I'm back from San Francisco! It was an awesome trip and I'm excited to show you my pictures! Can you believe I'm posting this not even 24 hours after getting home?! I'm on top of this. For once!
Despite how crazy they make me, I was really sad about leaving the boys for six whole days. The longest we've ever been away from them before is two nights, so this was a pretty big deal.
Nice goodbye kiss from Shepard.
We had lunch at the airport. A very plain burger.
And a very plain chicken sandwich.
A view from somewhere over Colorado, I think. I like when you're in a plane and can sort of see the curvature of the earth.
This cloud was gorgeous!
We made it! After a plane, tram, and train we met up with my sister-in-law, Sarah, and her boyfriend, Alex in downtown San Francisco. While we were walking to try and find a taxi I saw the Britex Fabrics store. I kind of wanted to go there ahead of time (despite how expensive it is), but it wasn't open. Oh well. Later in the week Sarah took me to her favorite fabric store and I found some unique things for my sewing projects.
This is the view from Sarah and Alex's roof. Amazing!
I've always wanted to go to San Francisco, though I knew very little about it ahead of time. For some reason I really wasn't expecting it to look like this. But it was pretty. :)
On Wednesday night they took us to their local pizza place, Za. The pizza was so delicious!
Gigantic slices. So yummy.
On Thursday morning, Greg and I caught the cable car to Fisherman's Wharf. I couldn't get any pictures on the car, but this is the one we rode.
It was early enough that the crowds weren't yet out on the wharf. We had a really nice walk checking everything out for the first time.
Alcatraz in the background.
We had to make some souvenir pennies for the boys.
The inside of the gigantic Boudin sourdough store. I was pretty hungry at this point and wanted everything!
We settled on a loaf of jalapeno cheddar bread. It was good! Very chilly by the water, though, so we needed some hot chocolate to go with it.
I think watching the sea lions on Pier 39 was my favorite part. It's just so bizarre to see something like that in the wild. There aren't many sea lions swimming the waters of Wisconsin!
I liked this fat one hogging the best spot.
Lots of sleeping going on!
I was really excited when I kept seeing all these pick your own oyster/pearl booths. We did something similar in Florida ten years ago and I always wanted to do it again. This seemed like the perfect opportunity!
My pretty little pearl!
The final pendant. The oyster/pearl was $15, but then the lady kept trying to convince me to buy a $300 white gold setting for it. Um....no. I ended up with the cheapest $11 silver top. She wasn't very happy with me!
We walked around a little more and stopped in a few shops. I also bought a really pretty print of the bridge and cable car. I was happy to get two good souvenirs for myself. :) After that we went to this old arcade filled with unique games to play.
Sibling rivalry.
I did the love-o-meter. I was rated "Blah."
For lunch we ate at a place called Alioto's, right on the water. One of Greg's friends and his girlfriend were actually on vacation in San Francisco too, so we met up with them for lunch. Then we took them back to the arcade so they could get this picture.
There was a store with a ton of gigantic candy. It would have been a cool souvenir for the boys, but would have taken up half our suitcase!
We stopped in Ghiradelli Square to get a chocolate sample.
After resting for awhile we walked through Chinatown. Pretty unique to see something like this right in the middle of an American city.
That night we were able to get some really cheap tickets to the Giant's baseball game. It was the one thing Greg really wanted to do, but when we tried to find tickets earlier they were way too expensive. We definitely lucked out looking the night before. On the walk to the ballpark this bird photo bombed my Bay Bridge picture.
So beautiful!
We had dinner before the game at The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen.
I had the jalapeno popper grilled cheese. I think this was my favorite meal of the trip - it was so good!
Greg was so excited to see the IGN building.
We made it to the game!
It was sooooo cold at the game. I was really hoping these famous garlic fries would warm me up. No such luck!
On Friday morning we started at The Presidio. I'm still not really sure what it was, exactly... But it was a pretty area!
We stopped at LucasArts for Greg.
Next we went to The Palace of Fine Arts - another really unique sight that I knew nothing about ahead of time.
Lots of houses had these pretty flowers growing on them.
Next we started taking the bus to Golden Gate Park, but ended up getting out early to get a better look at the bridge.
Next we made our way to the park and walked through the rose garden. I love flowers this color!
We spent awhile in the Japanese Tea Garden part of Golden Gate Park. We love koi.
We had lunch at one of Sarah's favorite Mexican restaurants in the Mission area of San Francisco.
They had a huge selection of meats and salsa. It was so good!
After another afternoon rest, we went to Fort Mason where the Off the Grid food trucks were gathering. I was really excited about this ahead of time, but I was still so full from lunch that most of the food didn't sound very appealing while I was there.
Greg had a burger from Bacon Bacon, but was disappointed in how little bacon was on it.
I was craving some chocolate and finally settled on The Godfather from The Creme Brulee Cart. It was double chocolate creme brulee topped with chocolate cookie crumbles and sea salt caramel. It was AMAZING.
After dinner we went for a walk along the water. The views are so beautiful from any part of the city.
On Saturday morning, Greg and I left early to the farmer's market at the Ferry Building. This is the one thing I really wanted to do and it was pretty cool. I didn't really take any pictures of the booths because I was too distracted trying all the samples! I've never seen so many types of peaches and plums before and they were all so delicious. I also tried figs for the first time and loved them!
For breakfast Greg got a sticky bun.
I had a strawberry "fruit pocket" - PIE. This was also delicious. If I didn't have to carry it around all day I probably would have bought a ton of things here.
The inside of the ferry building was also really cool - they had tons of unique stores and restaurants. After meeting back up with Sarah and Alex, we got on the ferry to Sausalito, across the bay.
Being on the ferry was a great way to see all of San Francisco. It was crazy windy, though.
In Sausalito, we walked around for about an hour and then had lunch. We weren't very adventurous on this trip, as you can probably tell. I really don't like seafood and the only time we went to a seafood place was Thursday when I didn't feel very well, so didn't feel like trying something new.
Club sandwich.
The Sausalito marina area was beautiful.
Back on the ferry!
There was a lot of sailboat racing going on that day.
We walked to the America's Cup Pavilion after we got back to San Francisco. We spent quite awhile here looking at yachts and relaxing for awhile.
I literally know nothing about the America's Cup. But Greg was pretty enthused about it. After this we just went back to the apartment, got some takeout, and hung out. We also watched Pitch Perfect. I love that movie. :)
Greg and I really wanted to get out of the city for a day to see what else is in the area, so on Sunday, our last day, we got Alex's car and drove to Sonoma. Greg had to hold my camera out of the sun roof to get this picture on the bridge. It was very foggy!
Our first stop was The Jacuzzi Winery. I love these flowers!
I don't drink wine, but this place also makes olive oil, so I had a good time sampling those. Too bad going back on an airplane stopped me from buying so many things!!
After the winery, we walked around the Sonoma Square. I was really surprised at how few people were there. We loved this little duck.
We had our last big meal at another Mexican place.
Back in the city Greg and I went for a few final walks. This is Lombard Street, the really curvy one. I wasn't actually that impressed by the street itself (I thought it was going to be a lot bigger), but the view was incredible!
We were SO tired and sore by this point. Well, probably by Friday morning we were that tired! So much walking. Next trip I need to prepare a lot better!
We saw a few of these "mini parks."
Finally, our last picture of the city from the top of Lafayette Park. It was definitely an awesome vacation and I'm SO glad we were able to go. We had so much fun!
