Then the next day we did an unofficial walking tour of SF. We started at a place I've been wanting to take the girls for a while-- LucasFilms in the Presidio.
Because it was Saturday, there wasn't much we could do here besides walk around the grounds, but that was still fun and totally free, so we're glad we stopped! We especially liked seeing the famous Yoda Fountain in person.
And we liked peeking inside the windows to the lobby (which is open to the public on week days) and seeing some cool Star Wars costumes and memorabilia. LucasFilms reminded me a lot of a college campus, it was a pretty place to just stroll around.
Then we popped right next door to the Palace of the Fine Arts and continued walking. Built for some World's Fair that SF hosted, and never taken down, it's become a pretty well-known landmark in the city and it was another cool thing to see.
Just a few minutes down the road was our favorite walk to take in the city-- the Fort Point Path. We've started taking all our visitors down this path because the views of the Golden Gate just don't get any better. A super treat on this day was discovering that Fort Point was actually open to the public!
We've never toured it and found it completely fascinating-- both the history of defending the Bay through various wars and the stories of how a modern day "army" of people keep the bridge painted, inspected, safe and paid for. If you can time a visit to SF with a day Fort Point is open, we TOTALLY recommend it! Again, all free!
The best part of Fort Point was climbing those 3 flights of stairs and finding yourself RIGHT UNDER the Golden Gate! I actually got a little weak in the knees when we came out of the stairwell to this view. It felt like we could touch the underside of the bridge! And it felt like if we leaned too far over the fort's wall, we'd fall right into the Bay!
Exploring winding tunnels, prisons, and hidden gunpowder rooms were other fun parts of Fort Point and what kept the kids interested in what might have otherwise been boring history.
Unfortunately, after Fort Point, our plans did become thwarted by insane crowds on this second day in the city. We tried to find lunch at a couple different places, but driving around for 30 minutes yielded not a single parking spot. It was the Saturday of a holiday weekend and once we got back on the beaten path, we battled a million people. So, we decided to just call it a day and head home early. We stopped for both lunch and fancy ice cream on our way and, honestly, were not even all that disappointed. The things we did get to see and do over our 1.5 days in the city were all really fun!
No comments:
Post a Comment