San Francisco: Day Three

As our crazy San Francisco vacation came to an end, we were simultaneously ready to be home and wishing we could stay for a few more days. But whether we wanted to or not, we had to check out of our lovely hotel. It was a pretty nice place to stay. I snapped a few pictures on our way out.

Our cozy room.

Small, but pretty.

The lobby was pretty cool and modern.

This fireplace makes me think of cartoon ghosts.

Pretty lobby.

Weird chandelier.

Anyway, we headed out from our hotel for the last time to see a few more sights before we had to leave. Unfortunately, Matt strained his foot on Saturday. Due to his pain, we tried to only visit locations with transportation routes close by. First stop was the ocean.

It was ridiculously cold by the water. The day was pretty cloudy and cool to begin with. And silly us, we left our jackets with our bags in the luggage closet of our hotel.

So cold.

We didn't waste a lot of time freezing on the beach. We quickly made our way back to the street, where there happened to be a giant marathon taking place.

Yay! Go runners!

A short bus/train ride led us to our next destination, the "Painted Ladies." I was very excited to see the Full House houses.

"Whatever happened to predictability?"

Of course, the Tanners didn't actually live in one of these houses. After extensive research (a two-minute trip to Wikipedia), I learned that their house was located elsewhere in San Francisco. But the opening credits showed the family having a picnic in front of the "Painted Ladies," so it was still cool.

Our next stop was perhaps one of the most exciting parts of the trip. We hunted down M5 Industries!

Boring industrial area, where Mythbusters is located!

Because it was a Sunday, there was absolutely nothing going on. In fact, it would have been a little boring, had we not been such huge fans of the show for years.

The only evidence that Mythbusters is shot at this location was the sign to fans on the front door. Basically, they want tourists like me and Matt to leave them alone. But they weren't there, so it's ok.

Cool.

Finally, after a fantastic trip, it was time to head home. We grabbed our bags from our hotel and hopped a train to the airport.

Going home.

We could have been very happy to stay in San Francisco for a few more days. We had such a great time, and there's just so much to see and do. But we'd had a very busy and tiring weekend, so getting back to our own bed and our cool kitties felt pretty good, too.

San Francisco: Day Two

After waking refreshed on Saturday morning, we set out to see the Golden Gate Bridge. We took a short bus ride from our hotel, and finally had our first (up close) view of the famous San Francisco landmark.

It was very exciting.

There's a big boat. Matt likes big boats.

After a few pictures, we began the trek across the bridge.

It was a little scary for me to look over the edge of the bridge. But it was also way cool.

At the midway point of the bridge. Matt saw another big boat.

As we made it to the other end, the fog began to roll in. It was a pretty cool effect, and one we're not quite used to here in Denver.

The bridge is gone!!!

We continued walking on the little highway that took us into the town of Sausalito.

Walking on the side of the road.

In Sausalito, I found the house I will someday live in. Or at least vacation in.

Soo pretty. Oh, to be rich.

Sausalito is a very quaint seaside town. And I love quaint things. But we quickly realized that it was a very expensive, touristy, quaint town. So maybe I don't want to live there afterall. But it was still pretty.

Lots of pretty (and probably very expensive) houses.

After a walk around town and a quick lunch, we hopped on the ferry to head back to "The City."

We had done a lot of walking, and we were spent.

Tired.

Also tired.

Walking about 12 miles in two days earned us a nice afternoon rest in our hotel. Saturday evening we were in the mood to take it easy. We enjoyed the complimentary wine our in our hotel lobby:

The closest thing to a wine-tasting that I got on this trip. Yummy Californian wine!

Then we headed out for a long, leisurely dinner at the San Francisco Brewing Company. It was in this cool, historic building with a large old-fashioned bar and a very cool ceiling fan. Of course, I didn't want to snap a lot of pictures inside the restaurant, so I just sneaked one as I was coming out of the bathroom.

Cool.

We were pretty exhausted at this point, so we made it an early evening. We had to fly home the next day, but not until late afternoon. So we had time for a few more sights.

San Francisco: Alcatraz Night

After our long day of lots and lots of walking, we had a short rest at the hotel to prepare ourselves for the terror that was to come. We were going on the Alcatraz Night Tour! Scary!

Our destination.

Our ride.

"We're on a boat!" ("This ain't SeaWorld, this is real as it gets.")

On our way to Alcatraz. Sunset behind the Golden Gate Bridge.

View of San Francisco from the island.

The night tour didn't really make things more scary, but that's ok. There were fewer people than during the day, and there were more guided programs. We were led up to the prison along the same path the prisoners took when they arrived, then we were given headphones for the audio tour.

A typical cell. Very small.

Lots of cells.

THE HOLE!

Inside The Hole!! AHH!

The hospital wing.

The final meal served in the dining room on the last day the prison was open.

I was trapped inside a cell! (But not really because the door was wide open.)

Creepy, deserted cell block.

I wish we could have spent a lot more time there because Alcatraz was really cool. And a little creepy.

San Francisco: Day One

Whew! What a week! Many times I've found myself thinking longingly about last weekend. We took a wonderful trip to San Francisco, and we had a great time. Of course, I took a million pictures, but I've tried to limit those that I share with you. Still, it may take a few posts to show our entire trip. But here goes! Our vacation to San Francisco:

A few weeks ago, I realized that I had a Friday with no school coming up. So we decided to take a short trip. We left after work on Thursday, getting in pretty late. Friday morning, we began our crazy day of seeing a million sights (or so it felt)! We started in Chinatown:

The Chinatown gate.

The real Chinatown.

The streets surrounding Chinatown were the most interesting to us because those were the areas in which the Chinese-American population actually shops and lives. "Chinatown" is just where the tourists go.

On to the next destination. Good thing Matt had his trusty map:


We tried to check out Union Square, but there was a crazy marathon taking place that weekend. They had taken over the square! But I imagine it would have been pretty, were it not for the giant red tent.


We saw the historic trolleys:

Matt, thrilled to be on the trolley!

After our trolley adventure, we exhausted ourselves by climbing Lombard Street to the "Crookedest Street."

It was steep.

"The Crookedest Street." We felt no desire to climb any higher than we had. But it was cool to look at.

We were tired. (We may have been faking this picture...)

Continuing our crazy walk around the city, we headed to North Beach.

St. Peter and Paul Church. Or St. Paul and Peter Church. Regardless, it was pretty.

Lunch. Yum.

Then on to the famous Pier 39. Which was kinda lame.

A lot of stinky seals. Cool?

Tourist traps. Lame.

Boats. On the back side of Pier 39. Not as lame as the touristy other side.

After that waste of time (okay, it wasn't really that bad), we headed to Coit Tower.

Inside the base of the tower, there were murals painted on all the walls. They were really cool, though this one was a little confusing. I believe this is an image of someone getting run over by a car. Weird.

View of the Bay Bridge.

View of downtown. There's the church we saw.

View of Alcatraz. And a statue.

Then we headed back up to the shore to see Ghirardelli Square.

It was basically a bunch of Ghirardelli shops, but it was pretty.

We had a Ghirardelli chocolate shake. Delicious.

Our last stop of the day was Fisherman's Wharf.

There, we saw a couple of cool boats. Yay. Matt really liked the boats.

At the end of the day, we were very tired. Matt figured that we walked about 7 and 1/2 miles throughout the day. It doesn't seem like a lot when you think that we'd hiked 10 miles a couple times this summer, but it sure felt like a lot. But we were able to see a ton of sights in a short amount of time. So, that was cool. And we still had a lot to see!