My intentions were to show my husband San Francisco at Christmas time as I remembered if from growing up. Cable cars through the city, hot chocolate at Ghiradelli Square, the big Christmas tree and ice skating at Union Square, and a few other fun memories. Well, instead of those fantastic things we decided to rent a car (which that ordeal will be a separate blog) and go see the Golden Gate Bridge, drive over the bridge, go to Muir Woods National Monument, visit Golden Gate Park and Alamo Square.

It turned out to be completely different then what we had intended to do- but these were things we had been wanting to do in San Francisco for a while but are hard to do without a car. We decided we will make another day trip soon and do all the in-city things are easily accessible by Bart and Muni. We landed early and quickly picked up our rental car (they were out of our car type so they “upgraded” us to a brand new mustang). After grabbing In-N-Out (c’mon are you really surprised?) we headed to the Golden Gate Bridge. Although I have been a few times I forget-It really is beautiful! It has breathtaking views of the city- and the great thing is that both sides of the bridge have areas to stop and take pictures. Don’t skip one side because you have been to the other either- they both are unique and beautiful in there own rights. One side you get the picturesque mountains and the other side (if it’s not uber foggy) treats you to a gorgeous view of the city. If you keep heading up the mountain on the north side of the bridge lookout, you head up a winding road to Point Bonita which also offers frighteningly beautiful views of the bridge, as well as old artillery bunkers from WWII. We didn’t make it all the way to the lighthouse and I wish we did- but it was all me- I was to chicken- the steep hills were enough for me and we were only half way there! The rest of the way included an intense tunnel and a very steep and narrow suspension bridge. Maybe next time we will make it…

Muir Woods National Monument is gorgeous. It is a national park that has beautiful redwoods and has been made accessible to all types of people. If you really enjoy hiking- there are many trails to choose from. If you just want to take a leisurely stroll, enjoy nature and see some of the country’s oldest trees, that’s ok too! I guess we were in-betweeners because we did follow the marked path for awhile but also explored one of the steeper trails- really we were only looking for good pictures. It was a lot of fun and totally worth the other really scary steep and winding road I went on that day. It costs $5 per person, so keep that in mind, it’s not the $5 per car we are used to with other national parks.

Towards the end of the day we headed back into the city. FYI- It costs $6 to return into San Francisco over the Golden Gate Bridge. A little steep? Well so is the maintenance on the bridge. Luckily we had exactly $6 or I am not sure what happens if you can’t make toll. Another tip for people who might be traveling to San Francisco and plan on driving- always bring plenty of change for parking meters!

Golden Gate Park is such an interesting place. We saw roller skaters showing off their moves (or lack thereof), lots of cool sculptures and monuments, tons of tennis courts (made us mad we didn’t bring our rackets), a carousel, but still never managed to find the Japenese Tea Garden we were looking for! I think you could spend a day in that park exploring and going to the museums and seeing all that it has to offer.

Our last stop was Alamo Square which has the famous view of San Francisco and the “painted” ladies -a row of colorful Victorian houses. Our goal was to re-create that picture with the beautiful pink and purple sunset in the background- did we succeed?

It was a great trip- I’m not going to lie we both were really tempted to quit our jobs, sell our house and move there. Don’t worry we are back to our senses. We stayed within our budget and that made us happy although we were both very sad that we didn’t make it to Blondies Pizza- the best pizza the bay area has to offer. It’ll top our list of things to experience next time we are visiting the City by the Bay.

**photo credit goes to Reid Fuller