San Francisco here we come!

We left Big Basin a little reluctantly but were very excited to see San Francisco! Having never stayed in an rv in San Francisco, we relied on internet information to try to find a park close to the city in a (hopefully) safe area.

We decided on the San Francisco RV Resort in Pacifica, California. We were simply looking for a safe place to park our RV while we explored the city. We did get that. The park is gated and fenced in, and is basically a very large parking lot right on the water. We chose an inland space (more affordable), but unfortunately these back directly up to the busy freeway. The traffic noise was VERY loud. After talking to the host, we found out that Premium Inland spaces ($16 more per night) were away from the traffic, but none were available for us. The ocean view spaces were beautiful, but had no hook-ups. There were also "long term" spaces where it appeared that several people were living in their rv's in the park. It would make reservations so much easier if the park would just put a map (with pricing) on their website. It's not user-friendly or clear what you are purchasing at all. They also advertised free Wi-fi, and we were right next to the office, yet could not connect once during our entire stay there. They had open access, with no passwords required, so anyone could connect. It was worthless. Even when my kids were up very early in the morning, we couldn't connect, and I doubt there were many other campers trying to access the web at 5:30 am. Regardless, the campground was clean, and safe, and much cheaper than a hotel, so it did work well for us. It's very nice to have unlimited water and power when traveling in a city every day with the kids. For this I was very thankful!

We arrived late in the afternoon, so my brave hubby and I decided to try to drive into the city and kind of get our bearings for exploring the next few days. He glanced at a map, and I helped him navigate along the coast right to the base of the Golden Gate Bridge!

He did great, and got us there safe and sound. It was a dark and foggy afternoon in San Fran, but we were expecting that type of weather. We parked in the Battery East Parking lot, just steps away from the bridge.

Lots of very nice walking and biking paths

A myriad of walking and biking paths led us to historic battle sites. I would have loved to have read more about them, had I not had a manic two year old dragging from my arm, or leg, or piggybacking on me. Just the reality. But still very worth it!

The kids were wild with excitement, especially our littlest who couldn't even stand still for a picture.

Oh well, crazy with happiness is a good thing, right? 

We found a very good parking lot that was easy to park the rv in, and close enough to explore the city. We planned to take the B.A.R.T. to the city for the first day, and ride cable cars. However, if we decided to drive our RV in, we wanted to know where to park before getting stuck in daytime traffic congestion. The spaces in the lot were large enough to easily fit in, and there were no signs prohibiting rv's. All good news! We drove the r.v. to the B.A.R.T. (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station closest to us, just to confirm that there was parking available. Everything checked out, so we were very ready for our day of exploration the following day!