The Union Square area is a shopping mecca

in Chinatown
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We are shamed - our first day in San Francisco, home to many fascinating attractions, and what did we do?  We shopped!  I blame it on the jet lag - we were tired and thought it would be nice to stay in the Union Square area, by our hotel.  There are so many awesome stores in this area.  Maybe it only impresses me because I am from Alaska and so we don't have any of these stores.  But on this day I got to shop at a Crate and Barrel, Macy's, Victoria's Secret, Express, Forever 21, Anthropologie, LUSH, Bath and Body Works, a Virgin Megastore, you name it!  We had a very slow but tasty lunch at a Cheesecake Factory, on the 8th floor of Macy's.

We visited Chinatown, which was very nearby.  This is probably my favorite Chinatown that I have been to.  It had a lot of cool buildings, really good shopping, locals and tourists alike bustling around, people on street corners handing out flyers for restaurants...plus the hills make it uniquely San Francisco.  We went to Golden Gate Fortune Cookies, where you can watch fortune cookies be made, have free samples, and buy a fresh bag.  We got a bag of mixed cookies - normal and chocolate.  The factory is tucked into a little alley - when we first walked down it we heard the most lovely violin music coming from a barber shop.  It made for wonderful ambiance.  A nice man was playing so we donated to him and took a picture.