The 1200 Mile West Coast Adventure - August/September 2018: Day 5: Snacking 'round San Francisco

[bambikate]

Day 5: Snacking 'round San Francisco
Friday 24 August 2018

Lombard Street, Mr Holmes Bakehouse, Chinatown, Ferry Building, Fisherman's Wharf and In N Out Burger (Again)

Index

We woke up at around 6:30am, no lie ins over here! We only had two full days in SF so there was no time to waste. Today we were all going on foot to explore the city!

Ready to go!



Since everything revolves around food with us, we literally based our walking route on what time we wanted to be eating what

We knew we wanted to visit Mr Holmes Bakehouse that we had seen on many foodie vlogs and all over Instagram, so this was our breakfast of choice today!

Mr Holmes Bakehouse is famous for their signature "Cruffins" (Croissant Muffins) as well as other delicious daily specials. They always have big queues outside and often sell out by lunch time.

We planned the route so we could walk up Lombard Street on the way.









Look at these fabulous doors on someone's house!







Roads for miles!



And this house with a lift on the outside!



It was so surreal to finally be seeing something so famous in real life! The houses and the shrubbery was just so pretty.































From here we walked to Mr Holmes Bakehouse. We arrived just after they opened and the queue was only about 10 people deep. This gave us enough time to browse at the selection on offer and choose!









We had Churro croissant, the orange blossom and honey cruffin, a chocolate chip cookie and a tropical donut, as well as 2 coffees and a yuzu lemonade













Our total was $21 By the time we left there was a much bigger queue out the door.



It was then we realised there was nowhere to actually eat it! It wasn't exactly in the nicest part of SF and the further we walked trying to find somewhere to sit, we realised we kept getting into rougher and rougher areas and we started to feel really uncomfortable.

We were carrying round food and drink but couldn't eat it, it was so frustrating. We noticed a tramp started following us; we made it very obvious we knew he was following us and stopped and crossed the road and luckily he got the message.

We had a bit of a falling out at how ridiculous this was and our coffees were getting cold. Finally, we got to the Phillip Burton Federal building which looked very official and there were lots of police around. We found some benches outside and sat.

We felt much safer and opened up our box of goodies to finally have our breakfast!

Ohh it all fell over!







I have to say, when we finally got to eat it, it was incredible! The lamination on the cruffin was amazing and the donut was so delicious.

The coffee was also really good but the yuzu lemonade was even better; really sweet and tart and refreshing.

If we went again we would drive there to pick it up...

After breakfast it was time to continue exploring. We wanted to head towards Union Square. On the way we walked past the civic centre, which was in the Tenderloin area.

[bambikate]

As we started walking towards Union Square (using google maps) we walked through a couple of shady looking and dirty roads and of course, right at this moment, the girls said they needed the toilet

I was panicking where we could go! We carried on until the area wasn't quite so grotty and came across The Hotel Whitcomb which had a Starbucks in the lobby.

We found some toilets but realised they were locked (for hotel guests only) the bellman spotted us and asked if we wanted to use the restrooms and kindly unlocked them for us!

After our detour, we went back on our mission to get to Union Square.

A few minutes later we spotted a cable car being turned around across the street. I looked up at the street signs and noticed Powell Street sign and the Gap store, then I saw Sephora and Mac signs - Let's cross the road!





We immediately felt at ease and more comfortable, we were back in the touristy area!

We browsed a few shops as we walked up Powell street, the hill was so steep it looked incredible.

There were so many people queuing to get on the cable car, at least 100 people We were planning on getting on at another stop, so we popped into a few shops.

First was Lush for a browse. The lady demo'd a sparkly green bath bomb and bubble bar that you could blow bubbles through the middle, they both smelled and looked incredible. We bought both!



We went to Saks Fifth Avenue and for a browse around Macy’s.





We walked to Dragon's gate and had a good mooch around Chinatown. It was so cool to finally be there. We saw lots of the three wise monkeys bronze models, which the girls recognised from the emojis... so we explained their origins.











For lunch we just wanted something small, snacky and cheap as we would be eating again not long afterwards so the perfect choice was dim sum!

After a lot of research we knew wanted to visit Good Mong Kok Bakery. It doesn't look like much (and cash only) but the reviews weren't wrong. It's authentic and delicious and it was queued out the door.







We ordered some pork and shrimp Shu Mai, BBQ pork buns, chicken buns and prawn dumplings.

Unlike our earlier bit of poor planning, we HAD planned where we would be eating lunch!

"Willie woo woo wong playground!"

It was just a cute children play area a short walk away. We picked up some water and strolled over to eat lunch there then the girls had a play in the park.









The dim sum was delicious and just enough to keep us going until our next food stop!







Next, it was finally time to ride on the cable car! We caught it from one of the stops on California Street and rode it down to the Ferry Building stop.

This should have set us back $28 ($7 single per person), the girls handed this over to the conductor but he very kindly gave half of it back as he said it was only a short ride.













It was really fun and another thing we got to tick off the bucket list!

We got off the cable car and walked to the Ferry Building.



This hadn't originally been on our plans but I'm so glad we went here. We LOVED it! It had such a great buzz and there was a beautiful marketplace, trendy little boutique shops and delicious food stalls. It was like the best indoor farmers market ever!









Hehe

[bambikate]

There were also some cracking views of the Bay Bridge





We had heard about Humphry Slocombe ice cream before we visited and spotted the sign in the marketplace. It seemed like the perfect time to share a cone together.



My daughter photobombing...



We chose peanut butter fudge and I don't think I'm being dramatic when I say it was the best ice cream we'd ever had

Honestly it was so delicious we almost went back for another! We decided against it though as we had our next mini meal already planned out...



Look at these cool desserts!



And this mushroom store











Bye, Ferry Building!





Next, we headed to the North Beach area of the city

Coit Tower







We were in need of a little pick me up so we stopped off at The Beacon Coffee and Pantry to get a mocha, latte and drinks for the girls to go.





Directly opposite was the Joe DiMaggio Playground. We had seen this on a blog and it looked like a lovely place to chill out for half an hour after all the walking.













After the girls had a good play we were ready to move on to one of Little Italy's famous pizza places - Tony's Slice House!

We spotted this mural by local street artist fnnch.



We arrived at Tony’s and ordered 2 slices. They were enormous!







Just across the street was Washington Square Park and the perfect picnic spot!

We walked past a restaurant where it looked like they were having big Italian wedding. Everyone looked like they were having a great time







It was also perfect for gymnastics practice!







The pizzas were delicious, we got a meat lovers and a pepperoni and we finished every last bite.

We really liked North Beach, it seemed like a friendly neighbourhood and the park seemed like a popular hang out for groups of friends and had a lovely atmosphere.

After chilling for a while it was finally time to head back to the hotel.

Here's our walking route for the day:

[bambikate]

Back at the hotel



We got back to our room and chilled for about half an hour before heading back out again!

First was Musée Mécanique, one of the world's largest (over 200) privately owned collection of coin-operated mechanical musical instruments and antique arcade machines in their original working condition. (You can play them!)

We had seen this on a vlog before and thought it was really quirky and cool and looked like it was worth a visit.







We all did our fortunes





And this creepy guy who would laugh when you put a quarter in...





And this guy who you would have a drink when you put a quarter in



They also had this arm wrestling game, Andy had a go on one of the easier settings and just about won.



We saw an old man have a go later on the hardest one and I couldn't help think its a really dangerous game as the arm is automatic it could crush someone's arm!

Some other games













And this terrifying lady



We did another fortune teller and Imogen got a card with the three wise monkeys on it. She couldn't believe it after seeing them in Chinatown earlier! "How did they know?!" she said



After aboout an hour of exploring and playing we left. It was well worth doing, especially since it was free entry and only a few dollars for the games in total.

See you tomorrow, Boudin!



See you tomorrow, Alcatraz!



Next, we went to finally meet the Sea Lions at Pier 39!



They were so fascinating to watch and so funny; climbing all over each other and being really noisy! We nicknamed the big one 'velvet' as he looked so soft and his fur looked different tones in different directions.





Love locks



Bubba Gump Shrimp





The girls and I had a ride on the carrousel ($10 for the three of us )



We were starting to get hungry now and to be honest... we were craving an In-N-Out burger!

It just so happened that there was one right there in Fisherman's Wharf. The queue was massive but we knew it would be worth it so just accepted the wait time.

We went for 3 double doubles, 3 fries, 3 drinks and extra "spread" on the side.



They had a great candy store there too. We had a quick browse but vowed to return tomorrow when we had more time.



We decided to eat the food in our room so made the short 2/3 minute walk back to our lobby and back to our room

We chilled with burgers in our room and TV on in the background.













Heaven!

[Flimsey]

Wow can’t believe how much you walked. All your food for the day looked yummy!

[Zomax25]

Wow what an awesome day! I have always wanted to see San Francisco!

[i love jack]

Great day! Lots of walking! Some lovely looking food

[Minnie Mum]

Another fab day. Ice cream sounded amazing!🍦 love the dimsum too. So much planning to work out such a fab day 💕

[Eccle]

The food all looks amazing, I am impressed at all the walking too!

[Pussycat Doll]

Lovely day! I think it’s time I went back to SF!