Living in the San Francisco Bay Area has it’s advantages. A short drive, or train ride via BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), has you in the City in no time.
We decided to play tourist over the Labor Day Weekend and spend a day at Fisherman’s Wharf, even though we’ve hauled a multitude of visiting relatives there over the years. Sunday it was just the two of us, on our own schedule, at our own leisurely pace, with no timeline.
The Wharf is always busy, but over a Labor Day weekend it was crazy crowded.
We decided to start our day with an early lunch to give us fortitude to face the mass of peoples on the street, and made an on the spot choice of Castagnola’s for lunch (see, it’s good to travel on your own…you can do what ever strikes your fancy). My husband said we’d eaten there once long ago, but I didn’t remember it. It turned out to be a good choice; it was quiet and we had a lovely view.
Fish, brought in daily by local fishermen parked right outside, supplied our lunch of a warm crab cake sandwich, and a plate of Fisherman’s Linguini.
A bit of walking about outside after lunch soon gave me doubts about our lunch choice, and thoughts that maybe we should have had street food. It all smelled and looked so good.
Incredible.
The wharf area is so vibrant and alive with shops and museums to explore, Ripley’s Believe it or Not and, my favorite, the Musee Mecanique
The USS Pampanito is there for a visit if it’s ships you’re in to. And then there is the view of the Bay with all its own action.
And attractions
The street artists finish up on the amusement from a keyboard player, to “Gold Man”
And then there is “Bush Man”. I will only tell you he is there, but not give away his secret.
We wandered back along the Embarcadero, caught a pedi-cab at Pier 39 to the closest BART station at the Hyatt, and had one more entertainment episode before heading down the stairs to the train.
We sank in to our seats to relax and talk about our excellent day in the City as we rode the train backwards, just as we had on our way in that morning…the better to see where we’ve been.
AngelineM's Blog 
San Francisco is one of my favorite cities in the USA and I love all the things you describe… It is getting more and more crowded though, no? 🙂
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San Francisco is a wonderful place. It is definitely crowded in all the tourist attractions, but the City itself seems to always ebb and flow in its space.
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I love this, a vacation that I could not take but love to see your photo’s. The colors that stand out are amazing.
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Thanks Jackie. Isn’t WordPress great at allowing us all to see the world? Glad you liked the photos.
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Beautiful post. I miss the time when me , my wife and our son who was less than a year old then would visit Fisherman’s Wharf. We would have clam chowder and dungenees crabs while enjoying the view of San Francisco Bay. Before we left the bay area for Texas , we made one more visit, rode a boat that took us close to the golden gate bridge, the Alcatraz and visited the aquarium, I hope to go back someday now that my son is old enough to enjoy those sceneries. It’s true when they said, ” I left my heart in San Francisco.” I did mine.
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Thanks for your comments. San Francisco is definitely a beautiful place, and I go in every chance I get. You have to really think about coming back for a visit.
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Love this! Isn’t it nice to have a mini-vacation near home? The lobster at the street vendors look different than ours in Canada…they seem spotted, or is that just drool on the camera lens? LOL. Great post. Really enjoyed it.
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Thanks Sylvia. Darn, I thought I had wiped all the drool off the lens. Glad you liked the post.
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