Days Four and Five In San Fran!

I finally got around to finishing up the last of the posts from our San Francisco!

If yoy missed the first three days, here they are:

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Now on to days four and five in San Francisco! On the fourth day, we planned to go to Alcatraz. Everyone told us we had to go do that while we were there and I am so glad we did!

This is a view of the bay from our tour boat on the way to Alcatraz.

The view of Alcatraz from our boat.

We liked the greenery in this picture. This was the beginning of our tour of Alcatraz. They used to use this stairway back in the day but now it's just pretty to look at :-).

These are the showers that the inmates had to use. It's not very private, huh? Sheesh. I would hate to drop my soap showering there!

Just one of the many jail cells. We did the audio tour and learned a lot about the things that went on there. We learned about different inmates and guards and we also heard stories about different escape attempts. Only a few had actually escaped, never to be found again.  The audio tour was really neat because they had some of the inmates and guards telling the stories.

This is the yard where the inmates went for their outdoor time.

Three levels of jail cells.

The visitation area. It was pretty depressing.

A view from Alcatraz. That's the Golden Gate Bridge (if you couldn't tell).

Just some buildings on Alcatraz. Did you know that the guards and their families actually lived on the island? The kids would take a boat to the island every morning to go to school. The families were free to leave on a private boat to go to the bay any time they wanted. They said they hardly ever saw any inmates while they were there and the rent was cheap. The view is obviously gorgeous. I could see the perks of living there...but what if one of the inmates escaped and found his way to your apartment? I don't know if I would like taking that risk!

When we got back from Alcatraz we finally saw these guys! We gave them a tip using our "Hobo cash for information" money.

And for your entertainment (and mine) I decided to post these videos too! We were still at Fisherman's Wharf when we saw a crown cheering and I pulled Michael over to see what was going on. This is what we found!

I'm so glad we didn't drive...

On day five, all we had time to do was go eat breakfast, pack up our stuff, go to the BART (there was no way we were going to take another taxi), and head to the San Francisco airport to go home. We had a little extra time though, so here we are eating our last meal in SF.

 I can't decide if this picture is yummy or disgusting. I'm sorry if you think it's gross! I probably should have taken a before picture instead of after I devoured it.

Day Three In San Fran!

Days one and two if you missed them.

On Wednesday we knew my friends Kaitlin and Alicia were coming to visit but weren't sure what time yet, so we decided to figure out how to use the trolly system/buses.

Once we payed some bums for directions (they were quite helpful, actually!), we made our way to Fisherman's Wharf. It was pretty chilly but luckily the sun was out so it helped ease the chill of the winds.

We walked around and looked in a bunch of stores. We had some overpriced delicious strawberry crepes and then walked around some more! We went into this crazy mirror maze that was pretty funny...I might post a video of that sometime.

We sat down in the sun and looked at a ton of seals that were just chillin' all on top of each other. Then we got some lunch. I tried some fried shrimp and fries and Michael got a soup bowl.

Then we headed back to home base (hotel/that area) and met up with me friends! It was SOOO nice of them to make the trek up just to spend a few hours with us! I have been friends with Kaitlin and her sister Whitney since we were all in diapers. When I was 18 I moved in with their family in Northern California and that's when they introduced me to Alicia! We all became very close and have tried to see each other at least every 6 months or so. ANYWAY....

(Alicia, me, and Kaitlin in our hotel room.)

When they got here we went to the mall down the street. It's huge! It's at least 5 stories tall and very wide! They even had a touch screen map thing in the mall (you know the maps they have, right?) and I couldn't get over how cool that was! Michael was kind enough to let me have some alone time with the girls. He just got some food (of course) and played games on his phone while us girls went to Frederick's. Kaitlin had never gotten sized for the right bra size so I told her if she did it that I would buy her a bra myself. Low and behold, she got a new bra and feels (and looks) like a brand new woman! Moral of this story- get the right bra size and it looks a lot better!

Moving on...

After that little fiasco, we met back up with Michael and got some JAMBA JUICE!!

After sitting around for a little while, we saw some people swing dancing in the square and watched them. They said they were going to be having a free swing dance class in about 15 minutes and at first I got really excited...but then I started thinking about how my friends came out to see us and so I wouldn't want them to be bored just sitting and watching us. Plus it was cold. So, we left!

(Can you see the people dancing in the background?)

We went back to the hotel and showed them the cool clubhouse on the top floor where they had a fireplace and free hot chocolate for us. Before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye! But it was so much fun to see them again! I couldn't thank them enough for coming all the way to see us. And I couldn't thank Michael enough for allowing it! :-)

Day Two In San Fran

Here's a link to Day One in San Fran if you missed it!

That's right. I'm a beast. Michael wanted us to go to the gym...I forgot my gym clothes. Oh well! It was in our hotel and free so we hit it up for a bit.

Then we went to breakfast to start the day right! That place was so good!

Then we WALKED to China Town. We thought this was the Golden Gate because we hadn't seen it. It didn't look very Golden...haha. We're dumb! I guess it's the Bay Bridge.

We had fun walking up and down the streets of China Town! We went into a bunch of the stores. We bought odds and ends like a measuring tape that's in a little woven turtle thing...it's hard to explain but you pull the tail and there you go! Michael got jade dragon chopsticks and I got a rose crystal thing that is on my nightstand. It's on a stand that lights up and turns it. It's really pretty :-)

Then...we actually got massages in China Town! It was suuuuper cheap and it actually looked nice! I'm glad we did that. Michael was in the room next to me and I kept hearing his lady go "does that hurt?" and him going "a little". I smiled to myself. My sensitive husband. He's also very ticklish! Like...he freaks out if I tickle him! Anyway...

We also found a fortune cookie factory where we could see them making, folding, and slipping the fortunes into the cookies. We bought a bag for a dollar.

We tried to take a bunch of crazy street pictures. This was on the way back  after we were in China Town.

One of the many times we ate at Uncle Vito's. The food was delicious and he actually ate his veggies in this soup! We also had pizza and spaghetti from there. I wish we got more pictures of the place instead of us stuffing our mouths...

The rest of the night, we were exhausted from walking so far both ways so we just chilled in our hotel room and watched more movies. Can you tell we are not party / late night people? Plus it gets freezing when the sun goes down!

Stay tuned for day three in San Fran!

Day One in San Fran!

**Doggy Update**

We decided to move forward with adopting the little Chihuahua mix! The lady who I have been working with on this is taking her to the vet this morning. If she is healthy and not too old (I would be so so sad if we adopted her and then she died or something!) then we will have sort of a meet-and-greet on Sunday afternoon! We will hopefully meet up at a dog park, which should tell a lot about her too. We are very excited! We already have a name picked out for her, too. Just in case. I will disclose that little bit of info if and when the time comes!

**San Francisco**

I decided I really need to start my SF trip posts! Consider this Day One in San Francisco!

We flew up on Monday morning to the SF Airport and then we took my very first taxi ride to our hotel! Little did I know how jacked up the prices are. It was about $40.00 just for about 15-20 minutes! I was shocked! That's almost as much as one trip to FLY to SF! Oh and it was really dirty too. Oh well. You live and learn!

When we got to the hotel, I grabbed a bunch of brochures at the front desk. This is right before we saw our room. We had to wait a couple minutes because the room service lady was still in there. We were a little early checking in.

We were only in our room long enough to look around and then we headed out to explore the area. Our first stop was at a small convenience store to pick up some things we needed like snacks for our room and things we forgot to bring. Then we went into a bunch of stores like SAKS and Tiffany's that I would never buy anything in but it was fun to look. Then we went into the Macy's which was about 5 stories tall and on the bottom floor we found this jem. Ben and Jerry's! If you know us, you know how we like to eat!

Unfortunately I got sick soon after this. We were walking around and my stomach started cramping up so bad I could hardly walk. Thanks, Mom for that wonderful trait! Too much ice cream / cream. Michael still managed to take some pictures though. We still looked around in stores for a little while until I couldn't take it anymore.

A little cafe in the middle of an alley.

I hobbled with Michael back to the hotel and rested. I was mad at myself for spoiling our first day there! Michael found a Blockbuster a few blocks away and got some movies for us to watch. We didn't even really have dinner since my stomach was acting up so bad. You probably think that sounds boring but it was still fun for us to relax in our SF hotel, watching movies and just getting to be together on vacation! Our next few days there were more interesting than this. This day was mostly about getting our barings and looking around, exploring the city around our hotel.