San Francisco

So, Saturday was our "parent" day. We took the metro from our place in San Francisco over to UC Berkeley and spent a very loud day in a very crowded fieldhouse. (In case you're wondering what a taekwondo tournament smells like, by the way, it's feet. It smells like feet, lol.) We helped video and photograph things for the UNC team (particularly when all four of them were required for each board breaking competition...those not competing held the boards to be broken) and cheered everyone on. And then we took the metro back to San Francisco and enjoyed a lovely dinner...switching back to our "traveler" mode. :)

Let's backtrack a moment...

Thursday, after about 4.5 hours of delay, we finally made it to San Francisco. We'd helped arrange lodging for the UNC team and our flight delay meant that they weren't able to check in to both of their rooms until we got there. Fortunately, one of the rooms was in Asher's name so they were at least able to chill altogether in one room for the afternoon/evening after their long road trip. 

Friday, Nathan and I took ourselves on a walking tour of San Francisco. (The UNC team did their own sightseeing and practicing and also had to go over the UC Berkeley for sparring weigh ins.) 

We started just down the block from our hotel at the Dragon Gate...entrance to Chinatown. We wandered Chinatown and stopped at the famous Good Mong Kok Bakery for some sesame rolls, steamed pork buns and other things. We also visited the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory, saw them making fortune cookies and bought some to take with us. From there, we wandered Little Italy and then walked up Lombard Street. We ventured down to the wharf, with stops at Ghirardelli's and the Frisco Legendary Waterfront National historic site museum. We had a wonderful chowder lunch at Blue Mermaid then continued to Pier 39 where we saw the sea lions and I rode the carousel on a beautiful green dragon. 

From the waterfront, we climbed the hill to Coit Tower and climbed the 234 stairs to the top (lots of climbing in San Francisco, lol) before climbing back down and heading to Little Italy for some gelato and chilling. We then had a fabulous dinner at the House of Nanking in Chinatown...a favorite spot of Keanu Reeves after the Matrix movie crews ate and filmed there. (Serious yum!)

On the way to dinner, we spent some time at City Lights Bookstore (finding a book for the plane ride back since I finished the one I brought for the plane ride out) and stopped after dinner to photograph some of the murals just outside the bookstore. And then, on our way back through Chinatown, we chanced upon a huge street festival that apparently happens every second Friday of the month. There were soooo many people and booths. We particularly enjoyed the musical performances and watching the little grandmas reading tea leaves.

So, that was Friday. And then we did the parent thing on Saturday. 

On Sunday, we headed for Golden Gate Park. We took the Muni train and found ourselves at a fun flea market that we wandered a bit before heading into the park. We enjoyed the Japanese Tea Gardens and ordered matcha and dango at the Tea House. Then we walked a good ways west toward the ocean (about 2.5 miles) and found ourselves at the Queen Wilhelmina windmill and tulip garden. (The tulips were a bit past their prime but it was still fun.) We then stopped at the Beach Chalet for a yummy lunch.

From there, we did a quick Uber to the Palace of Fine Arts, where we were entertained by all the figures with their backsides to us. We walked to Chrissy Field for a view of the Golden Gate Bridge then decided to go ahead and walk to the actual bridge (about 1.6 miles). We made it inside Fort Point (directly under the bridge) but were late in the day so couldn't go past the ground floor. 

From there, we walked the waterfront from the bridge back to the wharf area for dinner (about 3.6 miles). We then caught a bus back to our hotel because we were already at more than 30,000 steps for the day and I somehow injured my foot the day before so it was swollen and sore and had been bothering me all day. Bleh.

Monday, we all checked out of our hotel (us and the UNC team). Given that the team wouldn't get back to Greeley until Tuesday and that Asher had a morning class he needed to be at, he flew home with us. So, the three of us left our bags at the hotel for storage for the morning and made our way to Pier 33 to catch the ferry to Alcatraz. We had a great time wandering Alcatraz...particularly enjoying the very well done cellblock audio tour and the gardens outside. 

After that, we caught our ferry back to the pier (along with a bird hitchhiker) then did lunch at Pier 39 before walking back to Little Italy for gelato again. :)

From there, we Uber'd back to get our bags and continue to the airport...flew home...drove Asher to UNC...and finally got home to Fort Collins just before 11pm. Whew. I have more to say but it'll have to wait for another post...this one's gotten long enough, lol.