I have been really fortunate to recently start traveling a little bit for work. I have been assisting the Events team at work with some events, some of them being conferences in different cities in the U.S. I got to go to Chicago in May for Microsoft Ignite and I am currently in San Francisco for VMworld. It’s really fun to go to these conferences and interact with our customers and explain to non-customers who we are. I have never been to San Francisco before, so I made sure to get an early flight there on Saturday so I had time to explore with a couple of my coworkers. We didn’t have tons of time to see the city, but we managed to squeeze in a few cool places before we had to work.
Our first stop was the Ferry Building, which is right behind my hotel. I love this place. It has a bunch of cool shops and restaurants inside and has a market type feel. It is right on the water and overlooks the Bay Bridge. We stopped in for some Blue Bottle Coffee to fuel up on some caffeine after our early flight.
Next, we headed to Fisherman’s Wharf. Some people are against super touristy places like this, but I think everyone should experience them at least once. It was definitely an area geared towards tourists, but I loved walking around and seeing the street performers and shops. At Fishermans Wharf, you can see Alcatraz, the city, and my favorite– sea lions!
We then headed over to Ghirardelli Square real fast. There wasn’t much to see there, but they did have some cool gift shops (I avoided them because I knew I would buy too much if I went in) and of course the Ghirardelli store! We went in there to check it out and they hand you a free piece of chocolate when you walk in, so we loved that. They also have a machine making chocolate inside which was neat.
Our next stop was the Golden Gate Bridge. While it was sunny out at this point, there was an insane amount of fog covering the bridge, so unfortunately we couldn’t see it. We did get a great view of the city from the spot we were at though!
We were pretty bummed about the bridge, but promised to try again the next day. After our sight seeing it was time to go set up the booth, so we headed to Moscone. The next morning, I got up early to go to the Ferry Building for breakfast and witnessed a pretty cool sunrise. I got a latte from Blue Bottle and also one of their famous waffles. It is a made to order Belgian waffle with carmelized sugar. It was so good. I then headed to our booth to finish set up.
After we finished setting up, we had a few hours to do whatever we wanted, so a bunch of us headed to the Golden Gate Bridge again. I am so glad we did, because this time you could see the bridge clearly. It was so beautiful!
After the bridge, some of us headed back to the Ferry Building for some ice cream at Humphry Slocombe. We had walked over 6 miles, so we deserved a little treat. I got the Peanut Butter Fudge Ripple flavor and it was super delicious. I highly recommend stopping there if you’re in San Francisco.
The rest of the trip will be all business, but I am thankful for the few sights I got to see before I had to work. I am looking forward to bringing Adam here in the future to see the rest of the sights!
Kathryn, these pictures belong in a magazine. I love to follow your adventures 🙂