Pacifica, CA
I am so happy we made it to the CA coast! The place we stayed was right on the ocean. There was a decent amount of erosion and so there was not a lot of accessible beach but the views were stunning. I loved getting to see the ocean every time I went outside and the weather was sunny and temperate. It was also really nice to be in a location for 3 weeks instead of two. I look forward to some of the upcoming longer stays.
Buckle up, we did a ton of things and this is a long post. I will try and keep it short sweet and to the point but there will be a ton of photos!
Oceanfront Taco Bell Cantina
This is the only ocean front Taco Bell in the world and I found out about it by chance. I am so glad I realized it was located in Pacifica and we made time to go eat there after work one night. The patio is right on the beach and there were a lot of locals out surfing. They have a full bar so I had to get a Baja Blast slush with Vodka. I am glad this is not the normal Taco Bell experience because I would eat here way too often.
Oakland Zoo
Across the San Francisco bay is the Oakland Zoo. They supposedly have a better reputation than the San Francisco zoo so we decided to make the drive over. It was a beautiful sunny day and we had a really nice time. I do not have a lot of commentary to add so enjoy some photos of the animals we saw.
When we were in one of the reptile rooms I noticed a carnivores pitcher plant, I am pretty sure it was the only one in the whole zoo. There was also a gondola in the zoo that took you from one section to another, it gave a great view of the city. When we were driving back to San Francisco the traffic was bad no matter what route we took so we decided we may as well drive over the Golden Gate bridge. It was fine.
Alcatraz – Night Tour
I had visited Alcatraz before, but it was a day tour on the weekend. It was packed and hard to see anything without a wall of people in front of you. We did the night tour on a week night and it was a totally different experience. There was a fraction of the people and it really felt like you could take your time with the audio tour and move at your own pace.
When you are inside the prison itself, you never forget where you are. The audio tour does a great job of helping to immerse you in the environment. You are surrounded by bars and metal and concrete. It is loud and there is an echo, I can only imagine how loud it would be when full of prisoners. There is no beauty to be seen.
But then you step outside and there are these surreal moments of beauty that make you forget where you are.
Golden Gate Park
This park was huge, you could easily plan an entire trip around just this park and everything it has to offer. Within the park is a science museum, art museum, botanical gardens, Japanese gardens, flower conservatory, and those are only the paid attractions. There are countless other gardens, paved and unpaved trails, a bison paddock, music concourse, monuments throughout, and working Dutch windmills. We spent a whole day here and did not even get close to seeing most of the park.
Rabbitwoman and Dogman by Gillie and Marc. A series of 4 bronze statues along the JFK Promenade. If I knew there were a total of 4 at the time, I would have kept going to see the fourth.
California Academy of Science
There was so much to see here and my pictures do not do it justice.
Huge well kept aquariums, a swamp, indoor rainforest, planetarium, and so much more.
Some of the aquariums
Indoor rainforest
This is Claude and he lives in the swamp exhibit, he was my favorite. He’s an albino alligator who hatched in Florida in 1995, making him almost 30 years old.
Conservatory of Flowers
Even though this was the smallest garden we visited while in Golden Gate Park, it was by far the best. It was so well maintained and had so many different species packed into each section.
There is also a rare Corpse Flower that resides here (not in bloom during our visit).
The main reason I wanted to visit the conservatory was because of the carnivorous plants, they did not disappoint and had more than I expected.
Japanese Tea Garden
Sadly, this was the most disappointing of the all the gardens. When I go to Japanese gardens I tend to expect gardens that are meticulously well maintained and this just did not live up to that expectation. Some parts felt a little overgrown or messy. The koi pond also seemed a little sad.
I think a large part of why it did not meet my expectations has to do with the large volume of people who come through the garden. Regardless, the Portland Japanese Garden is superior in every way.
San Francisco Botanical Garden
The Botanical Garden was the last place we visited in the Golden Gate park. I really liked these gardens and if I lived in San Francisco I would have an annual pass. There were so many little paths that wandered through the foliage and it was incredibly diverse.
Fisherman’s Warf
We spent a day exploring Fisherman’s Warf and started at Pier 39. It was a sunny clear day and we were able to see the Golden Gate bridge as well as Alcatraz from the pier.
Aquarium of the Bay
We also went to the Aquarium of the Bay. It was pretty small and a quick walk through. We went right when they opened so it was really peaceful walking through the two aquarium tunnels.
Small carnivorous plant display
Liberty Ship SS Jeremiah O’Brien
We did not originally plan on stopping here but decided to check it out and it was really interesting. The SS Jeremiah O’Brien is one of two remaining Liberty Ships that participated in WWII and is still operational. It sails a few times a year and had a cruise planned on the day we were leaving San Francisco. If it had been scheduled before we left I would have been tempted to get tickets.
The engine room was open to tour, with engineers on staff. It is the same engine room that was used in the filming of Titanic.
When we got home, we decided to put the Titanic on so we could see the scenes that had the engine in motion. It was super cool to see and know that we had just seen it in person.
As our time came to an end in San Francisco, I was ready to leave. Even though we did not do everything we wanted, I was exhausted. Working full time and trying to sight see on the weekends does not leave a lot of time for relaxing. Our weekends were jam packed and we even went out after work some nights to try and see as much as possible.
If I learned anything from this stop in San Francisco it was that I can’t always do everything and still need a day off to prevent burnout.
Overall Rating ⭐⭐⭐
Stay Duration: 3 weeks – March 10, 2025 – March 31, 2025
Weather: Sunny & Breezy – Temperature Range: 50-65 – Average Temp: 60
- Site 153 ⭐⭐
- Full Hookup, 15/30/50 amp, Pull-Thru.
- This place definitely has mixed reviews online. Maybe it is the millennial in me but I do not make reservations somewhere without looking it up online first, so I know what to expect. I also make sure to look at guest photos since those are more realistic than the marketing photos on websites. I had a good idea of what I was getting into. A ton of people complain that it is just a parking lot and there is not a lot of space between sites. It is in a densely populated area of CA where there is not a lot of space so it makes sense the RV park reflects that. The park had also lost all of their ocean front spots due to erosion, making the spaces they still have even that much more of a commodity. The nightly rate is expensive, rivaling that of a hotel. The park is directly on the ocean and close to San Francisco, that comes with some compromise.
- The main reason for my low rating was more due to how they managed the sites. I did not mind that it was a parking lot, it was more how they managed the spaces they booked. You experience is directly linked to the people in the spots around you and how they park. If they are considerate they will make sure to park in a way that gives you space to use your front door and still access your car/truck. We were in a space next to people who lived there full time so they were stationary the duration of our stay. They were over the white line with their slides so this meant with our slides out we could not walk through that area or access that side of the trailer. The other side was people coming and going. At one point there was a 42ft 5th wheel with 5 slides that crossed into our space with their slides out but they positioned it in a way so it was the tallest slide and we could easily walk under it. Others were not as considerate and there was a point where we had to walk all the way around the row of sites to get to the truck.
- Campground ⭐⭐⭐
- There are not a ton of amenities here, you are mostly paying for the view and location. What amenities you do have, are bare bones. I will say they seem to be trying to improve things and had a few projects going on during our stay.
- Another thing I saw a lot of complaints about were the “dodgy neighborhood” and “unsightly people” wandering the park. Tell me you don’t want to acknowledge there are homeless people in this world without telling me you don’t want to acknowledge there are homeless people in this world. The neighboring homes are million dollar homes. The small 1 bedroom apartments are $2,700 a month. While there were some people using the trail through the park during the day I never saw anyone past dark and never felt unsafe, even when walking at night.
- Other People/Pets ⭐⭐
- The people who live here full time are clicky. Because there is not a lot of space they seem very territorial over what they do have. We were accused of unhooking someone’s water and knocking their sewer hose over when we most definitely did not. They tend to have a lot of stuff that extends pas their site but at a minimum it is kept tidy.
- Internet Connection ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- T-Mobile was our main connection. It had a good signal but some nights the speeds were super slow. I assume this was because of tower congestion and it being prime streaming time. There were a lot of people with Starlink setups, I am sure they had a great connection as long as they could get the receiver up over other RVs. Clear view of the sky.
- Vibes ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- I loved getting to see the ocean multiple times a day.
- Pacifica was a cute little beach town that was the perfect distance from San Francisco. It was nice to stay away from downtown but still be close enough to visit on public transportation.
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Midlife Millennial Adventures 