31 Trips in Cali, Day 11: San Francisco with Kids (Pt. 2)

Why Part 2? Because this post is a companion to the first one I wrote, back in April when we returned from this Spring Break trip. 

It was a whirlwind couple of days and we packed in a lot of fun...and a lot of walking. On our first day, we got up early, walked out the front door of our hotel toward Chinatown, and didn't return until early evening. (And then walked some more, to get dinner.)

Are you ready? Let's get crack-a-lackin. There's so much to see. First, we'll visit Chinatown:

Thanks to the GPS on our phones, we were able to easily track down the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory, located down an alleyway:

You can stand and watch the workers briskly creating fortune cookies.  For a dollar each, the kids were handed small slips of paper where they wrote a few lines of their personal "fortunes" and watched as the slips were then put into their own cookies.  (I also paid 50 cents to take this shot, as requested by the sign back there.)

And we also bought a couple bags of fortune cookies to take home. 

This shot reminds me of one of the kid's favorite picture books when they were small: Wow! City!

We arrived at Fisherman's Wharf around lunchtime. Unfortunately, chowder and boiled crustaceans hold no charm for my kids, but we found a good compromise at the Boudin Bakery. 

After lunch, we stopped outside the big plate windows of the bakery and watched raw sourdough being shaped into lobsters, crabs, and alligators. (Cool tip: there's an intercom button which anyone can press to converse with or ask questions of the friendly bakers.) 

 We looked across the water at Alcatraz. (A site that's tops on our list to tour on our next visit.)

After spending a few hours playing tourist at crowded, kid-friendly Pier 39, it was time to catch a cable car back to the hotel:

Excitement at the cable-car turnaround...it's finally coming!

Day 2:
The bulk of Day 2 was spent at the California Academy of Sciences, in Golden Gate Park.

 Up on the roof-top, which reminded me of the green hills of Teletubby Land.

Finally, we ended the day with a stop at Chrissy Field to take in the Golden Gate Bridge. The fog was rolling in and the breeze was chilly, and it was time to get in the car and leave the city behind.   Next trip, we're walking on the bridge: if not the whole span, then at least we'll put our feet upon it!

Two days was not a lot of time, and by necessity we had to make some choices on what to see vs. what to miss, but it was a great trip. And those 2 days definitely whetted our appetite to come back and spend even more time in one of the nation's most beautiful cities.

Want to see more of San Francisco? Check out my earlier post about this same trip. 

Thanks for coming along! Come back for Day 12 of my 31 Trips in California series, when we'll head to foreign waters, yet still be in California. Technically.

Don't miss a single trip: Head over to Day 1 for all the links, or Like me on Facebook.