As Petaluma is so close to San Francisco we got to our hotel before noon and managed to actually get a room and unload the car, before setting off for the BART station and San Francisco! I’d planned to drive through Sonoma and/or Napa Valleys, but didn’t plan properly and from Petaluma we would have driven across, instead of through the valleys, so we decided to give it a miss, which is a shame. Mind you, Brian keeps reminding me that I’ve seen quite a few vineyards before in my life so hopefully I didn’t miss too much! We could only find an affordable hotel in Oakland, which meant that we had to travel to get into San Francisco, but this was actually fine as it was only about a 10 minute trip and the trains are very regular. Outside of London, this was also probably the most expensive public transport we’ve used on our trip – $7 for a return from MacArthur to Embarcadero.
It was when we tried to lock the car after unloading that we realised the central locking has developed an issue where it took about 20 tries to lock or unlock the car. This made me quite nervous as you don’t want to be in a position where you can’t unlock the car at all, but for the moment we ignored it and went to explore SF!
We embarked at Embarcadero and as I’d read about a farmer’s market that was on, our first stop was at the Ferry Terminal. We walked around for a bit, looking at the various food options and taking pictures of the Oakland Bay Bridge. The whole vibe of SF is very relaxed and the town looked a lot different from what I’ve seen of America so far. I ended up queueing for a stupid amount of time for a burrito at Mijita, and once Brian found the burger place he was looking for he decided not to bother with the queue as it was too long! It was a lovely sunny day, so obviously everyone was out and at the waterfront to get their lunch, and we timed it just wrong and got there once lunch was in full swing.
After I scoffed my lunch we started walking towards Fisherman’s Wharf, enjoying the sights along the way and of course taking lots of pictures! In the Fisherman’s Wharf area I was very excited to see an In-N-Out burger restaurant and made Brian get a burger – which was very disappointing! It was cheap, but tasted pretty much exactly like McDonald’s and I don’t see what the fuss is about really. Fisherman’s Wharf is very touristy but I didn’t mind it too much, it is interesting to walk around and there are loads of different things to see. As we’d already walked a fair bit, and bought a 3 day Muni Pass (separate journeys actually would have worked out cheaper as it turns out), we decided to head towards the Golden Gate Bridge, and got on the bus from Fort Mason. Once we got there the bridge was pretty much covered in fog and it was freezing, so we only stopped to get the obligatory pictures really!
We caught the bus back and made our way to Coit Tower where we yet again waiting a stupid amount of time to go up the tower. We probably waited in line about 45 minutes and spent 5 minutes up the tower taking pictures, so probably not the best way to spend our time! We walked down the Greenwich Steps towards the pier area, and ended up in Pier 23, where we sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine and a well deserved beer!
This was however not the end of a busy walking day! Once we made our way back we went to explore the local Oakland area and had a few beers in The Hog’s Apothecary. I had a flight of white beers, as well as a ‘Cheesehead’. This turned out to be essentially a Hot Dog, but was described in such flowery terms on the menu that it was hard to know what to expect! It was OK, but certainly not worth the $16 price tag!
Biltong and Burger 