San Francisco

{March 3rd- March 6th}


{Day 1}

Oh San Francisco, you stole our hearts. We completely fell in love with this city. We arrived early Saturday morning and after dropping off our luggage, we walked through town over to Fisherman's Wharf. It was a beautiful day, sunny and 70 degrees. Perfection!

First order of business, breakfast! We decided to check out Boudins on the Pier and ate the most delicious sourdough french toast. Holy cow, so good! Over the next four days we would consume more sourdough bread than should be allowed for two human beings. It was pretty ridiculous.

Fisherman's Wharf is such a fun place. We spent a lot of time there. So much to see and do. There are street performers there like you wouldn't believe! A lot of them were pretty dang talented. And some others...not so much, but made for a good laugh!

Just up from the Wharf is Ghirardelli Square. We stopped by for some Ghirardelli chocolate ice cream to enjoy on our walk up to Loumbard Street.

The famous Loumbard Street.

And...back to Boudins we go! We grabbed lunch here before we headed on our Alcatraz tour. The best pizza I have EVER had! Tomato Basil on their sourdough crust. To. Die. For. Uh...my mouth is watering now just thinking about it. We also picked up a loaf to bring back to our hotel room that night. They make all the bread fresh right there and send it over to the bakery/restaurant on the little conveyor belts. Pretty nifty.

The tour through Alcatraz was pretty amazing. We learned a ton about the history of the prison and the inmates. The audio tour made it feel as if it was all happening right then. It was pretty rad.

The inmate library.

The cells were so teeny tiny. Most of the inmates were only allowed out of their cell for 1 hour a day. 1 hour! I'd go nuts...which a lot of them probably did. We learned a lot about the escape attempts. Particularly of the three inmates that actually made it out and were never found. The currents in the bay are so strong and the water so cold that many say there's no way they could have survived. But alas, the bodies were never found so a mystery it will stay. I personally think they made it!

This was the house of the warden. It was pretty huge. It was ruined in a fire shortly after the prison was shut down.

Look at that view! Below are the ruins of what used to be housing for the families of the guards that worked in the prison. The kids would take the ferry into town to go to school but this is where they spent most of their time.

You can kinda see the Golden Gate bridge in the background. Warning- I became a tad bit obsessed with the bridge and took probably 2,000 pictures of that dang thing. It's pretty gorgeous.

On our boat ride back. That night we met up with some friends for dinner who live in the neighborhood. It had been a long time since I'd seen them so I was really glad we had a chance to get together. And then later that night at our hotel we may or may not have cracked open our sourdough loaf and eaten half of it. Don't judge us..

{Day 2}

Oy, can't get enough of it! Isn't it gorgeous?!

Day 2 we biked over the bridge to the cute little town across the bay known as Saucelito.

Stopping a lot along the way to take plenty of pictures. I warned you, I'm obsessed.

This place was pretty cool. It was a fortress built back in the day and was tucked underneath the bridge. It was there as a lookout to watch for ships coming in so they could send a warning.

And over the bridge we go! 

Beautiful Saucelito. It was such a cute, quaint little town. And also a very wealthy area. Lots of big houses, really nice cars, and really expensive boutiques. We ate lunch, walked around town a bit, and then caught the ferry back over to the Wharf.

One of our favorite parts of our trip was definitely this day, the day we biked across the bridge. It was pretty awesome!

We got back to the Pier and checked out the aquarium.

And a great ending to a great day. :)

{Day 3}

Day 3 we rented one of these little go cars and buzzed around town a bit. There was a built in GPS system that would tell you when to turn and what you were seeing. There were a couple times we thought we might die but for the most part it was really fun! Driving in San Fran is a lot like driving in Seattle. Lots of one way streets and really big hills!

Next we headed to catch the cable car to the other side of town. So much fun! We were hanging off the sides and went up and down some really big hills. There were only a few times I almost fell off. Taking pictures while riding a cable car don't really go hand in hand! Haha, good times.

The cable car took us from one side of the city back to Fisherman's Wharf so we decided to catch a quick boat ride that would take us under the bridge.

So beautiful.

Next we went on a double decker bus tour of the whole city. (we packed a lot into this day!) We loved this. The tour guide was so funny and we learned so much about the city. It was another gorgeous day but a little more foggy than the past two days had been.

The bridge...again. And my studly husband.

They stopped at the bridge so we were able to get out and walk across it. These signs were posted in multiple locations along the way. Kinda sad there is a need for these!

The painted ladies! These houses are sooo cute! I want one! Across the street from them is Alamo Square. It's the park they filmed part of the opening credits for Full House. The 'Full House' house is suppose to be the yellow one with the red door but we heard the real house is actually a few blocks down the road on a different street. Who really knows.  

I fell in love with the style and architecture of San Francisco. I could have driven around for hours and just looked at all of the houses and churches and buildings.

The town hall.

And last but not least, China Town. Our hotel was right in the heart of China town so every day as we would head to our activities, we would walk through streets and streets of it. It's one of the largest China Towns there are. Pretty awesome.

{Day 4}

Day 4. Our last day in San Francisco. We hopped on the bus and headed over to the California Science Center. It's located in the middle of Golden Gate Park. The park is amazing. It's 4 times bigger than Central Park. We could have stayed there all day.

The California Science Center was awesome! We had heard a lot of good things about it so we really wanted to check it out. It was huge! Inside was a 4 story rain forest! There were birds and butterflies galore flying all around us. It was pretty cool. I didn't take a ton of pictures here. Just one of this albino crocodile. It was a freaky looking thing. It's eyes were bright red!

And then we headed to the beach. It was sooo windy! The wind was so strong we could barely walk forward. We definitely found out why San Fran is known as the windy city! Holy manoly.

Then we got back on the bus and headed back into down town. We walked through China town one last time, said our goodbyes to this beautiful city we fell in love with, and got on the bart for a bumpy ride to the airport. The bart is the subway system they have there. I felt like we were going to die both times riding it. It screeches and squeals so loud and was old and sooo dirty. It was an experience in and of itself.

So long San Francisco, we'll be seeing you again soon!