By: Samie

Travel Dates: November 27th-December 1st, 2023

Day 3

(Sea Lions, Golden Gate Park, Japanese Tea Garden, Haight-Ashbury, Boudin Bakery, Pier 39 Ferris Wheel)

It is always crazy how quickly time passes when on vacation and in good company. As the sun began to shine through the curtains of our hotel windows on the morning of November 30th, we knew we would be having to say farewell to my mom and sister Rebekah as they caught their flight back home.

Once up and moving, we all met up for breakfast. We decided to all enjoy the wonderful California breakfast the hotel offered instead of trying to travel somewhere so that we could soak up every last moment together. Unlike a continental breakfast, you check in with a staff member at the entrance, and they seat your party. There are gaggles of staff members bustling around refilling the buffet and clearing plates. However, much like a typical continental breakfast, you grab a plate and fill it with the food of your choosing.

As far as group breakfasts go, it was a rather quiet and somber affair. We knew it would be the last time we would all be together for a while, and we were all trying to both collectively and individually process the emotions we were feeling and fighting. Of course we wanted to savor every last second together, but it can be hard to focus on the light with such a large shadow looming overhead. Luckily, the food was delicious, the service was impeccable, and the coffee helped fuel our spirits.

Mom and Rebekah’s flight out wasn’t until 1:50, but it was about an hour to the airport, plus leaving enough time to get through security and all the airport business and procedures. Because of this, they wanted to check out of the hotel by 11:00. We wrapped up having breakfast around 9:30, so we decided to make one last trip over to the pier together since it was such a quick walk. We had only passed by the Pier 39 sea lions lounging docks in the nighttime while strolling the boardwalk. Although we heard many fun sounds and could make out wriggling silhouettes, we wanted to get a good view of them soaking in the sunshine.

As we approached where we knew they would be, we only saw a lone sea lion or two rolling its head or basking in the sun and thought maybe they only do their lolling about in the evening. However, the further down the dock we moved, the more the scattered speckles of brown became a large amber mass. Although fewer numbers than during the on-season, there still was a whole company of them taking in the morning rays.

One especially large fellow seemed to be the self-proclaimed “king of the raft” and held his thick head high while sprawling out as wide as he could. There were two other sea lions circling the raft, hoping to find a spot of their own among the crew to lounge the morning away. Unfortunately, every attempt to jump on was quickly thwarted by the king, and they defeatedly slithered back into the balmy bay waters until they finally decided to settle themselves upon their own dock.

We could’ve contentedly watched them swim, sun-bath, wrestle, and bark for hours. Nevertheless, we were not gifted an unending amount of time. The window of time before checkout was closing, and it was time to head back to the hotel to say some final goodbyes.

After a tearful farewell, the four of us remaining returned to our room to make a plan for how we wanted to spend the rest of our day. We decided to kick things off by Ubering over to Golden Gate Park, knowing we could stroll through different areas of the park and find many different sights and activities to tempt our interest.

The first attraction to capture our intrigue was The Japanese Tea Garden. Tickets were only $14 a person, and we were convinced it would be worth it to be teleported to a whole other country and culture. This would quickly prove to be true at our very first pit stop within the garden at the tea shop. While we were grateful for another sun shiny day, the breeze today was summoning a chill within our bodies, so we jumped at the chance to diffuse it by filling our bellies with hot liquid. Two of us picked a steamy tea as our weapon of choice, while the other two went with a savory soup. Luckily, there was no wrong answer. All of orders were absolutely wonderful and hit the spot exactly for what we needed.

We enjoyed taking in the surrounded views and wildlife as we let the warmth fully spread through our bodies. Now a comfortable temperature, calm, and content, we were ready to adventure out and explore more of the garden.

Wandering through, it was effortless to become completely lost in the beauty of this area. The shadows within the trees didn’t feel cool and uncomfortable but rather, tranquil and reflective. The mossy coverings seemed to soak up and absorb any sounds from the outside world. The ponds were smooth as glass and crystal clear. When we peered over the edge of the path into the water, all the friendly koi would swim over to say hello. We spent a good chunk of time watching them swim over, smiling while they interacted with one another, and making up our own special conversations with our new scaly friends.

Eventually, we convinced ourselves to keep moving forward as we knew there were still beautiful things to see. We carried on along well-kept walking paths, crossed bridges, both expected and unique, and almost strained our necks staring up to enjoy the sunlight softly filtering through the trees and plants. To our pleasant surprise, when we were able to draw our eyes down and gaze back into the waters, we saw our koi friends following along to carry us along and guide us through the rest of our journey.

The only thing harder than saying goodbye to our watery guardians was trying to pick something out from the gift shop. Everything was so artistically beautiful and elegantly traditional, but it was also all highly delicate, and we knew whatever we bought would have to safely make the journey back home in a suitcase that may shift around during the flight. So as much as I wanted one, we decided to forgo the teapots and tea cup sets, and settled on a few small china dishes instead, one with a painted koi to safely and respectfully get to take one with us to keep.

Once our journey through the garden was complete, it was time to bid our new favorite garden farewell and continue making our way through Golden Gate Park. We meandered along a walking path and explored the park’s statue exhibition before making our way to the edge of the park, where we were fortunate enough to see them setting up the Entwines installation. We weren’t fortunate enough to be around for the actual opening of this art piece with a 30 foot tall tree made of pixel-like LED lights, but it was still cool looking it up later and knowing we got to see the start of it in person!

Our next stop was a neighborhood that was on Luke’s must-visit list during our time in San Francisco. It was just a quick walk over to Haight-Ashbury, best known as the home to hippie movement in the 1960’s. It houses large record and music shops, vintage clothing boutiques and second-hand outlets, kitchen-sink bookstores, varied dive bars, and many cool and eclectic restaurants, so of course it was a big draw!

On our walk to the main stretch, we passed by Flywheel Coffee Roasters, so we of course had to pop in for a caffeine refuel. We merrily sipped our drinks as we continued our stroll.

Our first official stop on this iconic street was at Amoeba Music, a very large store completely filled with records, record players, CDs, and all sorts of pop culture memorabilia. It would take hours to explore and go through everything, so we just perused the areas that we knew would interest us the most. However, we could collectively feel our energy levels running low, so we finished up, finalized our purchases, and made our way back out of the store to find somewhere to eat and hopefully reenergize ourselves.

Whether it was the smell, the aesthetic, or the proximity, Escape from New York Pizza was what drew us in to satisfy our hunger. You order by the slice, so I went with a tasty-looking slice of garlic cheese, and Luke went with a classic meat-lovers. Pizza should really be considered a super food because there’s almost no problem it can’t solve. Once devoured, we found or second wind and were able to continue down Haight Street.

Our next couple of stop-ins included The Booksmith, SF Goodwill, and Decades of Fashion. The Booksmith was a very cool and quaint little book store where Luke was able to find a very fun and interactive puzzle-like book called Cain’s Jawbone. The book is all out of order, and your goal is to figure out the correct order of the pages while also trying to discover the murderer and victims within the story. Apparently only a select few have ever successfully completed it. SF Goodwill had a large variety, including a whole section of vintage clothes and traditional Japanese outfits, but it was all pretty picked over or wildly out there, and none of us were able to find anything good. Decades of Fashion was a very neat vintage boutique with an amazing collection of clothing pieces through the decades. There was everything from flapper dresses to fur coats to classic 1960’s skirt suits and all the accessories in between. It was very cool to see fashion throughout the years, but because it was vintage, everything was also very highly priced, so we enjoyed just looking.

We were all shopped out and ready for a break and happened to pass a small dive bar called Zam Zam that had just opened for happy hour, and we figured a couple of cocktails might do us good. Little did we know when we first stepped foot inside is how enjoyable our time would be here and how we would end up spending hours and most of our evening inside befriending the bartender, scrolling and pick out out songs on the jukebox, and trying different drinks.

When we first stepped inside, we could barely see anything outside of shiny silhouettes with the open door streaming bright light into the darkened bar. However, we hardly noticed the sun work it’s way down as time within passed by so quickly. We learned the history of the large mural on the bar wall from the knowledgeable bartender, Kundan. Since it was around 3:00pm on a random Thursday, we were the only ones in the bar for a long time, so we had all her time and attention and simply got to enjoy each other’s company as well. We chatted and drank and listened to music until evening customers began to make their way in. At one point, our bartender had to step out for a minute, and she was the only staff there. We had created such a bond over a couple of hours that she asked us to watch the bar while she was out. When a few customers entered during her absence, we quickly stepped up and told them the bartender would be right with them. Luckily the circumstance didn’t require it, but I truly believe we would’ve fought off anyone to protect the bar, there was such a loyalty between her and us.

However, it was beginning to draw into evening, and we still had things we wanted to do before things started to close up for the day, so we knew it was time to move on. We paid our tab, and now contentedly inebriated, continued our walk further along the street. We came across yet another second-hand store called Buffalo Exchange. Shopping is definitely more fun while intoxicated, and every single one of us found clothing pieces we weren’t willing to leave without and spent way more money than we probably should have. Luke and I were also definitely not thinking clearly enough to think about all the suitcase space our new items would be stealing, but in the moment, we didn’t have a care in the world and were as happy as could be. Well, almost. We all severely needed to use the bathroom, and Buffalo Exchange did not have a public restroom.

However, we knew Zam Zam had a bathroom, and we had a feeling Kundan wouldn’t mind us coming back to use it, so we backtracked a little because we were confident we would not make it back to our hotel without using the bathroom. Sure enough, Kundan greeted us warmly upon our return. She even offered me a free birthday shot while I was waiting for the others to use the restroom (I still have no idea how she learned we were there for my birthday) and took one with me before we said our final goodbyes and thanks to her.

We were ready to head back to the hotel so that we could drop off our purchases and get back to the pier for supper before closing time. While our Uber made its way to us, we had to finish our walk to where Haight and Ashbury intersected and get our obligatory pictures.

After a quick hotel stop and change into some of our new clothing purchases, we made the quick walk to the pier so that we could dine at the renowned Boudin Bakery, famous for its clam chowder. We came all the way to San Francisco, so we would be remiss if we didn’t try some Bay Area clam chowder, and we had heard Boudin Bakery was the best place to get it with a classic sourdough bread bowl. We managed to sneak in right before they started getting ready to close and made sure to help ourselves to lots our their most delicious looking baked goods including, a clam chowder bread bowl, a chili bread bowl, a croissant, and the cutest turtle loaf.

We finished our evening walking along Pier 39. We made a couple stops along the way including the Fisherman’s Wharf SkyStar Wheel. We hadn’t planned to take a ride in the large Ferris wheel overlooking the bay, but when we walked past it, we thought why not. Although it was a random stop and definitely not the world’s most exciting ride, we loved getting to be inside our own private capsule, getting to be goofy, and laughing so hard we cried. If they had cameras in there, the operators sure got a good show.

Another stop we made was at a classic, touristy gift shop, where we found any last-minute mementos to commemorate our wonderful trip. Lastly, we swung over to a convenience store next door to grab some late-night snacks and drinks before heading back to the hotel.

Our hotel had these wonderful fire pits outside, but every time we had returned to the hotel in the evening, when we would want to enjoy some time around them, they were always completely full. We hit a snag of luck this time however, as one of the pits was open, so we got to wind down our last evening together chatting and snacking around a warm fire pit.

Saying goodbye the next morning, the morning of December 1st, was brief yet devastating. We decided to say our farewells in the hotel room so that we weren’t trying to do it awkwardly in the elevator or lobby while holding all our luggage. Since Evan and Alyssa were parked in the underground garage, and we needed to get off at the lobby, we stepped off the elevator and gave our last waves. As the doors closed between us, an immense heaviness and grief overcame us. The sudden absence of our loved ones was hard to process, and it almost seemed rushed and sudden even though we had said our proper goodbyes before leaving the room.

We rolled our way to the bus stop and hopped on a public city cable car that would take us to the BART station where we would hop on a train car that would then take us to the airport. City transportation is definitely not something we are familiar with, and there were a couple of uncomfortable moments like a loud confrontation between two men on the bus that the bus driver had to intervene, getting briefly locked inside a train car, and witnessing a phone of a passed out woman being stolen by a passenger walking by.

Needless to say, we were glad once we were safely at the airport. We grabbed some quick coffee and food before heading to our gate and boarding our 12:45 flight home.

We absolutely fell in love with the city of San Francisco on this trip, and we can’t wait to go back. Until next time, SF!