San Francisco Vacation: Fisherman’s Wharf
What’s a trip to San Francisco without a stop at Fishermans Wharf right? It’s simply unheard of. Well, I thought that Fishermans Wharf is just a short stretch but it is not, especially when we started off at the Ghirardelli Square and cover all the way to Pier 33 (??) where we took the ferry to Alcatraz.
The centre piece of Fishermans Wharf is undoubtedly Pier 39. To us, it’s nothing more than a place with lots of unique shops which we have no plans for shopping. It’s basically a touristy area. I was wondering if many locals actually come here to shop and eat.
There are endless things to see here. We did not get as much time to enjoy all these performances as we liked.
On the other side of the Pier are shops, restaurants and other attractions like Ripley’s Believe it or Not and other small museums.
The Hyde Street Pier is a slower and much less crowded. It’s like a museum of sort here and is actually designated as a National Park … right in the middle of the hustle and bustle of Fishermans Wharf.
The famous Bushman was at work when we were there. We saw him on TV before and were glad to see him in person. He sits behind some bushes and tries to startle people walking past. For some reason, it never ceases to entertain people. People actually tip him for startling them.
Believe it or not, I heard that he had been doing this for over 20 years already. I wonder how much he makes.
We got Nanzaro’s caricature done because it was so unbelievably cheap. It’s just $2.75 and an extra $1 for color.
We also took the historic streetcars which operates on the F line. We got a kick out of having to travel in these type of retro cars. It could be confusing to tourists but all these varied forms of transportation lends a lot of character to the city.
We’ll share more about things we do and see in Fishermans Wharf over the next few days.
Categorized Under: San Francisco 2007
I’ve enjoyed your vacation pictures so much! I grew up about 20 mins south of San Francisco (near the airport) and still have never been to Alcatraz! Looks like you’ve had a wonderful vacation!!
Hi, My first time here, and I’m so glad to see pics of my town..well almost;I live in Fremont, but we are frequent SF travellers!! I love food at Hard Rock Cafe on Pier 39, and the fresh strawberries and cherries with chocolate dipping sauce at fisherman’s warf are amazing!!!!
I was at Pier 39 just in January and I really liked it. Like most tourist sites though, they will try to gouge you for everything. Dinner for 3 at the Crab House was $80usd and we are talking small sizes here.
I haven’t been down to Pier 39 since 1998, but when we went we saw what appeared to be a gold statue, and someone put a coin in the cup at the base of this “statue”…and it moved! I jumped about 20 feet in the air! It’s really interesting what some of the people on the Pier do for money!