San Francisco

Last weekend was a big weekend for our family.  Shoo Shoo came to visit from Georgia to help Aunt Nancy watch Susannah so that Peter and I could----drumroll please------take a trip BY OURSELVES to San Francisco!    It was just as amazing as we had expected it to be.    I have to admit, though, that traveling without Susannah was less awesome than I had thought......We missed her like crazy and I kept feeling like I was forgetting something, especially in the airport.   I guess it is just another complexity of parenthood.......being beside yourself with excitement for an adult weekend and enjoying every single second of it while simultaneously yearning for a hug or a smile from the very children that you were so excited to escape.   Weird, right???   

That's probably sufficient rambling for now.....   How about some pictures from the trip????

Well, first, the day before the trip.......Peter scored some awesome seats to the Padres/Braves game so he and Aunt Nancy had a little brother/sister afternoon while Susannah and I prepped the house for Shoo-Shoo's arrival.

They came home with Susannah's favorite pink cotton candy.

Susannah was excited to show Shoo Shoo her garden.

Who knows?   Maybe Shoo-Shoo's biologist genes were passed on to Susannah.

We had a fun family dinner at home and enjoyed catching up with Shoo Shoo.

The next morning we headed to the airport and within 3 hours of leaving our house, we were eating Dim Sum in San Francisco's Chinatown.  

We went to the place the guidebook recommended.   Most of it was delicious, but the décor and cleanliness left a little to be desired.   Lunch in San Fran for less than $20 is a steal though and we survived without getting sick.   ;)

Before heading out of Chinatown, we stopped by a fortune cookie factory.   It was really neat to watch them fold the little fortunes in by hand.   It was also really neat to eat the warm, just-off-the-line samples.  

The China Town experience is just that.....an experience.   I was overwhelmed at how it really was a place where a huge (80,000) population of Chinese people live and work.   Not at all like the touristy China Town in DC. 

All the signs are written in Chinese.    All the menus, the ads..... everything.  

Back in America.....we headed over to "the world's curviest street."

It was a hike getting up to it but the beautiful hydrangea bushes that lined the entire street were so amazing.

This picture doesn't do it justice, but even at the base of the street, you are already up high with a great view.

Can you tell we were a little giddy about the first day of our long awaited trip?

And here is the view from the very top of the street.   Totally worth the breathless climb.

After Lombard Street we headed down through Little Italy to Fisherman's Wharf.   We passed these cable cars on the way and had to snag a picture.

Exhibit #2 of the giddiness.

Despite the throngs of tourists and t-shirt shops, Fisherman's Wharf is still a sight to behold.

The famous sign.

Peter checking out Alcatraz Island

That evening we had an amazing dinner at Café Claude's, this hidden back-alley French restaurant/jazz club.    The food was amazing and our waiter was French.   So fun that we forgot to take pictures.

 

The next morning we took a cable car from our hotel to Fisherman's Wharf.

Hanging off the side was even more fun than expected.

At the Wharf we rented bikes and headed toward the Golden Gate bridge.

It was a perfectly clear day and I was constantly astounded by how beautiful the scenery was.

As we made our way through the Presidio, the views of the bridge kept coming, each one more breathtaking than the next.

I told Peter that seeing it was just as cool to me as the first time I saw the Parthenon or the Eiffel Tower.

Probably one of the coolest travel days of my life to date.

And before you know it, you are on the bridge!!

Enjoying amazing views of the city.

And the bay.   The city is hosting a big sailboat race in a couple of weeks, so we were able to see a couple of the teams practicing from the bridge, making the experience even more memorable.   

Safely on the other side.   

After a delicious lunch in the amazing waterfront town of Sausalito, we hopped back on our bikes and headed to Muir Woods National Park to check out the tallest trees in the world.

They were breathtaking.

From there we continued the beautiful and very hilly ride through a couple of little towns and into Tiburon where we caught the ferry back to the city.    I've never been so happy to see a ferry in my whole life.   It was an amazing day, but this girl hasn't exercised in four months and I was exhausted.   Some fresh water, a bourbon, and some peanut m&m's during the ferry ride put the spring back in our step though.   We made it back to the hotel just in time to enjoy a movie and some take-out sushi for dinner.

The next morning was cloudy and cool, but we headed out anyway to hit the farmer's market at the Ferry Building.  It was  bustling and impressive.

We drank some delicious coffee and built a beautiful picnic for our lunch later that day.   

We took a bus through the infamous Tenderloin District to see Alamo Square and the famous "Painted Ladies."   Or, as you probably know them, the houses where we all thought the Uncle Jessie and Joey lived in "Full House."

The park was beautiful and our plan had been to eat our cheese and bread and drink our wine here for lunch, but the wind and the clouds pushed us to plan B.

So we headed to the Haight Ashbery district.   Here we are trying to pretend we are cool enough to be in a record store. 

This is Peter playing air guitar at the famous corner of Haight and Ashbery.

For those of you who don't know, Peter is quite the Grateful Dead fan, so he couldn't resist another air-guitar pic in front of Jerry Garcia's old abode.

After a delicious Puerto Rican lunch, we said goodbye to the hippies and grabbed a bus back across the Golden Gate Bridge.   We could see that the sun was shining across the bay in Sausalito, so we decided to spend our last afternoon there.   We laid by this fountain in a park by the water and drank our wine, had our market inspired picnic and watched the people.  

The view of the park from the hillside.   We hung out here until the 7:30 ferry,

which took us right by Alcatraz Island,

And back to the ferry building where we had started the day.   



Thank you Shoo-Shoo and Aunt Nancy for allowing us to experience this amazing city together!    Now we plan to sit back and enjoy our last five weeks in sunny California.   Hope all is well with all of you!