Exploring San Francisco

The last time I was in San Francisco was over 2 years ago, and I have to admit I didn’t get up to much on that layover! This time I was ready to explore this beautiful city once more, and happily found another English girl to spend the day with.

With such a big time difference from Dubai (12 hours!) we were up bright and early and ready to head out. Unfortunately our crew hotel is right by the airport, which means it’s a bit of a journey to get to the city. 

As we were heading out, we bumped into two of the other crew who were also heading into the city, so decided to share an Uber and split the cost between the 4 of us, which made it a lot more affordable and much quicker than getting the train.

After dropping them off, we continued across the bridge for our first stop of the day, where we would go for a short hike to Kirby Cove Beach.

But first… a wonderful view of the famous Golden Gate Bridge!

I don’t think it matters how many times you see it, it’s always spectacular.

The hike down to the beach was signposted, and a nice easy pathway to follow through the woodlands. I even found the perfect walking stick!

Soon we arrived at Kirby Cove, where a few families were out enjoying picnics in the sun, and plenty of dogs were running along the sand.

Originally we both wanted to come to this beach for a specific reason – there’s usually an awesome rope swing which we wanted to get some cool pictures on, but sadly it had been cut down just a few days before.

Luckily we found this pretty awesome tree stump, which was the perfect backdrop for our pictures.


The weather was lovely and sunny, and we were too warm with our winter coats on. 

After a while the two of us started to get a bit peckish, so made our way back up through the woods to the main road. From there it was a short walk down towards a busier area, where we were able to order an Uber to take us to Sausalito for lunch.

Both of us had been to Sausalito before, but it’s such a charming little town that we just wanted to have a wander round in the sunshine.

We picked a restaurant overlooking the water, and got a great spot right by the window for a leisurely lunch.

Although initially we were disappointed to not get a table outside, there were so many chip-stealing seagulls that we were glad to have a table inside!

After lunch, we decided to head to Pier 39. Although both of us had also been here before, we didn’t fancy going shopping (for once!) so thought it would be a nice place for a stroll.

The Christmas decorations were still up, and it seems we weren’t the only ones who wanted to have a walk along the pier, as it was pretty busy.

There was a beautiful pink sunset across the water, and we watched the sea lions on the rocks at the end of the pier.

Eventually we decided it was time to call it a day, and with the jet lag catching up with us, made our back to the hotel.

It was a great leisurely day out in San Francisco, and I’m happy I had the chance to visit this lovely city once again.

On the flight back home we were spoilt even more by an incredible natural phenomenon, the Northern Lights! We flew almost right over the North Pole, and watching these spectacular dancing colours was just the most incredible treat. Photos can’t do them justice!

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