The second day of our trip to San Francisco had us doing a number of very touristy things starting bright and early in the morning.

First up was a visit to the very best breakfast spot in all of San Francisco: Dottie’s True Blue Cafe. There’s always a line waiting outside, so early arrival is a must. While waiting we were entertained by a variety of, uh, “characters” floating up the hill from the Tenderloin. As you can see, Emma and Henry were delighted by breakfast, especially the hot chocolate.

Next stop was riding the trolley. The kids were both absolutely enraptured by the trolleys going up and down the street. They ended up much of the rest of the trip pretending to be “ding ding” trolleys, a game that continues still over four months later.

We took the Powell and Hyde Street trolley all the way across the city, cresting Nob and Russian hills, before disembarking at the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park. The tall ships were amazing and the kids loved crawling up and down the ladders. This park is a must if you’ve got kids and are in S.F.

From there we strolled down the Wharf and met an old friend (Joost Loijens) and his new wife-to-be for an early dinner. We wrapped up the day with a few treats from Ghriadelli Square and then headed back to base camp in Union Square… via trolley, of course!