BY ARIANA: VISIT SF

Having lived in the Bay Area my whole life, I have yet to explore the beautiful city I live in. Of course, if you come visit San Francisco on a vacation, there are the typical tourist like things you have to do, such as walk the Golden Gate Bridge, visit Union Square, Pier 39, AT&T Park (boo Giants) and take a bus tour. As much fun as those things are, the less traditional things are so much more enjoyable. Now, I'm not going to make a laundry list of these things because you won't get any information out of that. Mind you, these are not in order of most favourite to least favourite.

I'm going to start off with food because it's what everyone wants all the time. Crown & Crumpet Tea Stop Cafe is the most adorable cafe located in Japantown. It's food and beverages make you feel like you're in England... who wouldn't want that? Another food spot is Smitten Ice Cream. They are said to have the creamiest ice cream made right in front of you.

If you want to bring out your inner six year old, take a trip down the Seward Street Slides, which are very well hidden in Noe Valley. Another super fun thing to do if you don't want to exactly be all too mature, is to visit the park in Yerba Buena Gardens. It's every elementary schooler's dream park, or in my case a fourteen year old's dream park. From the giant slides to the climbing structure, it's loads of fun.

The Exploratorium is one of the coolest interactive museums (I'm a big science nerd), with my favourite exhibit, The Wave Organ. It provides a beautiful view of the city and you can literally hear the ocean due to the way it's sculpted and constructed. The Sutro Baths are so unexplainably amazing. They were once a public bath but the Pacific Ocean doesn't run through it anymore and it's open to the public. San Francisco's secret stairways are so much fun to climb with a friend, family member, or alone. It's calming when it's just you, and when you're with someone, it's like taking a mini adventure up an old wooden stairway or metal stairs that have vegetation growing all over them.

If you're traveling alone or want to go somewhere calm these are my favourite spots. I am quite the book worm and also one of those people that likes close to empty places, like cafes or in this case, City Lights Bookstore. City Lights is just amazing, to say the least. Visit Jack Early Park! It's the smallest park in the whole city where you can listen to the sea lions while sitting on the little two-person bench.

Moving onto shopping! San Francisco and the Bay Area in general have many unique little shops you won't find anywhere else. La Boutique: L'Art et La Mode is an adorable little shop with jewelry, shoes, and clothing. Harputs is such a beautiful store that shows different, bold fashion choices (I love it !!). Picnic is an adorable store with home goods, gifts and clothes. Welcome Stranger is a men's clothing store with more of a casual feel to it. Gravel & Gold has just about everything: journals, books, bags, clothes and more. Along with these shops, there are chain stores like Urban Outfitters, Zara, Topshop, American Apparel and more.

Well, I sure wrote a lot and I am just about done! The locations, photos and more information will be below. The websites for certain places are bolded so click on em! I hope this was helpful to anyone that will be visiting this beautiful city anytime soon!

Crown and Crumpet Tea Stop Cafe Website

1746 Post Street, San Francisco

Smitten Ice Cream Website

432 Octavia Street #1a, San Francisco

Jack Early Park

San Francisco, CA 94133

Greenwich Steps on 231 Greenwich St. San Francisco

Sutro Baths Ruins and Cave - Point Lobos Ave & Merrie Way Golden Gate National Recreation Area

The Wave Organ in the Exploritorium

83 Marina Green Drive, San Francisco

Seward Street Slides

70 Corwin St, San Francisco