Christmas in San Francisco

One last Christmas post to finish the year...

The week before Christmas the girls were on Winter break from school, so we decided to take advantage of their free time and get into the Christmas spirit by heading into the city to visit a few of our favorite festive places. 

Our first destination of the day was the Fairmont Hotel and the giant gingerbread house. To get there we caught the cable car up California Street. We don't take the cable car all that often, but when we do we almost always take the California Street line. It's just as fun as taking the more popular Powell Street lines, but without the huge lines of tourists. We always get an outside seat (or inside if we want) and the views up and down California Street are pretty amazing. That's one hell of a steep street! I always feel like the California Street line is almost like a local secret! It's definitely not as well known with tourists and, even better, the conductor usually doesn't charge up when he sees me holding out our Clipper cards to pay fare. Shh... 

Cable Cars, Ribbons and Hearts

No visit to San Francisco is complete without a ride on the famous cable cars. Last time my parents visited us from Australia we somehow missed taking a ride on a cable car so this time we made sure to fit it in.

Riding the cable cars is definitely a fun novelty, especially if you get to stand on the outside, however as it's at the top of most tourists' "must do" lists there can be a long wait. To avoid the long queues we always avoid the Powell/Mason and Powell/Hyde lines and hop on the California line. While the California line doesn't take passengers to popular tourist destinations like Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli Square or Lombard Street it does have some of the most breathtaking views over the Bay and, in particular, the Bay Bridge. And the best bit? There's never a queue to hop on! 

San Francisco Cable Car Museum

A few weeks back we spent the day playing tourist in San Francisco. We started off the day with a visit to the Cable Car Museum followed by a long walk through Crissy Field to see the SFMOMA On the Go exhibit (which you can see here).

Now if you're going to go to the Cable Car Museum there's only one way to get there: by cable car of course! Ok, so you can get there many other ways too but catching the cable car is definitely the most fun. We hopped on the California line at its start down by Embarcadero and made our way to the museum near the top of Nob Hill. I always suggest to visiting friends that if they want to ride the cable car purely for the fun of riding the cable car then this is the line to choose. There's never a queue and the views down California Street towards the Bay are pretty stunning.