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Thursday 18th August
We were all awake fairly early again this morning. Our last day in San Francisco before heading off on our cruise to Alaska. We decided to go to the Wipeout Bar and Grill for breakfast – one of the few places on Pier 39 open for breakfast. Callum and I both had omelettes and Jon the Californian Breakfast – eggs over easy, bacon and breakfast potatoes. All really good. From here, we wandered down Pier 39 to see the sea lions – still there and more lively than on the first day. Several were in the water trying to get on the platforms. As soon as they did, they were pushed back into the water by the incumbent sea lions. They were there to entertain this morning – and entertain they did.
Our next stop was at the Aquarium of the Bay – home to species of fish and sharks native to the Bay area. Leopard Sharks, Taupe Sharks, shoals of anchovies and rays. There were touch pools where you could touch the wings of the Bat Rays (felt slimy) and a small shark (felt like sand paper). Another pool, you could touch the starfish, urchins and sea cucumbers. In other exhibits there were turtles, snakes and frogs. Not a huge aquarium but good to see what is in the surrounding waters.
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For lunch we went back to Castagnolas and got a table overlooking Jefferson Street and the trams (Callum’s request). Jon and I both had Clam Chowder and Callum chose the Lobster Bisque. All served in a sourdough bread bun.
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Callum really wanted to ride one of the trams so as the stop was close by, we caught one and went along Embarcadero to the Ferry Buildings near the Bay Bridge. From here we walked to the Transamerica Pyramid (or the cheese grater as Callum called it). He was fascinated by it and you could see it from most of the city. It’s one of the iconic buildings of San Francisco. From here we walked along Embarcadero to Pier 39. We stopped at Pier 27 as this was where we would be boarding Grand Princess. Everything was ready for ship to arrive in the early hours of the morning.
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We carried on round and picked up a Ben & Jerry’s Cookie Dough ice-cream for Callum on the way past Pier 39. We decided to try Scomas on Pier 47 for dinner this evening. Jon tried and failed to book a table (wouldn’t accept a UK mobile number), so we chanced it and just walked around the corner of a hotel. From the outside it doesn’t look much – a prefabricated style building on a pier, but inside was warm and welcoming. We had a 45 minute wait for a table and hoped the food would be worth it. It was getting a little late, so went straight for mains. Callum had shrimp off the kids menu, and Jon and I shared a plate of Grilled Mixed Fish (Swordfish, Alaskan Salmon and Cod) and a plate of Battered fish and shrimp. All very tasty. For pudding we shared a tirimisu between the three of us – it was huge and once again, really good.
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We all enjoyed the meal so much we booked a table for our last night in San Francisco. Back to the hotel to finish off packing and getting everything ready for the off in the morning. Callum was very excited but thankfully fell asleep really quickly.
