San Francisco Trip

Well let’s start off staying the trip was 3 nights and 4 days. We were pretty busy but we had a lot of fun. We left Dallas Texas on Virgin American airlines and this was probably the best air plane flight experience I have ever had. The employees were very happy and upbeat and they were not faking it they generally were happy. When you stepped onto the plane it felt like a disco tech with the pink and blue florescent lighting. All the seats were leather and every seat had a TV set installed. This was great since you had many choices to choose from food, music, movies, TV shows, drinks. Yes you had to pay for some, but there were complimentary drinks, snacks, music, movies, TV shows, and video games for kids. The selection was very rounded and pretty much could satisfy anyone wants, the food was good and even the environment on the planes had a positive energy to it. Seating was better for me since I'm 6ft 3in and 300 lbs I didn't feel like a sardine waiting for someone to peel the top open so I can get out, I actually had some room and I was comfortable the hole flight. We left from Dallas / Fort Worth, Texas on time and arrived on time in San Francisco, California and the hole flight went just like it should. Virgin America is defiantly an experience and for me if every Virgin flight is like this I want to fly Virgin where ever we go, if Virgin is flying there that’s who we are taking. Thanks Virgin America for your service to your customers.

We stayed in downtown San Francisco at a bed and breakfast called Haynes Valley Inn and it was nice. It was a very old building but very clean and it was in a European style which meant you share the bathroom and shower with all the guest on that floor. It wasn't a inconvenience at all and this was my first experience in this type of place. Every morning they had a continental breakfast from 7am to 9am which consisted of bagels, cereal, fresh fruit, juice, milk coffee, muffins, oatmeal, toast, peanut butter, jelly, lunch meat and cheese. Then from 3pm to 9pm they had cookies, coffee, tea available. The employees were very cordial and helpful with information about getting around in the city. We were told not to rent a car since there were so many ways to get around in San Francisco and they really got it down on transportation that’s for sure.

We couldn't check in real early since the room wasn't ready but we were able to leave our luggage and we went out walking in the city. The Inn said we are in a great location for food and we found out later that day. For lunch we stopped and a Patxi's Chicago Pizza and we actual tried a vegan pizza Now I'm not a vegan I'm a meat eater but my daughter was with me so we ordered something that she might like and let me say this, the pizza was delicious and it consisted of spinach, crushed garlic, red onions, and Daiya vegan cheese on a whole wheat crust and it tasted great

After eating we went back to the Hayes Valley Inn and were able to go to are room early so when we opened our door this is what we saw. It was a small room but able to have 2 twin beds in it. The beds were not supper fantastic. However if you are walking the city all day it really doesn’t matter because you will sleep if you’re like me. That I would say is probably the only negative with Hayes Valley Inn other than that it was great. We both enjoyed ourselves the whole time there. There were many restaurants we went to that were very close to the Inn we were staying in. Here they are names and the links to the their sites Lersos Thai food and was a very nice place to eat and to food was very fresh and had a great taste. Flippers where we had hamburgers and let me say it was tasty I had the Mediterranean burger and was good. Tartine Cafe Francais where we had breakfast one morning just because I wanted some bacon and it was a good portions with eggs and potatoes, and my daughter had bagel and some tea. 

On Sunday we went for a walk for about a half mile and we had an idea where we were going but had no idea really how to get there we walker down Market Street and made it to a shopping district and noticed the trolley and asked a few people questions. A gentleman showed us the ticket booth and told us to by a Day pass which was $14.00 per person but it covered all buses and trolleys in the entire city. We got around by asking the trolley and bust drivers how to get to where we wanted to go and they all were happy to give us advice and directions for the city transportation. They all were very helpful which made the trip much better. However when we come back I will probably rent a GoCar it's basically a 3 wheel motor cycle that you can sit in like a care, this way we can go more places because of time. If you want to see how they turn the trolly's around when they get to the end of there track just click on the picture of the trolly and it takes you to a video link.

We made it to Pier 39 and had lunch, we shopped and saw seals playing and fighting at the end of the pier. Pier 39 is basically where you go to get a tours of Alcatraz, Bay Tours, Speed Boat Tours, Whale Tours, basically any tour you want it can be found here. The only advice I can say is plan ahead. If you wait till you arrive you may not be able to do a Alcatraz tour or some of the others just because they are so popular. So plan ahead and book tickets in advance you will thank me later. We saw the seals so we decided to watch them and this is what we were looking at. To watch a video of the seals just lock on the picture of the seals.

After being at Pier 39 for a while we decided to start heading to the Golden Gate Bridge from Pier 39 you take Bus 30 then get on Bus 28 just ask the drivers to tell you where to get off, again they are very helpful so ask questions. There is an app in android and I'm sure theirs on for the apple phone but for the android look up MUNISF. Here is a link to SFMTA for bus routes for the trolly and bus services. We made it to the Golden Gate Bridge in about 20 minutes by bus and the Golden Gate Bridge was amazing to see it was so BIG and of course we took pictures and walked half way across the bridge it was windy and cold that day you may be able to tell by the picture here are a few. This was a great trip and we saw a lot and again we didn't rent a car and if you do expect to spend about $5.00 and hour for parking and about $15.00 to $20.00 dollars a night in a fenced in parking lot that may be a couple of blocks away from your hotel.


Finally I want to say thank you Rovia Travel for all my travel arrangements it went very smooth. If you would like to be a part of this great travel club just click dreamtripslife page and watch the Joe Traveler video it pretty cool and explain a lot, and I know I will be making another trip to San Francisco, California and that trip will we will be going to Napa Valley on a wine tasting tour along with seeing more of San Francisco so until then happy Travels.