Sunday, January 25, 2009

San Francisco

Last weekend Paul and I had the extreme delight of a long weekend in San Francisco. We arrived on Saturday, our hotel a few blocks from Union Square.We rested for a few minutes, changed clothes and headed out to Chinatown for some food. I had been to this particular restaurant before, it is delicious with service like Seinfeld's Soup Nazi. Oh the pot stickers and fried rice we will dream about for months to come.


Sunday morning we took our time, went to a local dive for a divine breakfast at Dottie's. We took our time, then went back to the room for Paul to get his gear ready for the wedding he was videoing. That afternoon we headed south to Woodside for a wedding at Thomas Fogarty winery in the mountains. It was beautiful. I managed NOT to get a single picture at the wedding. I really wanted one of Paul and I all gussied up, oh well. We had a fabulous time, and are thankful we were invited to attend.


Monday was our BIG touring day. I don't know how I made it, but I did. It helped that sweet Paul pretty much carried all my stuff most of the day. We hopped the cable car to Fisherman's Wharf and caught the 2nd ferry out to Alcatraz.

I was not "OMG, We HAVE to go to Alcatraz!" Paul was, so we went. I changed my mind once we got there, it was very interesting. The audio tour had guards and inmates that worked and were imprisoned there during it's day. It told of the many escape attempts, history, etc. We even were locked in the solitary confinement cell, scary, and the "guard" would slam the door open and shut like they would have back then. So loud! By the time we left the island at noon, we were so glad we got there early.


We walked over to Ghiradelli Square for some chocolate and a most fantastic banana split. We had dark chocolate syrup, sooo yummy!


We hopped back on the cable car to go to the cable car museum. Paul could have spent most of the day here and at Alcatraz. It was pretty cool, it's the housing for the sheaths and whatnot (very technical I know) that pull the cables. I do have to say, the smell is not pleasant on the pregnant nose. But interesting none-the-less.

Ok, now we are back on the cable car to Coit Tower. Or a stop that gets us close to Coit Tower, unfortunately did not take us up the massive hill we had to climb. Paul got a little worried about me after this one, if only it had been our last hill of the day. Anyway, Coit Tower was built in honor of Lillie Hitchcock Coit. I actually thought her story was an interesting one. We ride up the elevator 210 feet to see views all over the city. We got there just at sunset. Spectacular! The picture of me at the bottom of the hill, you can not even see the top!


Finally, down to North Beach for dinner. We ate at Pinnochio's on the sidewalk. So great they had heaters. We had a great view of several streets, great for people watching and a nice long relaxing dinner! Much needed. I don't think I have ever eaten so much bread in one weekend. Of course, they serve Sourdough everywhere and I'm sure I ate my weight in it. Delicious!

After dinner, we decided to walk home. I don't know how we came to this conclusion but we did. An hour later after walking 3/4 of the way uphill and the last 1/4 downhill, we make it back to the hotel! HALLELUJAH!!! We rest for a minute then head down to Union Square, after about 30minutes I insisted we go back. I could barely make it back to the hotel. I was asleep within 10minutes! However, we had a fantastic day and reveled in each other's company.
Tuesday! Our last day in San Fran. We walked to Lorie's Diner for a nice fat breakfast, check out of the hotel and head out to Golden Gate Bridge. An impressive sight; however, walking on it was cold and very windy. Not a big fan of that! After viewing on the San Fran side, we drove over to Sausalito for lunch. A quaint town with fabulous views of the city. We had a scrumptious lunch of shrimp salad sandwich, salad, clam chowder and shrimp/crab bisque. So good I'll show you a picture. We got back in the car and drove up a little mountain just on the other side of Golden Gate to view it from the opposite side. God's beauty is amazing!



Our time ended there. What a wonderful get-a-way for us! We actually got to talk uninterrupted for 5 days straight! We were excited to get back to the boys, and they were ready for us to be back. We brought them cable cars and swords from Chinatown. So fun giving gifts when you get back from a trip!!!

1 comment:

Amy said...

My my...you've been busy! LOoks like fun!