fellow explorers i recently took a quick
trip to san francisco and oakland and in
this video i'm going to show you what i
did with 24 hours in these really two
great cities i'm going to take you along
with me to visit fisherman's wharf to
see pier 39 and the even more famous sea
lions that collect out there we're gonna
find a really cool viewpoint to see the
golden gate bridge we're gonna have a
delicious dim sum dinner at ghirardelli
square and we're gonna conclude by
visiting chinatown no not san
francisco's chinatown the other
chinatown the one in oakland the working
chinatown not the touristy chinatown but
first i gotta get there from my home in
orange county so let's go ahead and set
the clock to nine o'clock where i'm at
john wayne orange county airport this is
where i'm flying out of into oakland
this is my home airport one of my
favorite airports in southern california
medium-sized airport nice and clean
comfortable so much better than lax i'm
flying on southwest airlines and if
you've never flown southwest airlines
they have a really interesting boarding
process where when you check in they
assign you a letter and a number abc and
a number 1 through 60 you stand in line
when they call your letter and then they
basically board large groups at a time
it's open seating so you don't get to
pick who you sit next to so the mad rush
if you're flying southwest is to try and
check in exactly 24 hours before to get
the coveted a boarding spot i got a bee
boarding spot which is still pretty good
and after a short one-hour flight landed
here in oakland now just time to pick up
the rental car shuttle why did i fly to
oakland instead of san francisco airport
well because
oakland has better weather and the
flights are cheaper coming into oakland
only thing i don't like about the
situation here rental cars you have to
take a shuttle and at just about 12 30 i
was on the road in my buick enclave that
i rented from hertz hurt some of my
favorite rental car companies why
because i don't have to see anybody
standing in lines i can book it online i
find my name on a board and just drive
to the exit after a quick 15 minute
drive i checked into the oakland
marriott city center hotel to drop off
my bags to make sure they're safe nicely
recently renovated room and the view out
here looks at the bay looks at downtown
oakland and if we zoom in you can even
see that we see san francisco in the
distance where i'm heading just after
lunch okay for lunch it's right across
from the street from the mirror as a
place called swans market it's like an
upscale food hall here in downtown
oakland but one of the spots in here
sells mexican food it's called love
herrera's kitchen five stars on yelp for
this place they recommended the chicken
enchilada plate
it's a pretty good good enchilada green
sauce it's like really has kind of a
almost like new mexican flavor not as in
the opposite of old mexican but like
from new mexico
good beans good rice
and
washed all down they're fresh aqua
fresca fruit juices this one is
cantaloupe
after a quick 30 minute drive over the
base san francisco here we are chris
this doesn't look like san francisco it
looks like the marriott this is the
marriott fisherman's wharf with the spot
hero app i was able to get a parking
spot here for seven hours for nine
dollars pretty good deal you've never
used spot hero before it's the best way
to find super cheap parking in san
francisco okay now this looks more like
san francisco i'm here at the end of
pier 39 i just finished shooting two
videos a walking tour down fisherman's
wharf and a walking tour here of pier 39
i ran into two fantastic explorers from
the uk that will be in the pier 39 video
and i love this shot right here from the
second story there's this like balcony
here at the second story right by the
two-story carousel where from here you
can get a great view of pier 39 and also
the oh this is hard and also the
coit tower and the transamerica pyramid
back in the distance and i couldn't go
to pier 39 without also stopping to see
the sea lions it's super touristy but i
super love it every time i come to san
francisco these things they just they
live here this is their home but my pro
tip get away from the crowd down on the
bottom come up to the second floor where
you'll get a view like this with a lot
less people one other pro tip i also
stopped here to use the restroom pier 39
good clean restrooms and really neat
seals and sea lions now after running
into some fellow explorers from austin
texas in front of musee mechanique which
is kind of like a museum for arcade
games i'm walking back towards
ghirardelli square my destination is the
golden gate bridge it's only a few miles
from here and
who can go to san francisco without
seeing the golden gate bridge so we'll
take a look at some of the stops along
the way but before we leave fisherman's
warp i definitely have to pay respects
in and out burger where they have
special fisherman's wharf in and out
burger shirts they say fisherman's wharf
on them this is the only internet burger
store you can get those shirts now if
you want to get to the golden gate
bridge and you don't want to walk you
can also ride a bike there's tons of
shops here that will rent bikes and from
fisherman's wharf it's you know three or
four miles to the golden gate bridge and
then you can ride across the golden gate
bridge to sausalito and then you can
take the ferry back to fisherman's wharf
super classic ride and look there's some
pictures there people having fun doing
that thing just coming out of
fisherman's wharf there's this really
big sidewalk that's called the barbary
coast trail to the left is ghirardelli
square plaza famous chocolate sundae
place but there's this sandy beach right
here that i want to show you that people
are actually swimming in this water in
april there's a couple of swim clubs
over there and this is a popular san
francisco swimming spot
all year round i count about
20 or 30 people in the water right now
right here looking at alcatraz now when
you're in fisherman's wharf you can't
really see the golden gate bridge
because of this hill fort mason but when
you get on this side of it and look that
way they're amazing views of the golden
gate bridge so for a unique vantage
point if you don't want to walk the
three more miles to the golden gate
bridge you can at least see it from the
highest point of fort mason now that
it's six o'clock how far did i make it
to the golden gate bridge the golden
gate bridge is is there it's still far
away i've got dinner reservation at 6 30
so i just requested a lift that should
be here in a minute to take me to dinner
i'll see you there that lift ride was
well worth the ten dollars to save my
feet another two miles to get back here
to ghirardelli square where dinner is
awaiting
no it's not ice cream or chocolate it's
dim sum at the palette tea house and i'm
really excited to eat here because this
is owned by the owners of koi palace
which has been my favorite dim sum
restaurant in the san francisco area for
years that's down by san francisco
airport this is in the heart of san
francisco so i look forward to giving
this one a try all right and here we are
inside the pallet tea house that looks
kind of like a palette inside i got one
of their signature items which is their
five color xiao long bao there's five
flavors of this here there's pork
there's kale there's beet there's uh
crab and there's one more that i forgot
here are these black swan
taro puffs you see they've got little
swans on them they're filled with pork
and duck and shrimp there are my
favorite chashu bao barbecue pork buns
how much are these things these are
eight dollars for three the xiaolongbao
was
15.
these were
10.
par gao three shrimp dumplings were
eight dollars and then
the
pork chumai
eight ten dollars something like that
chris when are you gonna eat this on
camera why don't you eat this right now
how does it taste i got a whole video
where i'm going to do that so if you
want to watch that wait for the review
of this restaurant after that delicious
dinner i shot a walking tour of
ghirardelli square by the way this is my
walking gear rig the s21 ultra on the
dji om4 gimbal but what was me right
after finishing that up and i came in
front of
ghirardelli square an amazing sunset
right back there
behind the golden gate bridge doesn't
get any better than that that's a great
way to end the day in san francisco but
this vlog isn't over it's 24 hours so
going back to oakland tonight we can
check out the mayor a little bit more
and then tomorrow morning i'm going to
check out oakland chinatown nine o'clock
back in the oakland marriott hotel room
i quite like this room it's nice i just
stopped by the lounge had my cupcakes
that i got earlier from that food hall i
was in from cupcakin i had a carrot cake
cupcake and a key lime pie cupcake both
of them really quite good cupcakes if
you get a cupcake sweet tooth check that
place out and now it's time to set up my
charging battle station this is
something i do every night in every
hotel i go into connect one phone to
transfer files connect the sd card from
my camera to transfer files over i'm
gonna need to connect the phone that i'm
recording this on the transfer the files
over i'm gonna need to charge the
microphones and so i plug all these
things in i'll probably spend the next
45 minutes here uh just getting all this
stuff onto the laptop so that i make
sure it's backed up from all the devices
in case anything happens any one of them
like ends up in a river uh or who knows
might get stolen by somebody that way
i've always got to a backup i'll back it
up to this macbook and i will back it up
to this little uh samsung 2 terabyte uh
ssd drive that i carry around
all right it's 11 15
comments responded to backups made
devices charging
it is time to go to sleep and with that
i wish you
good night
lights out
good morning fellow explorers you know
this is always the most contrived scene
in vlogs and i had to do it because you
see in vlogs all the time where people
wake up and they tell you good morning
as if this is when they really woke up
because you have to know that i had to
wake up before this to get my camera
unplug it bring it here make sure this
was set up to get the alarm so i've been
up for a little while but good morning
it's eight o'clock it is time for
breakfast so one of the things i really
like about staying at marriott is i like
the lounges i am a elite member with
marriott i've stayed over a thousand
nights which means i get access to all
of these lounges for breakfast for
evening snacks and they're free they're
just part of the roommate and they're
really nice and they've been closed for
like the past two years as part of the
pandemic this is the first lounge i've
been to that's actually reopened and so
thank you oakland city center marriott
for opening your lounge as a bit of an
introvert i like that i can go in i
don't have to talk to anybody i don't
have to say how many people i'm with i
don't have to wait in line i just go in
get my food eat and then be on my way so
after that delicious breakfast i wanted
to explore outside of the marriott hotel
something i do in every hotel that i'm
in is just kind of wander around the
neighborhood what's right outside the
oakland city center maria is oakland's
chinatown now this chinatown different
than san francisco chinatown san
francisco chinatown is a really touristy
kind of manufactured chinatown for
people to visit oakland's chinatown is a
working living chinatown this is where
people come here to shop this is where
locals come here to eat best time to
come here if you really want to
experience it is about lunch time
because lunch time is when everybody's
out to eat but also to do their grocery
shopping for the day you'll find all
these mom and pop supermarkets where the
goods basically spill out onto the
sidewalk and the sidewalk is really part
of the supermarket eating if you don't
know what to eat just look in the
windows you'll find all sorts of
delicious asian food and i approve of
anything where you can see ducks hanging
in the window now there's one plaza
right in the middle that's a bit newer
than everything around here the pacific
renaissance plaza and in here you can
find traditional asian clothing and
chinese medicine the other really cool
thing about oakland chinatown something
maybe that does actually make it a
little bit touristy are all these murals
on the wall bring your camera bring your
phone take some neat instagram selfies
you'll find the heart of chinatown to be
around their four scramble crossings
that's between 8th and 9th street
franklin and webster and in these
scramble crossings you'll see the locals
with their shopping carts or shopping
trolleys all these stores are too small
to do all of your shopping in one and so
people who come here they bring their
own shopping carts so they can go from
store to store to store to store too
early in the morning for some boba tea
but i couldn't leave oakland without
getting a cappuccino from blue bottle
coffee
delicious this is my favorite cappuccino
from any chain coffee shop in the us
they started here in oakland and
it's pretty good it's not cheap though
it's a 5.75
cappuccino but what i like about it is
it's sized right it's like i mean it's
still a little bit bigger than italian
size but
someplace you get a cappuccino and it's
like 20 ounces like i can't i can't
drink that much with just like a small
much better tasting cappuccino which you
can get right here
fellow explorers the time now is 10 a.m
and that brings to 25 hours since we
started you got one bonus one because
maybe i slept too long well there's lots
more to see and do in san francisco and
oakland and if you want to see some more
of those things we'll dive into my san
francisco playlist right here because as
usual i won't say goodbye so i'll see
you in some of those videos