the places I heard about on Food Network as the inventor of sourdough; they’re also San Francisco’s oldest continuously operating business. You can literally smell the sourdough walking down the street and watch artisans preparing and baking goods in the street-front window. The menu was so robust I had a hard time making a selection. I ended up getting a sourdough waffle (made with a portion of the Original Mother Dough!) with fresh whipped cream, strawberries and blackberries, powdered sugar, and syrup. It was the best waffle I’ve ever eaten.

• Chowders – Crab cakes: After all the running, bus/streetcar hopping, and hiking up San Francisco’s steep hills, I worked up an appetite! I headed back to Pier 39 because I couldn’t visit Fisherman’s Wharf and NOT try a crab dish and ended up with two crab cakes with chipotle mayo from Chowders. I’m not typically a crab cake person, but when in San Francisco…

Tips

• Stay in San Francisco!!!
• Bring a windbreaker or light jacket, especially if you are going on the Golden Gate Bridge or a Bay cruise. Huffing and puffing my way across Oakland, I’d been annoyed with myself for bringing a windbreaker, but when that Bay wind hit, I was glad for it.

Overall Thoughts

My second day in San Francisco was a real blast and I’ll probably be back one day. Because of COVID, I missed out on riding a cable car so I’d like to do that. I’d also like to visit Chinatown, try more dishes at Boudin, and see a greater number of sea lions at Pier 39 since they were all off having babies this summer. Who knows, maybe I’ll even give Alcatraz a whirl.

Songs Added to the Playlist

San Francisco additions to the playlist are as follows!

• “Rains in Asia” – Jump Little Children: This song always makes me think of getting so swept up in the vibe of a place that you lose yourself in the moment and just soak it all in.
• “Haight St” – Anberlin: A fun, bouncy song that matches the pace of my second day racing around San Francisco. There’s also a San Francisco neighborhood called Haight-Ashbury.