San Francisco Trip
After my last trip to Guadalara, I felt like that wasn’t enough. I really wanted to travel more and explore. I looked at my schedule and saw a weekend I could use to plan another trip. With some planning and talking with friends, I ended up making a pretty last minute decision. I was going to San Francisco.
I hadn’t been to San Francisco and actually explored in quite a while so I was excited to see what had changed. I had lots of locations and plans in mind that I felt a bit overwhelmed. 3 days were not enough to cover all of them. But only time will tell as to whether that’s true or not.
Right after I got off work on Friday, I immediately rushed to the airport, hoping traffic wouldn’t be too bad. Thankfully, that turned out to be true and I made my flight with plenty of time to spare. The flight from LA to San Francisco was surprisingly quick. It took only about an hour! Never will I ever drive to San Francisco again if flying is an alternative though price must definitely be in the right ballpark. Arriving to the SFO at around 9 at night, my friend and I took a lyft to our hotel and got ready for the next day.
Getting up the next day, we had plans to meet up with some friends in the bay area. Once we got ready, we left the hotel, all ready to explore. Our first stop was a very important one: a place to eat. We quickly looked at what was around our hotel and we found something that caught our eye. We headed to a location called “Korean Soul Chicken”. If you need to know one thing about me, it’s that I love me some chicken. However, once we got there, they were unfortunately closed. We were a bit disappointed, but moved on to the next. We decided to head over to Japantown to find a place to eat. It was a place we wanted to check out anyways since I heard there was a festival going on, but what we saw surprised us. The festival in Japantown, San Francisco called “The Cherry Blossom Festival” turned out to be a legit festival and event. It was exciting and fun to see everyone playing carnival like games and enjoying themselves. We ended up forgetting about food for a bit and enjoyed ourselves; maybe a bit too much because we ended up having to wait in a line to eat at the restaurant we decided to go to called “Waraku”. The place was great if you enjoy ramen. But they of course offer other food besides ramen. The appetizers were a great surprise since I don’t usually get appetizers. We had karage, takoyaki, and my favorite out of the bunch, kimchi cheese fries (try saying that 10 times in a row). After destroying the appetizers, the ramen came. I ordered the Tantanmen ramen and it did not disappoint. It was super delicious and was pretty filling. I’d give the restaurant a good 9/10. After breakfast/lunch, we walked around for a bit longer waiting for some college friends. Once they did show up, we ended up just going to an escape room (which was my first time) and a mini golfing place. Both activities were pretty fun and it was nice to just chill with friends for the day and relax. For dinner, we went to grab some Mexican food and it reminded me a bit of my previous trip in Guadaljara because of how good it was! If only I remembered the name of the restaurant… After dinner, we went back to our hotel and called it a night.
The next day ended up being photography day for me. I’m glad my friends did not mind coming with me throughout my walk in the city since I really wanted at least one day to just walk around San Francisco and photograph the areas we go. The only plan we really had for the day was the Aquarium of the Bay and Baker’s Beach in the evening. So we mostly just winged it in the day which is what I honestly like to do when I explore. We ended up going to Pier 7 at first to check out a pretty common photography location I found when researching places in San Francisco. The lighting was harsh throughout the day so I did the best I could and got some pictures. Pier 7 seems like it’d be beautiful during sunrise and sunset since the sun will probably set with the city backlit and vice versa with the bridge backlit by the sun during sunrise. That’ll definitely be on my bucket list for the future. Next was the Aquarium of the Bay. When I was in Japan, I really enjoyed going to the local aquariums whenever I visit a new location and checking out the animals since you never know when you’ll see something exciting and cool and this was no different. The Aquarium of the Bay was great and worth exploring if you’re in the area. I really enjoyed the looking at the amazing sea creatures they had. The only thing I’d probably say is it was a little small and we got through in about an hour or so. But they don’t have much real estate to use to begin with so I guess I can’t complain. After the aquarium, we went for some clam chowder on Pier 39 and relaxed for a bit. There’s so many things to do on Pier 39 so it’s definitely one of those places where you could spend quite a lot of time at. We walked around for a bit and ended up back at the hotel to rest up a bit for our evening plans: Baker Beach. The sun set at around 7:40 so we arrived there at around 7. The cold air hitting my face along with the sound of the waves definitely gave me a nostalgic feel of the beaches in San Francisco. They have a way different feeling and aura to them compared to the SoCal beaches. Along with those thoughts in my mind, the Golden Gate Bridge showed itself to us. It was our first time seeing the bridge the entire trip so I just took the beautiful scene in as I tried looking for a spot to get some pictures.
This shoot, however taught me a very valuable lesson. I already knew this tip, but I didn’t really mind it until it happened to me. If you’re taking photos at the beach, NEVER change your lens. You’ll have a high chance of getting sand in your sensor and that will definitely ruin your shot. I even tried to “cheat” and changed my lens in my backpack, hoping some sand wouldn’t get in my camera still and I still ended up finding a small black spot in my pics after reviewing them.
After feeling a bit disappointed for finding that out a bit too late, we ended going back to the hotel after a long day. Contemplating what to eat for dinner, we decided to get take out from “Bellissimo Pizza”. It was about $15 or so for 3 slices and that did not disappoint. They were delicious and was a great way to end the night. I can definitely recommend them!
I wanted to do a sunrise photoshoot at least once during our time in San Francisco. Monday was really the only day I could choose due to our schedule, so my day started at 6:30 A.M. Quickly getting ready, I rushed out the hotel and got to California Street. The shot may be overdone and all, but I wanted my own picture so I got the shot and composition everyone usually gets and tried to be creative and get different perspectives and angles on the shot. Instead of shooting the direct shot of the bridge, I tried opting for an angled one from the side of the streets and I ended up liking that composition a bit. I also tried getting the tram coming across the frame with the bridge in the background. Overall, I thought it was fun morning shoot.
After getting back to the hotel, we packed our bags and checked out. For breakfast, we opted to get a more “traditional” type of breakfast and ate at “Sutter Pub & Restaurant”. Once again, this place was great and I would definitely recommend it for breakfast. Their pancakes were delicious!
We had time until our flight so we walked around downtown SF. We left our bags at “YOTEL San Francisco” for around $14 or so for 2 bags so we wouldn’t have to drag our bags around. It’s a bit pricey, but this allowed us to walk to Chinatown and back along with grab lunch stress free without worrying our luggage. Once we were ready to go to the airport, we picked up our luggage and got our lyft going to SFO.
With our ride heading to SFO, it felt like our San Francisco trip was over. I started to reflect on all the moments during the trip and the memories made. Despite having a bunch of locations ready for this San Francisco trip, I probably didn’t even get to 20% of them yet I still really enjoyed my time. It’s a shame, but honestly, I prefer my trips to be this way. It was something I realized very quickly when I was traveling around in Japan. Itineraries are great, but they’re meant to guide you and your plans, not control them.