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Trip to San Francisco - The Best Stops & Shops at Pier 39

Sunday, November 4, 2018



Hey Friends!
While we were in San Francisco we decided we had better make a trip to the famous Pier 39. Here we visited the sunning Sea Lions and walked around browsing all of the cute little shops. It was an absolutely gorgeous day for it. If you are in the area I would suggest making a trip here. Parking was a breeze for us luckily, we found a spot about a block away, for free. I would suggest taking the cable car down to the pier if you can, that way you can avoid having to deal with parking.
The pier had so many shops, we weren't really in the mood for shopping so we ended up only visiting a few spots. I don't enjoy looking through all of the nick nacky shops, and the kids really do not enjoy shopping, let alone "window shopping". This is our list of the best places/things to check out (with kids) at the pier.


Sea Lions

For some reason, the Sea Lions all like to gather on the open docks at the pier. There are hundreds of them, all squawking and flopping around; fighting for their perfect spot in the sunshine. Leighton & Kade both enjoyed walking the pier and watching the Sea Lions yell and knock eachother off the docks. They are entertaining, to say the least. This is also a good sightseeing stop, as it is just across from Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. 






Candy Baron

The first shop daddy spotted was the giant candy shop, Candy Baron. The nostalgic shop had buckets and buckets of salt water taffy and other bulk candies. It was obviously a huge hit with the kids, although the adults had fun finding their old childhood favorites as well. My favorite was always lemon heads and jawbreakers! Do you remember those things? I passed on the jawbreaker ( it was HUGE), and grabbed a few lemon heads instead. We ended up all picking out a few candies to have to eat throughout the trip. The prices were a bit steep, (as is everything else in the city) but the experience was fun.




The Carousel 

Just down from the candy shop, we spotted this giant two level carousel. It was $5 for one token or $10 for three, and it cost 1 token per person to ride. Ty's dad decided he would take the kids on; I get motion sickness fairly easily and Ty was still enjoying his spoils from Candy Baron. The kids loved it and it lasted quite a while. TIP: Bring cash, because not all debit/credit cards were accepted, only certain banks.  


Houdini's Magic Shop

Unfortunately I didn't get a very good picture from this place. We walked in and were the only customers in the shop. Immediately Leighton went up to the counter and asked the guy if he knew any magic tricks, since it was a magic shop after all. He said he did, then proceeded to do three different tricks for us and the kids. The guy was so freindly and fun with the kids it was great; he even let them use a "magic wand" to help him complete some of the tricks. The shop had tricks for all ages and interests. We didn't end up purchasing any, but included with each purchase is a private lesson on how to perform the trick. You got to go into a separate V.I.P. room where they would teach you. Pretty cool if you ask me!


Pier 40

It is just a short walk down the street to Pier 40. There you will see massive ships and submarines on display, as well as small maritime museum and some other historical info. If you want to actually board the boats and submarines, you need to purchase an actual ticket; but our kids found it entertaining enough to just walk by them and look from the outside, so we just enjoyed that. Leighton has recently become more comfortable with reading, so it was fun for her to stop and read some of the things to us aloud. 




Lombard Street

This last one is not at Pier 39 but is just a short drive from there. Lombard street is a famous street in San Francisco. It is known for it's one block section of hairpin turns. It is said to be the most crooked street in the world! The view from the top is pretty cool. Ty and I got out and walked down the street, and the kids and Ty's dad drove down to meet us at the bottom. The brick lined street was very neat to see; I tried to walk down the middle of the street to get a quick picture, but was quickly, and loudly reminded by a nearby "guard", that no one is allowed to walk on the street. The kids described the ride down as "like a roller coaster".  The first picture is from the very top of the street, and the second is just a neat looking house I noticed along the road. 





I know it's a short list, but like I said above, it worked best for us to avoid the lengthy window shopping and keep them engaged. The one thing we did not do while we were there was eat. It looked like there were quite a few fun little places to stop and grab a bite. Have any of you been to any you would recommend? Id love to know for next time, and someone else reading this might, too! Thanks for reading, as always!

-Kaci



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