The final farewell: Day Three

Muir Woods: (Ned was SO at home, finding his inner peace)

Sausalito: (we really only saw this FUNKY car)

Stinson and Muir Beach:

Lombard St. (Crookedest St. in the WORLD!)

Lombard Street is an east-west street in San Francisco. It is famous for having a steep, one-block section that consists of tight hairpin turns. Lombard and Hyde. We waited about a 1/2 hour to drive our rental car down...and then I was so scared I'd wreck.

And saying GOOD BYE TO...the bay:

my pirate

bay bridge

GOLDEN GATE (At sun down)

and the bay on planet earth (pic from the internet, of course).

DAY 2: San Fran

DAY 2:
Started off early to Alcatraz Island (via Ferry Boat):
http://www.alcatrazhistory.com/mainpg.htm
We have tons of stories...but you can read about it on the link or my suggestion is check it out yourself.





This water tower (if you look closely, says "Free Indians Welcome." After the prison was shut down, the island was desolate for a while, until the Indian's (Native Americans) standing up for their rights took over the Island for almost a year.
Next we bought a trolley/bus pass to get around town for the day.
We learned the hard way NOT to wait in line where all the tourist wait to pick up on the trolley. On the way back we walked up a few blocks and jumped right on without waiting a minute.

We were going to have lunch in China Town...but decided against it and just explored and ate lunch in Union Square instead.

We thought it was very unique and saw some very different things as we walked through China Town. For example, at the parks, rather than a lot of mom's with their little kids, they are FILLED with tons of adults (mostly retired men) hanging out playing a game (like chess). It was just so interesting to see, we couldn't believe it. We couldn't get a good picture to show it, but there were at least 100 adults in this large park.


We then went back to the room and I took A NAP! What a wonderful thing! Have I ever said how much I truly enjoy a good, uninterrupted, NAP. I forgot about the joys in doing so.

We hit the streets again. To eat dinner, walk the well know Pier 39 on Fisherman's Wharf, and watch the sea lions for a bit.

To end the day we then took the bus to the start of the Golden Gate bridge, we got out and started walking. It was a beautiful night. We didn't realize it was so late, but it was about 8pm when we checked, but it was so bright and beautiful and the perfect night to walk the bridge. We looked at the city, Alcatraz, the bay, watched a freighter coming in the bay. It was so nice. We also saw across the bridge to where Muir Woods was, and, well...that's more for tomorrow...

San Francisco.Five Years.No Kids.Long Weekend. FUN!

FIVE Year Anniversary

San Francisco

Long weekend away

Without the kids

Can we go back?!?

A HUGE thanks to our parents who pitched in and watched the kids for us... they had a blast and weren't ready for us to come home either (that is our kids of course, not the parents...ha ha ha)
Here was our itinerary for San Fran...more for our own documentation than anything...but enjoy at your own pleasure.

Day 1:

Arrived at Long Beach Airport EARLY Thursday only to find our flight delayed an hour (of course) finally got there...drove with a CRAZY shuttle driver to our hotel...

Checked into the Sheraton on the Wharf.

Then hit the town. We had lunch at the "fancy cafe" Boudin (there are about 6 different Boudin restaurants, cafes, and sidewalk cafes), we learned the hard way and accidentally ran up to the most expensive one first, we were starving, but enjoyed it nonetheless with a GREAT view of the bay.

We LOVE calamari and ate to our hearts content...then decided to pull off the breading to show everyone what we were really eating so a few people would be disgusted...I couldn't eat them after we pulled off the breading but Ned had no problem.

They create VERY cute bread creatures. We would have loved to have gotten Ella the alligator or lobster, but settled with a mini turtle because of price...see picture below.

Then we got lost in a few unique places in town. The old arcade house, which had very old, and hilarious may I add, arcade games.

We did the kiss-o-meter...which you have to kiss the WHOLE TIME it gages your kiss (its like 2 minutes, good practice for our anniversary weekend to remember how to kiss that long) and it tells you how your kiss is. We were excited we still can get passionate after 5 years and 2 kids...ha ha ha

Then we ventured out and explored a few things in the bay (please note Ned's anchor poses in true San Fran spirit!):

• (USS Pampanito and SS Jeremiah O'Brien: Pier 45, just behind The Franciscan restaurant. The World War II Balao-class Fleet submarine, restored to late 1945 vintage sits next to the Jeremiah O'Brien, a fully-restored, operating, World War II Liberty Ship. )
• San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park: Run by the National Park Service, the Hyde Street Pier museum provides a good overview of San Francisco's maritime history. Exhibits include the ferryboat Eureka (possibly the largest floating wooden vessel in the world), the C. A. Thayer and the Balaclutha.

We then headed to Ghirardelli Square to enjoy people watching, and, oh yeah, some GREAT ice cream! I am not a super chocolate person though, so of course I got strawberry, with a chocolate dipped cone.

Then tired from the flight and a long day we headed back to our hotel room to relax outside by the fire pits they have for the guests.

I think that is all for Day 1...Days 2&3 to follow...