A Tuk Tuk Tour of San Francisco with Dylan's Tours

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Dylan's Tours. 

One of my favorite things about living in the San Francisco Bay Area is that there are so many amazing places right here in our own back yard to explore. We've got it all here. Natural beauty, historical sites, cultural and artistic highlights, delicious food and fresh local produce, amazing architecture, inquisitive wildlife, fun playgrounds and parks... And so much of this can be found right within the 49 square miles that make up San Francisco itself.  

With San Francisco just a short train ride across the Bay (or rather, under it) we like to spend a lot of our free time out and about exploring the city. Usually we'll pick just one particular place to explore and we'll do it on our own, discovering new (to us) things along the way. Every now and then it's nice to play tourist for real and let the experts show us around.

A few weeks back the kids had a day off school so we decided to go play tourist in San Francisco with a tour of the city. But it wasn't a tour bus that took us around this beautiful city, it was something much more fun: a tuk tuk! How cool is that? 

Thanks to Dylan's Tours we spent the afternoon exploring the city with the wind in our hair (literally!) as our very own tour guide drove us around the city pointing out highlights and regaling us with stories of the city's past and present. Even though we've lived in the Bay Area for seven years now and are pretty familiar with the city, we still learned so much that was new to us. With the open sides and low speed of this fun three wheeled vehicle we were able to see so much more than we would have in a car or bus. The kids decided that this needs to be our new mode of transport and tried to convince me to buy a tuk tuk for ourselves! 

Dylan's Tours are fully customizable, visiting pretty much any area of the city that you choose. We decided to go for the standard tour that took us to most of the popular tourist sites including Chinatown, North Beach, Lombard Street, Palace of Fine Arts, Crissy Field, the Presidio, Nob Hill, Union Square, and the Ferry Building where we started and ended our fun adventure. We chose the Ferry Building as our pick up point for our tour as it's nice and handy to Embarcadero Bart Station and is a great place to pick up snacks for the ride, but you can select pretty much anywhere in the city as your pick up point, including hotels. 

Junior Ranger Jamboree

This past weekend the girls and I headed to San Francisco's Crissy Field for a 100th birthday party.

Just who was turning 100? The National Park Service!

We're big fans of America's National Parks so the kids and I were pretty excited when we heard that there would be a Junior Ranger Jamboree to celebrate the centenary. Every time we visit a National Park Ava and Lola make sure to take part in the Junior Ranger program and earn themselves a badge. When they found out that they could earn a special badge by attending the jamboree they were all over it!

Spring Adventures with Fruit Shoot

This past weekend the girls and I spent an afternoon at Crissy Field, one of our favorite places for a little outdoor fun in San Francisco..

It was a pretty rainy and grey day, but that didn't stop the girls from having fun on the beach! With their raincoats on and their backpacks full of snacks and drinks they were ready for anything. And seriously, with the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge as the backdrop to their playing, nothing could put a dampener on their spirits.

While it was too cold to actually go in the water (which is almost always true of San Francisco!), it was the perfect day for running from the small waves as they crashed onto the beach. Isn't every day? My girls can entertain themselves for hours running from the waves. With the Golden Gate Bridge in the background in one direction, and Alcatraz in the other, I was happy to just sit back on the wet sand and watch, while listening to the sound of the girls' laughter ringing through the air. Ah, the glorious sound of happy children.

Fun in Crissy Field

A few weeks back we spent a day in the city playing tourist. We caught a cable car, visited San Francisco Cable Car Museum and then headed to Crissy Field to see the SFMOMA On the Go exhibit featuring sculptures by Mark di Suvero. 

While we were out and about the girls had lots of fun running about through Fort Mason, Marina Green and Crissy Field, taking in the sights of the Golden Gate Bridge and the city skyline, and were excited to see sealions swimming in the bay. I've already shared posts about our visits to the Cable Car Museum and SFMOMA On the Go but today I thought I'd share some of the extra photos that were taken of the girls having fun - and mostly goofing about!

Fun in Crissy Field

SFMOMA On the Go at Crissy Field

Over the weekend we headed into the city to check out a few places we've been meaning to visit. Our first destination was the San Francisco Cable Car Museum (which I'll write about in another post soon) and our second destination was Crissy Field down by the Golden Gate Bridge.

We've visited Crissy Field quite a few times in the past though I don't think I've ever written about it on Little Hiccups. While Crissy Field is a great park with spectacular views over the Bay and Golden Gate Bridge, and therefore a popular tourist destination in its own right the reason for our visit this weekend was specifically to check out an outdoor art exhibition. Back in June last year SF Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) closed its doors due to extensive building renovations set to be completed in 2016. While the museum is closed SFMOMA will continue to hold exhibitions around the Bay Area as part of their SFMOMA On the Go program.

The expansive grassy park that is Crissy Field is currently home to one such exhibition featuring eight large sculptures by artist Mark di Suvero. The monumental sculptures date from 1967 through to 2012 and have been brought to San Francisco from all across the country. The Golden Gate Bridge, which has clearly been an inspiration throughout the artist's career makes the perfect back drop to this exhibition.