San Francisco

a highlight of my summer was definitely my trip to san francisco with dave.

he had to work out there for a couple days so we made a trip out of it!

this was the view from our hotel.

those are the cable car tracks down there so we got to see and

hear the cable cars a lot.

the first thing we did was went down to see if there was some possible way to get Alcatraz tickets. we knew they were sold out on line, but we were hoping for a small miracle. no luck... they were sold out for about 10 days out. that will be a great excuse to go back someday though. we really wanted to check it out.

that night we saw wicked.

it was wonderful and dave even enjoyed it! now that's saying a lot!!

it gives me goose bumps every time. i'm so happy it was still there and we got to see it!!

the next day we bought tickets for these double decker tour buses. the best decision we made! we took them all over the place! definitely the best way to see the whole city.

i think we saw the beautiful golden gate bridge every day we were there. the first day though we really lucked out because it was a perfectly clear blue sky. i really did think it was beautiful. so fun to be able to see it in person!

we spent some time down at pier 39 and fisherman's wharf.

we saw a great show put on by some street performers. it was really entertaining.

we tried to stay away from a lot of crazy street "performers". people will try all sorts of things to make money.

this is what the golden gate bridge looked like the next day. still just as beautiful. :)

one day we went over the bridge and into a cute city called Sausalito. we grabbed a big fat ice cream cone and then continued on to Muir Woods. it was really pretty there. there were the tallest most beautiful redwoods.

that night we went to dinner at Espetus a brazilian steakhouse with a co-worker of dave's and his wife. it was really good. i'm not a big meat eater... but when it's cooked right. yum!

the next morning we tried to get up before the crowds so we could ride the cable cars. they are always packed... and hard to get on. so glad we did. the are so cool and the driver (who was a bit pushy at first) ended up being really nice and told us how they worked and even snapped a picture for us.

we went and visited chinatown. it's very colorful. lot's of really cheap stuff for sale and gross food everywhere. dehydrated fish and all sorts of "tasty" stuff.

we decided to have lunch in little italy. seemed like the safer choice. :)

 we met back up with Dave's coworker  and wife and did a little more sight seeing.  since they had a car we were able to visit a couple spots that the buses can't go.

this is the steepest street in san francisco. and let me tell you there are a lot of steep streets there. haha.  it's hard to tell in this picture but this street was CRAZY steep.  rollercoaster steep!

then we of course took a drive down the crookedest street...

 the famous lombard street.

there are gorgeous houses and flowers down the whole street. so it may not only be the crookedest it's probably one of the prettiest streets too.

we went to visit the bridge one last time that day too. but up close and from below. ahh... so pretty.

while on the tour bus we got to drive through most of the neighborhoods. my favorite though was all the victorian houses called the painted ladies. we did learn while we were there that to be considered a painted lady the house had to be painted with 3 different colors of paint.

my most favorite picture from the whole trip is of the famous seven sisters. the most popular of the painted ladies. the Full House house itself. please click on it so you can see it better. it was just beautiful. with the city as the backdrop it was breathtaking.

we had the best time exploring the city together. it had been too long since we had taken a trip with just the two of us! thanks honey. lets do it again soon. :)

(and of course thanks to my mom and sisters who watched the rugrats! it's nice to be able to enjoy yourself and not have to worry about the kids!!)