The Curious Lark: 12 Hours of San Francisco! (day 1)

Hello everyone!

I meant to write and give all of you an update on our adventures in San Francisco last night,

but alas, after 12 hours of walking in the cold and windy weather,

I was too wiped out to do anything but pass out when we got back.

I want to thank everyone who recommended places for us to visit, especially my future roomy Amulet, and I hope these pictures bring back your own memories of these places! We had so much fun walking around this wonderful city, and if you have a chance to visit, I would highly recommend allll of these places! =)

So, let the picture sharing begin~

First, we visited the Embarcadero Plaza, where we stumbled upon this rather industrial looking fountain. It's cool, but I don't think we would have found it all that interesting if we had not realized that

we could walk underneath all of these pipes!

racing

So that's precisely what we did for the next 15 minutes or so.

frolicking around, underneath, and over the waterworks.

running through the waterfall haha.

We also found that we could go over/among the pipe things, so we did that as well =)

Then, we went to the farmer's market, which was the real reason we visited Embarcadero in the first place.

And it did not disappoint!

I always love visiting farmer's markets, but this is one of the biggest ones I've seen!

It also kinda reminded me of the Pike Place Market, and maybe that's why I liked it so much haha ;)

(notice the sign that says 'please no photos' on the bottom right.. oops haha)

They had incredibly fresh produce, and they were giving out samples left and right!

One of my favorite stalls was the one that said 'real strawberries'. I had to try that to see what the difference was between real strawberries and the fake ones the stall next to it was selling.

We ended up getting a pint of blueberries because we got hooked after some samples

even though it was incredibly expensive...

and it was gone in 5 minutes...

Then, we quite literally ran into this stall!! Namugaji! One of the readers recommended this place, and we had planned on eating there for dinner, but since it was right there, we ate lunch here instead.

Neo-Korean restaurant... I had my misgivings at first, I'll admit, but it actually turned out to be really good!

We had the Korean Tacos =) It's definitely worth a try.

Next stop = Chinatown.

Not much to report there.. it was like any other Chinatown.

but notice the mustache on the guy right behind my lil bro. Epic.

Also notice bottom left... We couldn't figure out what they were doing, but people kept joining in. odd?

Then of course, we had to visit Pier 39.

Here, I fell in love with Yogorino. YUM!!!! Sorry Red Mango, but seriously. So. Good!

And we saw some interesting human beings.

and, I got picked to help out a street magic performer.

nothing like going into a box full of swords or anything, but he managed some cool things with the rope.

We also saw the sea lions, (heard them first), watched Captain Jack Sparerib throw some torches around,

and ate Trish's mini donuts.

I love street food!

Not incredibly good for us, but how often do you get to walk around with a bucket of mini donuts?

Then, quite randomly, as we drove along the waterfront, we ran across this fitness center.

I guess it was part of a campaign of some sort?

Maybe this is why most of the San Franciscans were incredibly fit haha

I couldn't tell you where it is, but if you keep driving along the waterfront, you'll find it.

This was right after eating Trish's Mini Donuts, so we felt obligated to do some workouts.

After working out, we made the biggest miscalculation of the day.

From the workout station, we could sort of see where we thought the Wave Organ was located, and we decided that it would probably be about a mile away along the waterfront.

I'm not sure exactly how far away it actually is, but it felt like it was more like 4 miles.

Of course, we should have turned back and gotten the car anytime during our walk, but you know how it goes, "we came THIS far, it'd be a waste to go back. I'm sure it's not THAT far away now."

If you are at the fitness station, and you want to go to the Wave Organ,

don't walk there on a cold, windy day. Drive.

You'll thank me for it when you finally get to the Wave Organ and realize that

you don't have to walk 4 miles back to your car.

The tide wasn't very high, so there wasn't much 'music' happening, but we got to see the

Golden Gate Bridge from there! A little foggy, but hey, at least we got to see it! =)

In order to get to the Wave Organ, you have to pass the Yacht Club, and around there,

we reenacted the Mufasa scene from the Lion King,

frolicked some more,

and saw an odd sign about volleyball playing regulations.

Right across the street from the Yacht Club is the Exploratorium. Even though we missed the closing time of the science museum by mere 10 minutes, we still got to walk around the outside, and boy, was it gorgeous!

Next time we're here, we'll definitely have to check out the Exploratorium itself. It looks like a really fun place to visit,, if you like that nerdy kind of a stuff like me ;)

Do you see the pillars? or women?

The last place on our agenda was the famous squiggly street--the Lombard street.

On our way there, we made another impromptu stop at a little park, and we found a plum tree!!

Lil bro scampered up the tree (it was actually really high, though you can't tell from the pictures) and threw down some plums. They were possibly THE most delicious plums I have ever tasted.

We didn't realize that the easier way would have been for him to shake the tree until he started climbing down and we were bombarded by plums. It actually kinda hurt haha but no pain, no gain, I suppose ;)