San Francisco: Traveler Tips and Day Two

I’m excited to kick off day two of our San Francisco journey with you. If you missed day one you can see all of our adventures and tips here. Day two had a magical feel to it. Because of our first stop for breakfast we stumbled upon the best day of sight seeing and enjoyed every second of it. As I said with day one, sometimes it’s nice to have more than a list of places to see so I am giving you the play by play of how we saw and did everything without a car. And I will share our best traveler tips along the way. Let’s do this, shall we?! My dear friend Tammy from Pink Peppermint Prints filled me in on a little secret of a not to miss breakfast spot. She was not kidding. I can’t say enough about Rose’s Café {located in Cow Hollow}. First of all, it is a total hangout for locals. I was the only one with a camera and tried to play it off. My hubby popping out as I take a photo made us even more ridiculous. We are always a scene. This darling spot is beyond cute. The service was fantastic and the food was out of this world. I had spinach, eggs, and prosciutto atop a perfectly toasted piece of bread. It was sooooo good. This spot is also a cute wine bar in the evening. Traveler Tip: If you hit up Rose’s Café, you must try the French Toast with strawberries and whip cream as well as the Breakfast Pizza. We all ordered something different so we could have bites of it all. The dishes are rich and filling. The reason we loved this {aside from it being adorable and scrumptious} was that it lead us straight into the cutest neighborhood ever. When I grow up I want to live here. We love nothing more than just walking through neighborhood streets when we travel. It’s away from the tourist hot spots and you can just get a feel and appreciation for how people live in this city. There was a couple out for a walk on every corner as well as families pushing baby strollers early in the morning. I so wanted to stop one of them and ask them what the secret is to ending up in such a neighborhood. Well played life, perfect strangers, well played. My hat is off to you. So we ended up walking up the hill from Rose’s café and around Pac Heights, Cow Hollow and then down to Lombard street. Pretty remarkable homes, I might add. So we took this all the way down to Lombard and walked for a bit. This is where it really fell into place even more! We used our trusty Uber app to have have a car come and pick us up and drive us to the top of Lombard Street. It is CRAZY steep to get to the top so I don’t advise walking {and I am talking about the back side of Lombard . . . not the twisty part yet}. The Uber car ride was $5 to the top. Well worth it. The top of Lombard {looking down on the famous twisty road} is a tourist hot spot so bring your patience. We chose to walk down a bit, take in the views, and enjoy the scenery. Another seemingly cute photo until G decides to strangle his sister. He does it with such a cute look on his face, too. Kids. The kids had been begging to take a cable car ride and this could not have been more perfect. One literally stops near the top of Lombard and takes you down the hill to where you will find the water, Ghirardelli, street vendors, and the famous Buena Vista Cafe. Could not have been more ideal and the kids LOVED it. There is also a Starbucks on the corner when you get off of the cable car in case you need a restroom and refreshment. Traveler Tip: Any Powell-Hyde Cable car going towards Fisherman’s Wharf will take you straight down the hill to The Buena Vista Café. The moment we stepped off of the cable car my son saw this big open park and ran! Apparently he needed to get some energy out. It was great for all of us to run around and play down by the water. And little miss thing is always up for hoping in front of the camera. Are you familiar with the commercial where the little girl offers donuts to the gal at the front door? Well this was my daughter in the same voice and raised eye brows saying, “Ghirardelli?!!!!” It was hilarious. Traveler Tip:  I mentioned in day one that we gave the children disposable cameras. When you have them developed, make doubles. The kiddos loved being able to share photos with each other to make their San Francisco books. It was seriously so much fun and have “read” their books to us each night for the last three nights. Great way for them to retell the events of the trip. Traveler Tip: This area right outside of Ghirardelli Square is ideal for letting little ones run free and explore. Great for getting in some good old fashioned tree climbing and hide and go seek. When then headed over to Ghirardelli to walk around. In my book you don’t need to plan to spend too much time there. It’s fun and cute to see but I think we did the whole thing in about 20 minutes. After that, we walked back towards the cable cars to The Buena Vista Cafe. Mommy and Daddy were up for their world famous Irish Whiskey {where they make around 1,000 a day} while the kids enjoyed an ice cold lemonade. From The Buena Vista we walked down to Fisherman’s Wharf and returned to Sabella & La Torre for another clam chowder bread bowl. It’s just too good not to have two days in a row! After a late lunch we were pretty tired and decided to head back towards our hotel. We took a car ride back and walked around Union Square a bit. We also popped into The Clift hotel. Awesome spot! You must check it out. Very dark and swanky. The kids played a quiet game of Chinese checkers while we relaxed and chatted for a bit. From there we popped in to Jasper’s Corner Tap on Taylor Street  for a snack. And yes, we pulled out the iPads for the first time on the trip so we could just chill. The children had been the most patient and awesome travelers and earned some game time! So of course we took a selfie. Wouldn’t you?! In all seriousness, I adore this man and love traveling with him. We feel super blessed to have kids that are up for any adventure and we really just love spending time together. The fact that we were able to see so much of a great city was icing on the cake. After that, we headed back to the hotel room to freshen up for dinner. This is a shot of the living room part of our hotel suite. This is the sofa that pulled out for the kiddos to sleep on.  This photo cracks me up as my daughter kept trying to get her brother to sit next to her. But he was enamored with the Walgreens view from the window seat! By the second night we were all tired but couldn’t wait for a wonderful dinner in the Ferry Building. Everyone had RAVED about The Slanted Door and they were so right! It is Vietnamese and over the top delicious. It is pricey but so worth it. Holy cow. We loved everything we ordered. Just when we thought the night couldn’t get any better, the waiter brought over a surprise delivery! What?! Yes . . .this amazing cotton candy dessert was delivered to us with a wonderful message from my dear friend Allison {some of you now her from IG @thepaintedpetunia}. She lives near San Francisco and wanted to welcome us. Honestly, it made me cry. So thoughtful and so generous. And talk about happy kids! Traveler Tip: You can ride a ferry over to Sausalito. They depart about every hour. Adults are $10.75 each way while children are $5.25 each way. From Sausalito you can visit Muir Woods. Yep! Those are happy faces after that dessert. We enjoyed the view from the Ferry Building and then decided to call it a night. By the way, the Ferry Building has a Farmer’s Market Saturdays and the building is full of fun shops, ice creams places and little shops. Very fun spot. Traveler Tip: The Farmer’s Market is not open on Fridays so be sure to check the schedule before you go. Also The Exploratorium is nearby and a great spot for children. It was bittersweet standing outside of this building waiting for a ride to take us back to the hotel. It had been such an amazing little getaway. Very thankful for a day that all fell into place thanks to Tammy’s recommendation to have breakfast at Rose’s Café. What a day. What a trip. San Francisco Day One and Traveler Tips San Francisco Street Style Fashion Post