Family-Friendly Holidays in San Francisco

Greetings from the West Coast! My name is Susan Payton, and Carol has invited me to share my family travels on the other coast! My husband, son (he’s 6) and I spent Thanksgiving in San Francisco, one of my favorite cities in the world. Why do I love it so much? Well, from Japantown to Chinatown to Union Square and Fisherman’s Wharf, there’s something for each one of us. My son enjoyed looking for out of the ordinary Japanese cartoon toys, my husband loved finding unique clothes in Union Square and me? Well, I loved eating my way around the world in a single city.

And speaking of food, despite it being Thanksgiving, we didn’t do the whole turkey and dressing overload thing. Not our style. Instead we ate Indonesian delights at Borobudur, fresh sushi at Green Papaya, and dim sum in Chinatown. We managed to squeeze in a hamburger, but for the most part, we ate just about every ethnic food type the city had to offer.

And desserts? The holiday feasting has definitely begun in that aspect. We discovered Beard Papa‘s, the amazing chain that sells cream puffs with a variety of flavored creams (I recommend green tea as something off the wall). Bristol Farms (one location near Union Square) offered a variety of prepared foods as well as a mouth-watering bakery, so we all picked out treats and took back to our hotel room. And Schoggi, maker of fine (and a little higher priced) Swiss chocolates, topped off our trip with its homemade hot chocolate and tiny chocolate works of art.

Logistics

We were surprised to find the Marriott Marquis located right off Market Street (in the heart of much shopping: from Old Navy to Nordstrom) pretty affordable for Thanksgiving week. We paid $139 a night, whereas rooms are usually over $200. My theory is that people are visiting family during Thanksgiving and not crazy enough to stay in a hotel near Union Square on and around Black Friday (more on that in a later post). Anyway, it’s a good deal, so look into it for next year.

Coming up: We get up close and personal with jellyfish, find out what kids played with before Xbox Kinect and found tools we didn’t even know we needed.

Susan Payton is President of Egg Marketing & Public Relations and writes the blog The Marketing Eggspert.

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Tags: kid friendly, travel, Vacations
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