Today was easily our biggest and longest day of the trip so far. We started the day with Ari asking Brooke to join him in getting Donuts and sweets. She was very excited to join! We shared all the donuts and loved every bite! Favorites were the cinnamon roll (Brooke), Bear Claw (Jaclyn), Apple fritter (Jay), chocolate frosted donut (Beckett).
After we were all ready for the day, we visited Golden Gate Park with Libby, Ari and the 3 toddlers. We walked from their house and got to see all the different restaurants/shops around their home. After that we meandered through the park and setup a blanket to hang out and enjoy the slightly too cold shade and slightly too hot sun. The kids enjoyed the park and Brooke/Jaclyn climbed on some blocks in the park.
After the park we split up so the toddlers could nap and we could see some touristy sites. What we thought was a few hour idea turned into an all day adventure with us virtually stuck in downtown SF.
We started by visiting the Golden Gate Bridge where we took some great photos (except Beckett) and where I taught Brooke all sorts of things about the bridge (that I had learned two days earlier with my dad). It was a bit foggy so we couldn’t see the entire bridge but we made the best of it.
After that we started heading towards the cable car but Beckett fell asleep so we detoured to The Painted Lady’s (the full house houses). We couldn’t believe how many people were there taking photos of it. We took a few photos without even stopping and headed towards the cable car.
Finding parking near the cable car was difficult because of the height of our vehicle. Most garages were too low so we settled for street parking. We eventually found a spot in what looked like a pretty rough area but things had seemed pretty rough for the last 5-10 mins of driving so we figured that’s just downtown SF. I also had to send a photo to ChatGPT to ask it to interpret all the different parking rules/restrictions. As we tried to walk away we realized the car was still unlocked and running, whoops!
We walked a block or two and it seemed really rough. I then caught a sign that said Tenderloin mart. And it all connected. I had only been in SF once previously but I was explicitly told to avoid Tenderloin at all costs. As soon as we walked another block or two and exited Tenderloin everything was nice and like a normal city again.
We reached the Cable Car line and started waiting. While in line, I couldn’t stop thinking about all the window smashing in SF and how Tenderloin + Cargo Box + Out of state plates = a bad time. So I walked back and found different parking eventually. As I left the parking garage Jaclyn proceeded to tell me that they were gonna be on the next Cable Car so I started sprinting down the hills of SF. I got in line with them only to wait another 30 mins before the next car came haha.
All in all the kids probably waited 1-1.5 hours for the cable car but it was worth it. Going up and down the hills was really cool. Jaclyn even got one of the seats where you just hold on (although Brooke was really worried she’d fall out). Beckett loved every second of it but randomly said in the middle “I’m never going on another cable car again!”
We got dropped close to Fisherman’s Wharf/Pier 39 so we walked over. Unfortunately, the day got away from us so we were kind of out of time by the time we got there. We got some dinner at Boudin and the had to turn back to start the return trip.
On the ride out we had heard to go one Cable Car stop up to avoid the long line so we did. Unfortunately, the Cable Car zoomed past us and said “that’s not a stop” despite it being listed on the map (grrr!). So we walked up a little more and found another stop to wait. We waited and waited and finally the Cable Car came…and went…fully loaded. So, we waited more and more and finally bailed. We used Google Maps to jump on a city bus to bring us back to the car.
The kids were absolutely wrecked by the end of the day and the only thing that kept them awake driving back to Libby/Ari’s was Beckett saying “Look, a robot car!” (which are the self-driving Waymo cars). I had walked over 16,000 steps and 8 miles. The kids were probably at like 25,000 steps with their short legs.
When we got back the kids passed out and we hung out with Libby as we got packed up. Ari left to go clubbing until 3am, just to prove his recent birthday didn’t mean anything.
We completely overdid everything but luckily the kids hung in there. Luckily tomorrow has more driving and just basic walking around and stuff. It should give them a chance to recover.
Sorry to Libby and Ari for completely vanishing into the bowels of SF until much later than we thought. And thank you to that magical city bus that saved us.
-Jay
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