San Francisco Photo Diary

San Francisco is easily one of my favorite cities in the world, and it's quite an underrated one in my opinion. If I ever move out of San Diego, I would love to move up north to the Bay Area. Not only is the weather more my thing (as you all know I despite hot weather), but there's so much culture here. The music scene here is what my dreams are made of, and let's not forget about the copious amounts of incredible food establishments here. As a public transportation aficionado, San Francisco easily has the best public transportation in the state of California which is very reminiscent of the efficient Parisian public transport (despite the fact that some French people would think otherwise). In this blog post I'll be sharing some of my favorite shots I took with my DSLR during my trip to San Francisco.

The view from the hotel in between Chinatown and Russian Hill. It was by far the noisiest place I've ever slept in, but the food choices were endless here! One of the nights after Outside Lands, Orlando and I were hungry and we went inside the pizza place that you can see in this picture. Little did I know that Sam's is a place that has the Anthony Bourdain stamp of approval! In fact they have a special named "the Anthony Bourdain special" which I of course ordered, let's face it the decision was a no-brainer for me. If you're looking for an amazing greasy burger and a beer, then this spot will really hit the spot.

During my time studying abroad I used to live in the 13e arrondissement in Paris which is home to la petite Asie (Little Asia). While it's not as ornate as North American Chinatowns, it still had a huge array of Chinese restaurants, businesses, and knickknacks. During my time in Paris I ate roasted duck and BBQ pork about once a week because there was a really great fast food place that was walking distance from my apartment, cheap, and the only place I could go to get my spicy food fix. The roasted duck and BBQ pork from Kam Po Kitchen definitely brought back many amazing Parisian memories and it's a spot that I will be coming back to in the future.

The one place I really wanted to visit while in San Francisco was the Walt Disney Family Museum. I first heard about this museum thanks to one of my favorite Disney related YouTube channels called Randomland. If you're a fan of Walt Disney and Disneyland history then you have to follow Randomland and also visit this museum. I had always heard of this particular Academy Award for Snow White and the Seven Dwarves but it was surreal seeing the actual award in person.

Mickey Mouse is not only my favorite Disney character but he's been a huge part of my life since my childhood. I grew up watching all the old cartoons in VHS tapes and going to Disneyland at least once a year. Growing up I had Mickey Mouse toys, clothing, shoes, water bottles- pretty much anything with Mickey Mouse was a must-have for me. Much to the amusement of my family and their friends, I started presenting myself as Laurita Mouse when I was 4/5 years-old. You can only imagine how excited I got when I got to the portion of the museum dedicated to the creation of Mickey Mouse. This right here are the earliest sketches of the mouse that started it all!

In case you don't know this, according to Walt Disney the idea for Disneyland came to him while sitting on a park bench at Griffith Park in Los Angeles. He would watch his daughters ride the merry-go-round and that's when he began imagining a new kind of amusement park that the whole family could enjoy. You can visit both the merry-go-round and the original bench at Griffith Park, but you can have the pleasure of sitting on one of the original benches from Griffith Park at the museum.

While I do love the present-day Disneyland, I love the Disneyland of yesteryear even more. I've become incredibly fascinated with all the attractions that no longer exist and are now abandoned or overlook remnants in the park. Hence why I love the Randomland channel so much, there's so many great content about attractions such as the People Mover and the Skyway. I spent a good amount of time looking at this model of Disneyland and trying to name all the rides that no longer exist. Just in case you're also fascinated by all of this make sure check out Yesterland, it's another fantastic resource if you're into Disneyland history. I highly recommend visiting the Walt Disney Family Museum if you're a big Walt Disney or Disney history fan, I'm already thinking about visiting the museum again but this time with my family.

And you can't have a San Francisco photo diary without a typical tourist shot! Here I am on a very windy Monday afternoon posing by the Golden Gate Bridge. My family drove on the bridge years ago but I never got the opportunity to walk on the bridge until now. Despite my fear of heights I got to the first post in the bridge which you can see in the picture.

I will be posting my Outside Lands vlog this Friday and my San Francisco vlog next week so make sure to come back for those!

Which city should I add to my travel wish list? Let me know in the comments below.