Castro District

Glitter, rainbows, and lots of rock hard buildings. 

After climbing our way to Coit tower, then Lombard, we caught a bus over to the Mission district and  walked over to the Castro district from there. 

There were a lot of fantastic murals, shops and other fun things to see along the way!

San Francisco is renowned for being one of the most accepting and proud cities in the US,

and according to the San Francisco travel website, it's the city that

"practically invented gay" so we felt it a necessary inclusion in our stops throughout the city. 

Check out my photos below!

Lombard Street, San Francisco

Lombard street is one very wibbly wobbly road, zigzagging it's way up a steep hill. It's a one way road, so if you hope to test your driving along it's curves be sure to approach from the right side!

Having just visited Coit tower, we walked to Lombard relatively quickly while still enjoying the sights along the way.

San Francisco's Coit Tower

Since it was our last day in town, we decided to hit up a few more landmarks before we had to go. Our flight wasn't scheduled to depart until after 10pm, so we had plenty of daylight to kill yet. Christian, our AirBnB host, kindly offered to let us leave our backpacks with him until it was time for our flight so we were spared the additional hiking weight…which, considering the verticality of our destinations, was really appreciated!

Well rested after a leisurely evening we headed out for the city early in the day. 

Photos ahead!

San Francisco: Aquarium of the Bay

You may not know this about me, but I have a major nerd-on for marine life. 

From cephalopods to aquatic vertebrates, crustaceans to coral, I think almost everything that swims, glides, wiggles and jiggles in the seas is pretty neat…

for the most part. 

I mean, in all seriousness, there are some intensely creepy little freaks roaming the oceans, like goblin sharks. 

Friggin' Xenomorphs of the sea, I tell you!!! Look at that retractible jaw!

But the San Francisco aquarium is devoid of goblin sharks in all their nocturnal deep sea horror, so fear not, friends!

I brought back a plethora of photographs to share the joy of aquatic lifeforms with you!

Yes, YOU!

(You special and unique little snowflake!)

So read on, amigos!

Return to Haight & The Dead House on 7/10

After checking in to our hostel, we returned to Haight street to check out the Grateful Dead house on 710 Ashbury on 7/10, because, duh. Between our psychedelic light show (710 Visuals) and our appreciation for the Dead it was a must stop on a tour, especially given the date.

Yeah, we're dorks.

San Francisco Embarcadero area

As we left the BART station, we found ourselves stepping out into a bustling street full of arts and crafts stands. The handcrafted trinkets were in stark contrast to the concrete and asphalt of the urban sprawl.

I love the clock tower, but the views of the bay along the walkway were lovely. This was the first really sunny day we'd experienced in the area as the past two days had been overcast and a bit misty.

Golden Gate Bridge

We walked across the Golden Gate Bridge!

Initially, we had planned to bike across, because how fun does that sound?!

A lot, actually, if you're like us. We like active adventures!

However, we found that the only places to rent bikes from near the bridge are still quite some ways away from the bridge itself, and by this point we'd been walking about 8 hours and it was getting late so we were worried about getting the bikes back in time. 

We'd hit Haight street, Golden Gate Park and the Conservatory of Flowers, walked up to Immigrant point lookout, then made it to the iconic bridge!

Let's get a walking'! 

San Francisco's Conservatory of Flowers

Strolling through the park, we found our way to the Conservatory of Flowers! 

If you're into movies, you might recognize it from the movie Heart and Souls with Robert Downey Jr. Antho showed me the movie a couple months back, so I was able to appreciate that tidbit of trivia. :)

The building is separated into various themed environment rooms, catering to the needs of differing varieties of flowers. Overflowing with blossoms and as beautiful as this place is, this is going to be one seriously photo heavy post. Ye of slower inter webs be warned!

San Francisco: Downtown and Fisherman's Wharf

After walking from our hotel to Japantown, Nobhill and Chinatown, we eventually wound up downtown. 

AirBnB Review

For our last two nights in the Bay Area we chose to stay in West Oakland, just across the Bay from the Embarcadero area with the Jack London Square ferry being a reasonable walk away. Having never used AirBnB we decided to give it a shot as the rates were quite a bit more reasonable than the hotels in the area and we'd heard positive things from people who had used the site. There were a lot of places to choose from but we decided to stay with Jackie and Christian in their lovely home. It takes a special kind of individual to open their own abodes and welcome travelers into their space and our hosts were exceptionally kind. They know the area quite well as proud residents and provide maps, guides, or advice. They graciously offer the use of their kitchen and laundry facilities, so if you're traveling for a long stint it's quite refreshing to have the option to prepare a home cooked meal or some freshly laundered clothes.  

San Francisco City Hall

San Francisco City Hall is a beautiful building and as we walked along Mission St we headed straight towards it en route to our first hotel. Throughout our stay in San Francisco we stayed in 3 different areas, first at Casa Loma on Fillbert.

Leaving Las Vegas July 8th, 2015

To celebrate our one year anniversary Antho & I ditched the scorching summer heat of Vegas for the cooler breezes of San Francisco for 6 days. It was an all around wonderful trip! As you may have noticed we really like to travel fairly often having gone to Los Angeles in April and hitting spots like the Whiskey, Venice Beach, Santa Monica, and Union Station as well as having gone to L.A. last fall. It's always nice to explore someplace new and when the tickets are going for as low as $44 it's pretty budget friendly. Hopefully we'll be celebrating our anniversary with new locations for many years to come!