San Francisco, Yosemite, and Monterey, California
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Donna and I visited the Golden Gate City in June of 2017 and spread out and saw Monterrey Bay and Yosemite National Park. Even though it was in the summer San Francisco was still cool enough to wear a light jacket. The city and area are full of scenic views of the Pacific, the iconic Golden Gate Bridge, museums and nature as you go to Yosemite or Monterrey Bay. It can be an expensive city to live in and visit but its a great play to visit and has sights that are not to be missed.
Getting to San Fanscico and transportation
Donna and I flew into San Francisco International Airport on this trip since we got good airfare on Frontier Airlines to the city but there are other options in the area. You could fly into the nearby Oakland, San Jose or a little farther out is Sacramento. We rented a car and also used San Francisco’s BART system rail system. Our hotel was near the airport since the cost was cheaper and at the airport there is a BART station that will take you into downtown. The rail was nice and got us close to the pickup point for a hop-on hop-off bus. You can also take the famous San Francisco cable cars around the downtown area. To get to Monterrey Bay or Yosemite you will need a rental car for sure.
San Francisco City Tour and California Academy of Sciences
Donna and I started our time in San Francisco riding the BART train to Union Square in downtown. There are quite a few shops and restaurants in that area and in the square there are quite a few tourist options. There are several different tour bus companies offering hop-on hop off bus tour or other tours. You can purchase them there or online. There is usually a discount if you purchase them online ahead of time. There are also a couple cable car lines in the area that you can catch to ride the famous San Francisco cable cars. We took the City Sightseeing tour of San Francisco and were able to see much of the City. We went past China Town, the famed Lombard Street (the extremely windy street), the Haight-Ashbury area and many others.
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Donna and I got off at Pier 39 and explored it. There are many shops and restaurants on the pier. There is also a Merry-go-round, arcade and even an aquarium. At the end of the pier you can see famous Alcatraz Island where the former Federal Prison is. An area next to Pier 39 is were you can see many Sea Lion laying on top of docks built for them. There is a small museum you can visit on Pier 39 about the Sea Lions and Seals that is free. We walked a long the bay and stopped for a French Nutella and Banana Crepe at a local cafe. We walked to nearby Fisherman’s Wharf to view the two navy ships you can tour. You can tour the World War II Submarine USS Pampanito and the SS Jeremiah O’Brien (one of the last fully functional liberty ships left). About a mile away you can also go to the Exploratorium museum to interact with Science and experiment. Donna and I were trying to tour as much of the city as we could in one day so we only looked at the outside of the ships and museum. It would be great to go back and visit them and tour them at some point.
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We got back on the Hop-On Hop off bus and we headed to Ghiraradelli. The old Chocolate factory is filled with shops and restaurants and might make a nice stop. We decided to continue of the bus to the Golden Gate Bridge. The day we were touring San Francisco the bay was very foggy so we could only see part of the Golden Gate Bridge. We did not stop to visit the visitors center since the visibility was not good but it would be a good place to stop on a nice day. We then visited the Haight-Ashbury area. Donna and I did not get off the bus but we did see the many interesting stores and colorful buildings of this famous hippie neighborhood in San Francisco. Our next stop on our tour was The Golden Gate Park. The park is huge and has memorials, lakes, fields for sports, lakes and there are also music events held in the park. The San Francisco Arboretum, the de Young Fine Arts museum and the California Academy of Sciences museum. We stopped to tour the California Academy of Sciences. It is a great museum that has a rainforest, exhibits about dinosaurs, Africa, the ocean and many more. There are many interactive exhibits in this large museum. They also have a planetarium at this museum. The roof is very ‘green’ as there are plants and grass growing on it that help keep heating and air conditioning costs down. We really enjoyed the museum and would have liked to have stayed longer. It will take a few hours ti visit the museum. Donna and I ended our hop-on hop off bus tour of San Francisco back in Union Square were we met a good friend of ours to go eat at a local Italian Restaurant in the Italian area of San Francisco. The seafood pasta was great as the bay area has wonderful seafood among many other great food. We then left the San Francisco area to head East towards Yosemite Valley for our next days Adventure.
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Yosemite National Park
Donna and I stayed the night in Modesto, California before our day trip to Yosemite National park. You can drive yourself to the park but parking and lines to get in can be long. We decided to take YARTS bus transportation into Yosemite. They have scheduled service from a variety of cities such as Fresno and Merced, California. We parked at the Merced Transpo and took the couple hour drive to Yosemite National Park (there are stops along the way to pick up other people. You wind through a valley following the Merced River before you get to Yosemite. The area is pretty desolate aside from a variety of lodges and hotels. Once in the park (the YARTS bus skips the entrance line and includes your admission for around $13 each way from Merced) pictures do not do justice to the beauty of the Granite mountains such as El Capitan, and Half Dome, the tall waterfalls, majestic meadows and huge trees. You can hike to the Yosemite Falls from the visitors center and walk many of the other trails. There is a local bus service that will take you to many of the campsites and other stops in the park. In the summer it can get very crowded so give yourself plenty of time. There is a small restaurant and a grocery store at the Yosemite Village but otherwise the eating options are limited in the park. There are shops, museums about the park and Native Americans in the village as well. Outside of the wonderful valley you can visit the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias (it was unfortunately closed due to restoration when we were there) and if you drive out of the valley visit Tuolumne Meadows above the valleys (its a long drive that is only open seasonally due to the high elevation. The Devils Postpile National monument is located East of the park (it would be extremely difficult to visit Yosemite Valley and Devil’s Postpile in one day). We only visited the Valley on this trip.
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Hilmar Cheese Factory and the farm country of California
After our day in Yosemite we stayed in the small city of Turlock and then drove West through the fertile farm country of California to get to Monterey. Passing through the pretty countryside we happened upon the Himlar Cheese Factory and stopped by to look through windows at the factory, view exhibits on cheese making and of course got to try some of their cheese. It was a nice little stop on the way to Monterey.
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Monterey
The city of Monterey is a gorgeous place along side the aquatic treasure trove of Monterey Bay. The city can get very crowded as we found so we parked in a city parking garage and rode a trolley into the main tourist area. We visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium that showcases the sea life found in the bay. There is a great Kelp Forrest and due to the depth of a trench in the bay also deep sea life. You can see sharks, jelly fish, otters and other sea life at this nice aquarium. There is a patio that overlooks the bay so you can see nice views and Sea Lions and other life in their natural habitat. They also have various presentations in their auditorium you can see throughout the day. The Aquarium will take you a couple hours to visit. After the aquarium we visited the shopping area of Cannery Row (formerly canning factories that are now shopping and restaurants). There are quite a few shops and places to eat but we decided to take a quick break to get a Ghirardelli Chocolate Sunday at their store. Instead of taking the trolley back to our car we decided to walk through the parks and the Monterey Old Town District to see it instead. IT was a very nice walk passing many people playing in the parks, Sea Lions relaxing on rocks in the harbor and seeing the Old Spanish buildings such as the custom house. We read the history of the building from the outside but it was closed by the time we got there. We had a nice day in Monterey and could have spent more time there. Its a little bit a of drive South from San Francisco, but if you have the time its a great place to go.
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San Francisco International Airport Aviation Museum
If you get to the airport and have some additional time there is an Aviation museum before security that is a quiet place to see the history of the airport, aviation and special exhibits. There was an exhibit on the Pan Am Flying clipper and an exhibit on flight attendant uniforms over the years. Throughout the airport there are also other exhibits to view.
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Tips for San Francisco and the general area
In San Francisco and the surrounding area the is a lot to do. From great museums, beautiful sights and delicious food you can spend a lot of time here. The hop-hop off bus as well as using BART trains are good ways to get around the city to maximize seeing as much as you can. Come up with a plan ahead of time of things to see so you can see as much as you want to see. Yosemite and Monterey a great places to see as well and I highly recommend them but it will involve some driving and time so you will have to decide if you want to spend the time doing them. If I were to choose one Yosemite would be my choice of a side trip. We only had three days to tour in this case so we crammed as much in as possible and went at a pretty fast pace in this case.