Last Sunday was Father’s Day and my parents came up to visit for the weekend. After trying to think of the best things to do with them, I finally just asked my mom what she wanted to do. What she and my dad really wanted was just to eat clam chowder in bread bowls and crabs down in Fisherman’s Wharf! This is definitely one of the most touristy things you can do in San Francisco. But, I guess its somehow popular because people love to do it… over and over again. My parents do this every time they come and visit us.
So, on Sunday morning, we went down to the Wharf (which is only a 15 min. walk from our apt.) and my parents ordered up an array of crab, clam chowder and calamari for all of us. The bad thing is that if you order from the sidewalk vendors, you have few choices on places to sit. If you eat in a restaurant, you’ll be paying a premium for seafood that may not be as fresh. Anyways, we did the sidewalk vendors and I found a large cement block that we sat on to eat. Some benches would have been nicer, but, we all seemed to enjoy ourselves anyways. I love crab, so, this was great. The clam chowder is not that great though, in my opinion. There was hardly any clams in it. It is just a creamy mess where you occasionally find a potato, piece of celery and a clam part (if you are lucky).
I actually had the best clam chowder that I’ve ever eaten last Tuesday at the Hog Island Oyster Company. Here, you just get a seafood broth and a bunch of clams (still in the shells), so, you really taste the clam. The broth isn’t thick, so, it doesn’t really feel like a heavy chowder.
Anyways, after our feast on the wharf, we walked down to look at the sea lions that my parents had never seen on all their visits to our city. I always find this fun. Apparently, the male sea lions grow to as much as 800 lbs! The females only get up to 300 lbs.
At 3:00 PM, we took them on Mr. Toad’s Tour of the city. This is a tour on an antique car that takes you through various parts of the city including North Beach, Pacific Heights, the Presidio and right next to the GG Bridge. This was pretty entertaining. Unfortunately, I didn’t learn as much city history as I had hoped. My parents seemed to enjoy it though. Their favorite part was the drive through the multi-million dollar homes in Pacific Heights where the likes of Dianne Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi and Larry Ellison all own homes.
Finally, to end the day, we took them to our favorite pizza in the city, Little Star Pizza. Its Chicago style pizza which my parents have never tried. They really enjoyed it! My dad also liked that it seemed like a good value 
All in all…this was a very successful visit!
