After Monterey, we drove a few more hours north and toured San Francisco for a few days. Ryan has been there many times but I had never been and I've always wanted to go! We stayed in a Marriott right on Fisherman's Wharf (honestly, it was the cheapest hotel that was semi-close. Why? I don't know, but I'm not complaining!). We had a great view out of our window at the bay, some little shops, In-N-Out, the wharf, and street performers. We were smack dab in between Ghirardelli square and Pier 39, which allowed us to have a quick, easy walk anywhere we wanted to go! The only thing that wasn't so fun was the FREEZING cold temperatures. It was in the mid-50's at the hottest point of the day and I wore two sweatshirts the entire time (the same two sweatshirts, as you'll see). All in all, it was a blast and I'm glad I can now check this city off of my list of places I still need to visit.
Our great hotel. They even upgraded us to a suite. You can't even see the other half of the room behind me.
We didn't waste any time when we got there. After throwing our stuff in our room, we headed out to sightsee. Here's one of our first stops- the Palace of Fine Arts.
Hopefully everyone knows what this is:
About 4 days before we went, I learned that San Fran is known for their sourdough bread. Once I found that out, the need to get some suddenly became something that I've been waiting for my whole life. This was at Boudin's-- they had all sorts of animals and things made out of bread. Pretty cool.
For {my} viewing pleasure, here's Ryan on the cable car, looking hot... and I don't mean temperature-wise because it was only approximately 51 degrees at this point. Or at any point.
We drove down Lombard Street, a.k.a. the "crookedest road" in the nation...besides Wall Street (ba-dum-ching... thanks to our cheesy tour guide for that lame joke).
It's normal to park like this here. I would hate to drive a clutch around this hilly city.
Is it pathetic that the only reason I knew about the Coit Tower was from the Bachelor? Thanks Jake and Tenley.
Our boat ride out to Alcatraz. We did the "night tour" which was voted their best tour. We got a walking tour of the outside, an audio tour inside, and then they opened up special areas (like the hospital and the bomb shelter basement) for us at the end and told extra stories and such. Totally worth the few extra dollars.
The camera bag with maps hanging out the side... hello tourist.
The city hall was so extravagant that I kept thinking it was the capitol. It's the nation's most expensive city hall. Of course I took pictures of the cool trees out front instead of all the real gold on top of the beautiful dome. I guess I'm just easy to please and non-materialistic (although I think Ryan still needs to be convinced of that. Just kidding).
"Everywhere you look, everywhere you go, (there's a heart), there's a heart. A hand to hold onto..." We said a quick hello to Danny, Jesse, and Joey. These are the famous "painted ladies" but a painted lady is actually just one of these victorian homes that has 5 or more colors of paint on it and the more colorful, the more expensive it is. The painted lady the farthest to the left was for sale and the asking price was "only $3 million" compared to a normal one that's about $8 million, because tourist buses stop in front of it all day long. I won't even bring up my future home that I found on Sausalito island for $18 million.
China town was cool... for about .2 seconds. We went, we bought fortune cookies, we left.
Ryan requested some good fish 'n chips for his birthday dinner, so we strolled up and down Fisherman's Wharf for a long time with no such luck ($9 for 2 small pieces of fish and a few fries? No thanks). We finally found a good restaurant on Pier 39 (forgot the name of it) where he got his fish 'n chips.
It was such a fun trip, but like many good things, it came to an end and now we're back to regular life again. The good thing about this trip was that we were gone long enough to really enjoy being away from work and responsibilities of that sort, but also long enough to feel ready to be back at home. And that's a good thing.
2 comments:
That looks so fun! Good job on taking lots of pictures.
Your hotel suite looked amazing, btw!
hey Brittney, looks like you had a nice long vacation!! It was fun to see you at the reunion as well. So the photography site is Photography Series with Kristen Duke in the Idea Room. I have a button on the right hand side of my blog. I found it helpful and I guess it helped jump start me into trying different things. I am definately a beginner anxious to learn more and with her help I have learned a ton. Anyways, hopefully you find it helpful in some way!!!
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