a lovely little day in: san francisco

we took a long weekend up to the bay area a few weeks ago, and snuck in a dreamy day in san francisco. i lived in san francisco for a semester in college and then again for the year between graduation and getting married. i love the city, but have never really experienced it with kids. we go up to the bay area often, but going into the city usually seems like a far-off dream. we planned to visit san francisco this time, but even then i thought, "ah, sure. that'd be nice if it happened." but it did! what a lovely surprise.

seeing san francisco with two kids was fantastic. we gave ourselves some limits (parking only once, keep our route pretty flat), which helped to narrow down our options. our day ended up being predictably touristy, but guess what, we're tourists.

the weather app on my phone had been telling me to expect coooold temps and cloudy skies in san francisco, but as we drove in over the new bay bridge, it was sunny! and kind of warm!

we parked one block off of embarcadero and headed towards the ferry building, but first walked down a long pier, watched some old men fishing, and some young men wearing too many accessories. we doled out snacks and took pictures of the bay bridge and couldn't believe our luck that we had actually made it into san francisco.

it's been years since i'd been to the ferry building, and we loved every inch of it. and every calorie. we seriously ate our way from one end to the other. tovi fell in love with some cinnamon almond brittle while i couldn't get enough of this nutella-filled italian donut (i mean, i literally couldn't get enough because cruz has not quite caught onto the concept of sharing food).

we made it a goal to walk down to pier 39 to look at the sea lions and get lunch. there was so much to look at and listen to the whole way down. the exploratorium had a ton of interactive exhibits outside on the piers, which were cool to see and made me want to check out the museum next time we're in town.

sea lions. street performers. fish and chips.

the kids both fell asleep on the long way back to the car and stayed asleep, so we drove around the city and reminisced about our dating days in san francisco. we held hands so much of the day and i kept saying, "i can't believe we're here!" absolutely perfect day.