San Fran

For the final leg of our trip, we drove back to San Francisco. We ended up staying down near the Airport because it was the only one where we were able to use our Marriott points for the room. The Oyster Point Courtyard Marriott was just fine. It was about a 30 minute drive up to the wharf area. We checked in and had lunch at Siam Spoon in South San Francisco. It was excellent. We had spring rolls, pad thai and pad see u. Nothing fancy, but good food at good prices.

We drove downtown and were amazed to find a spot in free street parking on Bay St. In fact, I asked two locals to make sure we were OK to park there. We got lucky! Keeping with our trend, we decided to to do a Big Bus Tour. Of all the bus tours we've done, we decided this was the worst. It wasn't bad. There was a lot of down time and not nearly as much information as you normally get. But, i don't know of another way we could have seen that much of the city. We got on and did the whole loop. After the tour, we did Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf. I could watch the sea lions at Pier 39 ALL DAY. Andrew practically had to drag me away. We did take-out at The Chowder Hut down at the wharf. Side note, I left this part of the trip up to Andrew because I'd been before. I wish we would have planned meals a little better :( I had Calamari it wasn't great and Andrew had a fish sandwich which he said was OK. We drove back to the hotel for a quiet evening. 

Exhausted from a long trip, we woke up slow the next morning to the daunting task of repacking to go home. We wrapped all of our wine in the Wine Skin bags I ordered on amazon before we left... good choice! Do that! Then, we figured out what had to be checked, carried on, etc. It was no easy task. Thankfully, we traveled with our extra fold up duffel bag which came in handy! 

We loaded up and drove back to the wharf area. We found metered parking near Ghiradelli square. We got our free sample of chocolate and bought a few souvenirs at Ghiradelli. Then we wandered down to the NPS Historical Vessels area. You can buy tickets to go on all of these old ships. We didn't, but it looked like a fun activity. 

We wandered back to the wharf and the Musee Mecanique. It's fun, slightly creepy, and very nostalgic. It's also a cheap way to have some fun at the wharf. After some serious competitive arcade game playing, we walked back down and watched the sea lions some more (happy sigh). 

Then, we ate a late lunch at Pompei's Grotto. I had a crab salad stuffed avacado very fresh and tasty. Andrew had a crab salad sandwich and chowder. 

Then, we decided to give ourselves plenty of time to get the rental car returned, bags checked, etc. and headed to the airport.

I loved this trip and the combination of a few days in luxurious Napa, a few days in exquisite creation (Yosemite), and a fun day and a half in San Fran to top it all off. So blessed for the opportunity to travel and experience new things with the one I love most in the world!