San Jose, California was our specific destination for this trip because we went to a Seattle Kraken away game against the San Jose Sharks. When I was doing my initial research, I decided that visiting San Francisco as well would be quite do-able because it is about an hour away from San Jose. Because of this, we chose to stay at the Homewood Inn and Suites at Belmont, which is roughly in-between San Jose and San Francisco.
Day 0:
We flew into San Jose International Airport (SJC) on a Friday evening. This gave us time to pick up the car rental, drive to Belmont, and grab a bite to eat before heading to bed at a reasonable time to be well rested for the Day 1. Whenever possible, we stay at a Hilton brand hotel that offers free breakfast, and for our family until Hayden stops traveling with us, we aim for Homewood Inn and Suites or Embassy Suites because they are like small apartments (with free breakfast) with the pull out couch in an entirely different room. It gives all of us the privacy we desire with plenty of space to spread out.
Day 1:
Our day started with an hour drive to Muir Woods National Monument to walk through some redwood trees. You must pay for parking in advance because parking entry is based on a timed system. This standard vehicle parking reservation will cost you $9 and you make the reservation online. There are also shuttles available or you can book a group tour, many of which will include wine tasting.
Muir Woods National Monument does require payment for entry (in addition to the parking fee), but if you have The America the Beautiful – The National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass, you are covered. If you don’t, it’ll cost you $15 per adult (children under 15 are free), or you can buy either the The America the Beautiful – The National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass or the Muir Woods Annual Pass.
We did the Redwoods Creek Trail (aka Main Trail or 4 Bridges Trail) behind the visitors center, which is a loop trail that’ll take between 90 to 120 minutes to leisurely walk through. I do recommend doing this trail if you are not looking to spend all day in the park doing traditional hikes, but if you are, visit National Park Service for Muir Woods National Monument online. This whole trail is paved and wheelchair accessible, with the park open from 8 am to sunset daily.
Afterwards, we drove over to San Francisco and parked near Chinatown. During a previous visit we got dim sum at Delicious Dim Sum so it was the first place Mark wanted to return back to, so we did. You can get A LOT of dim sum for little money. The downside? There isn’t anywhere to sit down and eat, so unless you have a plan on where to eat your dim sum, you’ll be like us just standing off to the side scarfing it down. Side Note: The Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory is across the street, down the alley.
Since this was Hayden’s first visit, we decided to head down to Fisherman’s Wharf, but parking can be challenging in San Francisco, we opted to take a ride share. Once we got there we didn’t really have a plan, so we went into Musée Mécanique and had an hour of laughter and fun with $10 shared between the three of us. It is free to enter and they have ATMs on site, as well as a quarter machine. Most of the non-modern machines (which is the majority of the establishment) are only $.25 – $.50 each.
Next up, we leisurely walked down to Pier 39 to stroll through the shops and check out the sea lions that have taken over the pier. We didn’t stay long because we were getting thirsty, and for whatever reason we couldn’t locate somewhere to buy a bottle of water without a massive line. We summoned our ride share to our parked car and headed over to Battery Spencer for views of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco.
Initially, there was no traffic heading to Battery Spencer, but once we went through the round-a-bout it was like a parking lot and it is one way traffic. People were parking quite a ways back in any open parking space (and sometimes creating parking spaces that shouldn’t be) and started walking down to Battery Spencer.
I am here to tell you to not do that.
Why? Not only is it not safe and there isn’t a designated space for pedestrians to walk, but by the time you actually get near Battery Spencer, there will likely be ample parallel parking available and there is a parking lot even further down the hill. So many people got desperate though, that they noticed the line of traffic they were in, parked as soon as possible, and then easily had to walk a half mile, to a mile, to get to the view point… which means they also have to walk back when they are done because it is one way traffic.
I personally had come to terms that we were not going to be able to stop at Battery Spencer, but by the time we actually got to the area we parked with no issue and with several more spaces around us. I would only recommend this stop if you have a vehicle. I read on other blogs that it is rare for a ride share to accept a ride to get here because of the traffic, but it is even more rare for a ride share to accept a ride starting from here. I can’t verify that, but I can definitely say from my personal experience and observation that that is likely very true; especially at sunset.
After our visit to Battery Spencer, we drove back to Belmont where we ended our night at Alpha Acid Brewing Co. for dinner. Alpha Acid Brewing Co. isn’t a restaurant, but they have rotating vendors that come and we we fortunate to grab pizzas from La Fenice Pizza. The customer service from both establishments was top notch and I highly recommend. Even Hayden enjoyed the atmosphere.
Day 2:
We started our day by visiting the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose. You might think at first that a stop here is touristy, and although it is, it still is very fascinating learning about the history of Sarah Winchester’s home and why it is the way it is. A tour here will take about 2 hours of your time.
After our visit to the Winchester Mystery House, we popped over to Hapa’s Brewing Company (which has a rotating food truck out front) for lunch and then we drove over to Rocko’s Ice Cream Tacos for a little sweet treat.
Once we were done, we plugged into GPS directions to Pescadero Point on the coast and stopped off at all of the scenic spots between there and Santa Cruz. I highly recommend this approach. It’s such a beautiful drive with some awesome sights along the way. The sun was setting once we arrived to Santa Cruz (keep in mind that this was a February trip, so daylight was not our friend), but we explored leisurely explored the wharf and got dinner at Makai before we headed back to our hotel for the night.
Day 3:
Our third day was the reason why we were in the Bay Area for the weekend and that is because this was the day of the Kraken vs. Sharks hockey game! Kraken lost 4 to 0 and we aren’t gonna talk about that. But, here are my recommendations if you too are visiting SAP Center for the first time:
- If driving, buy parking in advance at ParkMobile online.
- Once parked, which you can do 2.5 hours before the event, walk over to Whole Foods down the street for a snack and a pre-game drink. You are allowed to buy alcoholic beverages and then drink them in their designated outdoor space, so there is no need to pay for an overpriced bar drink.
- If you are visiting SAP Center for a hockey game because your team is playing an away game there, don’t forget to head over to their side of the ice for warm ups.
- Even if you have the cutest kid with you, it is not likely that you will be given a puck, and that is because after warm ups all of the pucks from both teams are collected and immediately taken down to the team store to be sold. So, if you are collecting pucks like us, you also need to immediately head down to the team store to purchase one.
- There are lots of food options to pick from, but the lines can and do get long.
After the game we drove back to our hotel, freshened up, and then got dinner at an amazing Mexican restaurant, La Fonda, in Redwood City. Everything we ate and drank as a 10/10 and this is one place I am bookmarking forever so I can revisit one day. The perfect ending to a lovely weekend getaway to the Bay Area.
Until next time!
Wanderland Jess 