San Francisco: A fun 2-day layover

We know well the toll of travel days. So we tried a two night layover in San Francisco to see if it did anything positive to help the 8+ hour flight to Tahiti and 3 hour time zone adjustment.

Nope, zero transition benefits that I can see! But we did have a great two days in San Francisco.

We flew from Seattle (SEA) to San Francisco (SFO) on Thursday morning. The flight went smoothly. However, the rental car process was a complete disaster. The airport infrastructure does not have nearly the capacity it needs and it is overall an environment best avoided, especially with grumpy young children. The staff were great though.

We managed to muddle through and by early afternoon we were loaded up and on our way. We stayed near the airport this time which was significantly cheaper and would make the travel day to Tahiti a little shorter.

We had promised the girls Sea Lions so decided to push through some fatigue and head to Fisherman’s Wharf in downtown San Francisco. We walked to the San Bruno train station (conveniently connected to a mall) and caught the train to downtown.

We got off the train right near the famous cable car stop so (of course) we thought we would jump on that. One of us was convinced the cable car would deliver us to the waterfront despite overwhelming map evidence to the contrary. It did not. We rode the cable car to the end of the line where we were asked to get off and line up for the return journey, nowhere near the waterfront and promised sea lions. Oops! Anyway, googling the options to Fisherman’s Wharf produced a nearby bus option. We went for that. Team members were beginning to fatigue and wanting water. We had not prepared well for this excursion. We got to the bus stop and it looked like we had a few minutes before the next bus would arrive. I jumped into a deli to buy some water. Then of course the bus came so it was time to sprint to the bus stop. I made it, water in hand, so the world calmed down.

We had a great time at Fisherman’s Wharf. We saw the sea lions at Pier 39 which was the main event! From Pier 39 we pointed out the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz (prison museum) and lots of big cargo ships. By now it was 5pm and everyone was hungry. We poked our head into The Chart House which sits above Pier 39 with an incredible view. It was perfect and because it was before dinner time for most it was quiet. We were quickly seated at a lovely table overlooking the bay. And as luck would have it, a table of 4 Aussies were seated next to us! We talked with them, the girls colored and we had a great meal.

From Fisherman’s Wharf we did the street tram back to the rail station, then caught the train home. The reward was ice cream at the mall food court while I ran to get the car. We made it around 7pm so a much longer afternoon than we had planned for, but it was great.

The second day we drove south to see the redwoods then drove back to San Francisco via a portion of highway 1.

The redwoods were amazing and the volunteer guide gave us a recommendation for lunch on Highway 1, the Whale City Bakery in Davenport, which was great.

Anyway, below is a video and some pictures of our couple of days in San Francisco. Next stop Tahiti.