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toddler travel: activities in san francisco

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Our recent trip to San Francisco was really a work trip for Andrew, but Alma and I tagged along.  We were only visiting during the work week, so Alma and I were on our own for much of the day.  We stayed downtown in the Rincon Hill neighborhood at an Airbnb condo, since it was within walking distance to Andrew’s office.

I had to spend a lot of time scouring the internet to figure out activities that were toddler friendly in downtown San Francisco.  So, I thought I’d share what we found.  Since we didn’t rent a car while we were there (I’m too much of a nervous driver in new/big cities), I looked for things within walking distance or short bus/BART rides from our condo.  Here’s what we did:

1. Yerba Buena Gardens: There is so much to explore here!  The gardens take up two city blocks.  The main gardens feature some beautiful fountains, but we focused our visit on the Children’s Garden.  We checked out the playground first, but most of the equipment was designed for the 5 or older crowd.  They did have a sand pit and a water feature that are great for the toddler age, but we didn’t get to enjoy them due to overcrowding of some school groups that were there.  Next time!

Instead, Alma enjoyed just running around in the grass, and finding kids to say ‘hi’ to.

After she stretched her legs for a bit, we walked over to the carousel.  For $4**, we got to ride the carousel twice, and Alma LOVED it!  She had fun walking around the carousel, picking out which animal to ride on.  And of course, the ride itself elicited many squeals and grins.

happy girl!

After the carousel, I wanted to give Alma more time to explore since the playground was a bust, but we needed some shade from the sun.  So we ducked into the…

2. Children’s Creativity Museum: Initially, I wasn’t planning on taking her there, because their website described most areas of the museum as suitable for ages 3 and up.  But I decided to just pop in and take a look around to see what they had.  I’m glad I did because they had two large rooms that were perfect for a young toddler to explore.

One room was filled with musical instruments, big cushions, and a few blocks.  It was dome-shaped, so the acoustics were nice.  Alma really loved playing in this area.

drumming

more drumming

and stacking

The other room was sort of multi-purpose, with different “stations”.  One area had a wide slide, and facing the slide was a t.v. that kids could use to record themselves going down the slide, and play it back.  Super fun!  Other areas included:

  • a dress up/puppet corner
  • an art area with markers, dot paint, tape, paper scraps, and the like
  • a few tables with play foam and rollers
  • a big area that had a magnet board with geometric magnets, as well as some legos and building blocks
  • a reading nook
  • a few other little areas that we didn’t explore!

magnets

slide

blocks/legos

The museum has a spiral ramp that you can walk up to reach different studios (animation, music, design, etc) that are geared for ages 3 and up, but Alma had fun just walking up and down the ramp.  Along the walls they have an art exhibit that was fun to look at while we walked up and down.

If we lived in San Francisco, we probably wouldn’t go there often until Alma was older, but it was great for a quick visit to keep my toddler occupied indoors for an hour+.

(**If you plan on going to both the museum and the carousel, you can get $1 off the carousel ride if you show your admission ticket from the museum.)

3. Aquarium of the Bay: Alma and I hopped on the street car on our third day of vacation to visit the Aquarium of the Bay.  (I didn’t know this then, but if you show them a valid Bay Area public transportation pass or transfer, you get $2 off an adult admission, and $1 of a child/senior admission – bummed I missed that deal!)

Honestly, I was a little underwhelmed at this aquarium.  The underwater tunnels were definitely the highlight of the visit, and the jellyfish were beautiful, but everything else was kind of ‘meh’.  Alma had a lot of fun, though!  When we visited, they were working on a new exhibit featuring seals or sea lions (can’t remember which).

shark tunnel

alma was pretty mesmerized with these guys

They had a few touch pools, and Alma enjoyed feeling some starfish. The sharks were eating, so that touch pool was off limits when we were there.

starfish

It didn’t take us long to make our way through the aquarium, but luckily it is right on Pier 39, so we strolled through the pier and poked inside a few shops.  There is also a big carousel on Pier 39, but I didn’t have cash, and we needed to start heading back to the condo.

4. San Francisco Ferry Building Marketplace: This was a great place to let Alma stretch her legs.  In addition to several food & drink vendors inside the market place open daily, the ferry building hosts a farmer’s market on Tues/Thurs/Saturday’s.  We picked up a few snacks inside the building, then headed outside to check out the bay.  There was so much space for Alma to roam.  Granted, there is no formal kids play structure or anything, but Alma is happy to just run anywhere!  She loved looking out on the water, too.

5. Ferry rides: While you’re at the Ferry Building, you might as well take a ferry ride!  One of Andrew’s co-workers suggested taking the ferry ride to Sausalito, which you can get to via the Golden Gate Ferry.  Apparently, it is ranked the 2nd best ferry ride in the world!

I wish we had the time to take that ride, but instead we rode out to Oakland to visit with a mama I ‘met’ via blogging (she blogs at Vegan Beauty Review, check her out!). I’m sure to Alma it was all the same!  We parked the stroller on the main floor of the ferry, and headed up to the top.  Alma bounced around from the indoor seating area, to the outdoor area.  She didn’t want to stay still while we were riding, but she did enjoy the ride.

We really only had 3 full days to fit all this in, since the first day we hit up Whole Foods for groceries and caught up on sleep, and the last day we packed up in the morning and then had to head straight to the airport.  So I think we managed to see a lot of sites for just three days!

I was a little bummed that we didn’t make it to Golden Gate Park, since there is so much to do there.  It was just too long of a bus ride from our condo, and since Alma was taking two naps a day to catchup on poor night sleep, we just didn’t have the time in between naps to venture too far from the condo.

I know we will be back to San Francisco again, though, so we will get a chance to check out more sites then!

 

 


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