Lombard Street in bloom — pink hydrangeas line the famous crooked road as San Francisco's skyline and the bay stretch out behind

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One Day in San Francisco: Sea Lions, Lombard Street, and Lunch with a View

California·July 26, 2025·5 min read

San Francisco doesn't need a whole week. One good day — a harbor lunch, sea lions at Pier 39, and the walk down Lombard Street — and you'll understand why people fall in love with this city.

San Francisco is one of those cities that works in any direction you walk. North feels like a waterfront town. West feels like a foggy nature escape. The hills always lead somewhere interesting.

We came for a day — just a day — and managed to pack in enough to fill a weekend's worth of memories.

About San Francisco

San Francisco sits on a 7×7 mile peninsula at the tip of the San Francisco Bay, one of the great natural harbors in the world. The city is famous for its hills (47 of them), its fog (the locals call it Karl), its cable cars, and the Golden Gate Bridge — which is, if you're wondering, actually painted International Orange, not gold.

The city was built on Gold Rush money, rebuilt after the 1906 earthquake, and shaped by every wave of migration that followed. It's been a port city, a counterculture capital, and now the economic engine of one of the most expensive regions on earth. All of that history sits on top of each other in a way that makes the city genuinely strange and genuinely interesting.

Lunch at the waterfront

We started at the waterfront near Fisherman's Wharf — which sounds like a tourist trap and is, in the best way. There's a difference between a place that's touristy because it's overhyped and one that's touristy because it's genuinely worth seeing. The SF waterfront is the latter.

A restaurant interior with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over the marina and bay — Lunch with this view. The clouds were doing their SF thing — dramatic but not committing to rain.

We ate at a restaurant right on the water with windows that look straight out onto the marina and across to the hills of Marin. The food was excellent — locally sourced, not cheap, but some meals deserve to be events.

A beautifully plated chicken dish with roasted vegetables and spelt grain — Seared chicken with spelt and roasted carrot. If you're near Fisherman's Wharf and want something a step above clam chowder in a sourdough bowl, this is the call.

Pier 39 and the sea lions

After lunch we walked east along the waterfront. The bay was choppy and grey, with seagulls working the air current and a thin silhouette of the Golden Gate visible through the fog.

San Francisco Bay with a flock of seagulls in flight, Golden Gate Bridge faint through the mist, Marin Headlands beyond — The bridge was there, technically. Somewhere behind that fog bank.

Pier 39 is loud and crowded and full of shops selling things nobody needs — and then you round the corner to the floating docks on the northwest side, and there they are: the sea lions.

Dozens of California sea lions lounging on the floating docks at Pier 39, tourists watching from the railing above — Pier 39's permanent residents. They've been here since the 1989 earthquake, and at this point they're more SF than anything else.

There were dozens of them piled on the floating docks, barking at each other with complete indifference to the audience. A few were almost entirely submerged, just one flipper sticking up. One kept bellying another off a dock. It was hard to leave.

A white stone arch on a wooden pier, Alcatraz Island visible across the water in the background — Looking east from the Embarcadero. Alcatraz sits in the middle of the bay like it has been there forever — which it has.

Lombard Street — the real thing

Everyone sees the photos. You've seen the photos. The overhead shot of the hairpin turns, the flower-lined switchbacks, the row of Victorian houses. It doesn't quite prepare you for walking it.

The street runs one block on a slope so steep that in 1922 they installed the curves just to make it drivable. You walk up the side stairs and start from the top.

Pink hydrangeas in full bloom along Lombard Street, cars winding down the red-brick switchbacks behind them — The hydrangeas were at peak. The whole street smelled like summer.

Then you walk down. The view from each curve changes — Coit Tower to the northeast, the bay ahead, Russian Hill falling away below you. Halfway down you stop taking photos and just look.

Lombard Street in full bloom looking toward downtown San Francisco, Coit Tower and the Bay Bridge visible in the background — From the top of Lombard. The city opens up in front of you like that.

It's a ten-minute walk to get down and a solid story to tell. The crowds are part of it — this is one of the world's most famous streets and people come from everywhere to walk it. Go on a weekday if you can.

Tips for a day trip

Parking near Fisherman's Wharf is expensive and scarce. Take BART to Embarcadero station and walk the waterfront north. It takes 20 minutes and is one of the best walks in the city.
The sea lions at Pier 39 are free to see from the viewing deck. No ticket, no queue — just look over the railing.
Lombard Street has no entrance fee but does have a car queue that stretches 30+ minutes in summer. Walk it instead.
July in SF is cool and foggy, not warm. Bring a layer you can actually use.
The Marina and Fort Mason area to the west of Fisherman's Wharf is quieter and worth a walk if you have time.

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