Wednesday, January 25, 2012

San Francisco Bound


When it comes to vacation plans and a lot of things really, the wife and I change our mind a lot. We've changed our mind on past vacations, even at the last minute and this year is no exception. At the start of the year we were thinking maybe a California coastal cruise out of LA sometime in May. That got to be too expensive when we added in all the excursions, airfare, etc. and we didn't like that we would only be at each city for around 8 hours.

We then changed our minds and decided to put a deposit on a 7 night Exotic Western Caribbean cruise out of Miami on Carnival. We saved the cost of airfare and it was much cheaper even for an aft extended balcony cabin, as opposed to the internal cabin on the California Coastal cruise.

Then we watched along with everyone else as the Costa cruise ship ran aground. That was obviously a terrible tragedy that could have been avoided if it weren't for the captain going so close to shore. It didn't change our plans initially. Then last week I was reading cruise critic boards and a post came up about the ship we were going to be on. Several folks on the ship the first week of January mentioned that the ship 'tilted' between 5-10 degrees during their cruise, causing dishes to break, pool water to overflow onto the decks and down elevator shafts, etc.  All of that combined caused us to reconsider. 

Friday night, we turned on the TV and saw a show about San Francisco. That was one of the main places we have been wanting to go. We started to think back to California and instead of a cruise, going directly to San Francisco.  Saturday morning sealed the deal for us.  We turned on the TV and saw back-to-back shows, one on HDNet and the other on the Travel Channel about San Francisco. We were hooked and could not ignore the signs any longer.




We plan to stay in the Union Square area downtown, which is a perfect location to be able to walk or take public transportation anywhere around town. 

The wifey always takes the lead on the vacation plans and she has mapped out a potential itinerary for most of the trip already.  We are super excited and we're glad we changed it up, this is a location neither of us have been to and it will be full of fun new experiences.

Some of the highlights so far will be the obvious tourist destinations such as Alcatraz, the Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39, Trolley Ride and Lombard Street.  We also plan to head to Muir Woods, which is a park with all of those huge redwood trees, China Town, Alamo Square (Full House houses), Golden Gate Park, tour to Napa/Sonoma and might do a Segway Tour as well. 

Alamo Square, Full House style...wonder if Bob Saget lives there?

Muir Woods Redwood Park


We also plan to hit up lots of cool restaurants of course.  One highlight will be a super cool restaurant that Anthony Bourdain went to called the Tonga Room.  That one is in the Fairmont Hotel and they put the restaurant right over the original hotel pool.  There is a floating platform in the pool for a live band and it actually get simulated thunder/lightning and rain storms inside the restaurant over the pool.  Here is a video showing both:




Lots to do and see!  Have you ever been to the either San Francisco or Napa/Sonoma and have any recommended places to go/see?  Would love to hear any suggestions/tips!  Please leave a comment below with any info.  Thanks!

1 comments :

Jen said...

Ya'll do change your minds quite frequently, but I do like the choice though. It's on my list. Sounds like lots of fun stuff to see and do.

 
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