The teen rolled her eyes at me when I called this our “touristing hard” day, but it’s true! After breakfast with Tim at Park Station Hashery in San Jose, we headed to San Francisco. I had booked us at The Chancellor Hotel in Union Square for several reasons: good prices, good reviews, good access to public transportation, and a parking package was available (parking garage with an attendant a block away).* Our room was ready early, so we were able to check in, dump our stuff, and be on our way.

We got our first taste of the famous San Francisco hills when we walked from our hotel to Fisherman’s Wharf, with stops at Washington Square and Lombard Street along the way. Once we got to the wharf we headed to Ghirardelli’s to share a Twin Peaks sundae and pick up some chocolate. We walked around, taking everything in and also headed down to Pier 39 for a peek at the sea lions. We saw a few, but a sign informed us that there was good feeding to be had, so the sea lions were mostly out to sea to eat. We had some time to kill before our reservation at Palette Tea House and wandered around Musée Mécanique, partly bemused and partly horrified (horrified is too strong of a word, but seriously, what was up with all the executions?).

We had dumplings for dinner at Palette Tea House and decided we would try to ride the Powell-Hyde cable car back to Union Square if the line wasn’t too long (it looked really long when we arrived at Fisherman’s Wharf earlier in the afternoon). We were sidetracked by Umbrella Alley on our way to the cable car turnaround and spent some time admiring the murals and taking pictures. We noticed the wharf cleared out pretty early and we mostly had Umbrella Alley to ourselves and the line for the cable car wasn’t too long. And we were able to skip much of the line because we were willing to take standing spots on the cable car. We really enjoyed the ride, although I didn’t get any pictures because I was hanging on for dear life, wondering how often they lost tourists along the way. We got off in Union Square and walked a few blocks to The Escape Game for our booking of Special Ops. We liked the room and after we escaped, decided to book another room for a few nights later. It was a good touristy day in San Francisco. :)

* We didn’t need the car in San Francisco, but after looking at all my options, it was easiest and cheapest to just do the rental for the week and pay the parking for the time we were in SF. We walked or used public transportation while in the city.