Mission District with Mamma & Papa

Day three with Mamma and Papa was spent hanging out in San Francisco's Mission District.

Just like the Mission District itself, our day was a mixed bag. A little gourmet food, a little playground fun, a little history and a little street art.

We started the day with a visit to the playground in Dolores Park. The bottom half of Dolores Park is currently being renovated but the top half, where the playground is located is currently intact. The playground in Dolores Park has to be one of our favourite places in San Francisco. The girls absolutely love the play equipment and I just can't get enough of that view.

The girls even convinced Papa to go on the slides and the climbing rock. I think Papa secretly enjoyed it as much as the girls did!

We left the playground and headed down the hill to Bi-Rite for ice cream. No visit to the Mission District is complete without a treat from Bi-Rite. Being a week day it was pretty quiet and we didn't have to line up for long. We did have to contend with the wind though which seemed intent on blowing as much of Ava and Lola's hair as possible into their ice cream! Such an incredibly windy day.

After ice cream we decided to check out the Mission District's namesake: the Mission. Despite our many visits to the Mission District we'd never actually been to the Mission itself. I'd been looking forward to going to the Mission for quite some time and with my Dad being quite the history buff I knew he'd appreciate seeing a little of San Francisco's past. I'll have a separate post about the Mission coming soon but for now here are a few of my favourite shots of of the original church, museum, basilica and the old graveyard. Keep an eye out for the gravestone that I thought featured the name "Boogers"!

From the history of the Mission and peace and quiet of the Basilica we headed to Clarion Alley for a burst of colourful street art. We have visited Clarion Alley in the past (you can see our last visit here) but many of the murals have changed since then. In fact, there was an artist working on a new mural while we were there.

I really like taking visitors to San Francisco to neighbourhoods like the Mission District. There's plenty there to keep everyone entertained and loads of wonderful food to fill our bellies. The best part is that it's not a tourist trap like so many of the popular places that visitors tend to go like Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf. Of course, those places are fun to go to as well but visiting neighbourhoods like the Mission District is a great way to experience a little of the real, everyday San Francisco.