San Francisco, April 2009 (Days 3 & 4)

For our last full day in SF together we headed out to get close(ish) to the Golden Gate Bridge. Considering I am deathly afraid of suspension bridges and my mom isn't exactly a fan of heights or bridges, walking (or driving for that matter) across the bridge was OUT. OF. THE. QUESTION. Instead we thought we would take a nice leasurely stroll to a point that would allow for me to take some fabulous pictures. No such luck on that front because it seems that the best vantage point for a good shot is on the other side of the bridge. Sooo.... here is a picture from wikipedia which didn't involve me having to hold back uncontrollable tears and niagra falls palm sweat.


Having satisfied the need to see the bridge, we took a very long, and very steep walk to Lombard Steet or the incorrectly dubbed "Crookedest Street in the World". After catching our breath and waiting for the fire in our legs to subside (there are some serious hills around there) we began the 1/4 mile descent. Traffic was back to back and people were hopping out of their cars to get a picture of their family in their car on Lombard Street. I suppose everyone there was a tourist so it didn't seem to bother most people. Although, I have to imagine living on that street gets pretty old, pretty quickly.

All this work had us heading for some caffeine and a drink - so we had an all in one drink, irish coffees! We went to The Buena Vista, the first place in American to make an Irish Coffee. It had a really interesting history, which can be found on their website: http://www.thebuenavista.com/irishcoffee.html. We stuck around for a while to enjoy a few drinks as well as watch the process of them being made. The bartenders make 20 or so at a time and somehow manage to accomodate and remember special orders.


Post drinks and all that walking around, we hopped on a trolley back to our hotel to put our feet up and turn on the tube for one last night of girl talk and "48 Hour Mystery". Due to the crazy hills, the trolly provided an excellent location for some nice pictures of the city around us.


On our last 1/2 day before heading to the airport we went to see the "Painted Ladies" on Alamo Square. Admittedly, I was most familiar with them due to my fun filled Friday nights watching Full House and developing my girl crush on Uncle Jessie. "What ever happened to predictability? The milkman, the paperboy, the evening TV..." Anyone else know this song??? Ok, so back to the houses. They were very charming to see and I wished there would have been one that was open to the public just so we could walk through it. Since we had another hour or so to kill, we headed through the park and witnessed a dog walked with no less than 10 dogs. They all seemed perfectly under control though so he must rule them Cesar Millan style and be the true pack leader.

We walked all the way to the center of the Haight-Ashbury district. Seeing as neither of us were in the market for marijuana inspired accessories/decor/pharaphanila, we instead did some serious people watching and enjoyed the last of our time together in SF.

I look forward to another trip next year with just the two of us! Where should we go??!!

San Francisco, April 2009 (Days 1 & 2)

Waaaayyy back in April, as a gift to my mom, I planned and arranged a weekend trip for the two of us to San Francisco. Neither of us had been before so we planned a full weekend of sight-seeing. After arriving and getting settled into our hotel in Union Square, we promptly set out to explore and decided to head to the relatively close Chinatown. We putzed around through the shops, watched fortune cookies being made, and enjoyed the architecture. That evening we wandered aimlessly throughout the city and eventually settled into our beds. Thus began the "48 Hour Mystery" tradition...for each of the 3 nights we curled up in our beds and watched 2 back to back episodes while munching on cookies and drinking wine. A perfect ladies night!

Saturday morning we were up and out early for the farmer's market where we bought fresh cheese, bread, and pastries for our breakfast. We then made our way to Pier 39. On the way, we happened upon this guy:
He would sit with those branches hiding him and then jump out to scare unsuspecting passerby. My mom loved this and ran up to him to grab a picture. What ensued was a hysterical conversation in which he said "If you want to take a picture of my bush, you need to pay me!"...to which my mom replied "That's what I always say!". After that, they were like long lost best friends and we spent a bit of time chatting with him. And here's the picture of my mom in his bush (which we did pay for):


Pier 39 was nothing special...aside from the sea lions, which I LOVED! We watched some turf wars, but mostly witnessed a lot of sleepy animals. We spent a bit of time on the pier and then left to make our boat trip over to Alcatraz. To be honest, I didn't know much about "The Rock" other than its lengthy list of infamous prisoners. We did the audio tour and I thought it was fascinating. I highly recommend the trip over and the full audio tour. Plus...the views are amazing.




Our full day of walking and exploring had us back in our hotel early and settled in just in time for another "48 Hours" marathon.