Saturday, January 30, 2021 my sweet hubby Gary and I decided to head into San Francisco and spend a fun day in the city. It’s the first time since before March 2020 that we’ve been in downtown San Francisco because everything went into lockdown due to the Covid pandemic. Just 2 days ago the Governor started allowing some businesses to reopen and outdoor dining to resume but we are still in the purple tier so the utmost precautions, masks, and social distancing is a must.
It had rained that morning but was already drying out with sunshine starting to come through as we made the 50 mile drive into the city. The drive was pretty quiet. Not too much traffic as folks appeared to still be staying home for the most part. The blue sky was brilliant and the sun was out as we made our way over the Golden Gate Bridge.
10-12 million people visit San Francisco annually and 25,000-100,000 visit Fisherman’s Wharf daily (depending on the season) so you can imagine how surreal it was for us to be in such a popular spot like Fisherman’s Wharf where there is usually an energetic hustle and bustle, mega hotels, lots of restaurants with fresh seafood, shops, street performers, and attractions with thousands of tourists and locals walking around, the huge tour ships that hold hundreds of passengers and take them on tours of the bay, under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz, to seeing nearly deserted streets and so many businesses gone, vandalized or closed. Seeing first hand how the tourism and travel sectors have been devastated by Covid left us very emotional.
The Fisherman’s Grotto on Fisherman’s Wharf is usually overflowing with people and there are several fresh seafood stalls serving some of the best fresh seafood to hungry tourists and locals and it is nearly impossible to get a place to sit. On this day you could easily sit in any seat you picked as the restaurants were all closed, the streets empty and deserted. I sure hope some of the restaurants can make a come back as they are iconic and staples of San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf.
We made our way down to Pier 39. It was wonderful to see this popular and amazingly fun area still holding steady and having some of the restaurants open and serving customers. Even at Pier 39 not everything was open and many of the restaurants and shops were closed. But there were actually people walking around and families walking around and you could feel how happy everyone was to be able to be out in the sunshine and enjoying the day. Everyone for the most part was wearing masks and social distancing. Restaurants that were open for outdoor dining had tables spread apart and were keeping everything clean and sanitized with staff all wearing masks and gloves. Gary and I even had our first meal of fresh fish and chips in almost a year!! It really felt incredible and exactly what our souls needed!!
I have a video of our fun day on my IG feed that you can see that Gary put together and he shot some Polaroids of the day that you can see on his IG feed.
Hopefully folks continue to follow the local rules and guidelines and keep wearing their masks, social distancing and doing the right things to keep others and themselves safe and the virus from spreading so we can all see a decrease in people getting sick and cities reopening and rebuilding.
If you would like to visit San Francisco or read about travel guidelines you can do so here at SF Travel. How are things in your area? Are you still on lockdown or are things reopening?
