Hannah had to get her fingerprints taken so she could get her multi-state nursing license and the closest approved location was in San Francisco, which depending on traffic is about 3 1/2 hours from us. We decided to get on the road early and make a day of it to see a few popular attractions while we were in town.
After we finished at the fingerprinting office, our first stop was at Alamo Square Park to see the historic Victorian homes know as the Painted Ladies. These beautiful Victorian homes were built sometime between 1849 and 1915. The houses get their name from the multiple bright colors used on their exterior to accentuate the architectural details.
The next destination on our list was down to Pier 39 in San Francisco Bay. Pier 39 has a lot of dining, shopping, and entertainment options to offer. You also get an incredible view of the city on one side and a view of Alcatraz on the other. But we were there to see the infamous California Sea Lions that have made the bay their residence. Watching the males bicker and the females just lay there was endlessly entertaining.
We were starting to get hungry and Hannah was in the mood for Asian food, so we thought: what better place to find authentic Asian food than in the largest and oldest Chinatown in the country? What an awesome place. It was like we had somehow driven through the space-time continuum and ended up in actual China. Unfortunately, due to COVID, all of the restaurants were requiring proof of vaccination records. This is not something we were expecting and didn’t think to bring with us. While we didn’t get to eat in Chinatown, we did spend a bit of time wandering around the streets so, we still got enjoy the experience.
We couldn’t visit San Francisco without seeing what is probably the most famous attraction, the Golden Gate Bridge. At 746 feet tall, we kept catching glimpses of the top of the towers through the fog as we made our way around the city. Being declared as on of the wonders of the modern world, there was no way we were going to miss the opportunity to see and drive across the mile-long beauty. We actually drove across it three times because after our drive over and back it was time to start heading home and the GPS told us to turn around and go through Marin County on the north side of the bridge to get home. So, back across it a third time we went to avoid some of the heavy traffic that was starting to gather as it got close to rush hour.
