San Francisco...All Around the Town

Our alarm gave us a rude awakening on the second day of our trip. We had to get up very early to make it to a tour of the city. We grabbed a quick breakfast, jumped on the cable car, and then walked for several blocks through the financial district (where I tried to find banks that Wes could work for in San Francisco). After getting left behind by the next cable car line, we walked almost the entire way to the Ferry Building, my new favorite place. We had time to walk around in the building before our tour left. Not many stores were open, but Frog Hollow Farms sure was. This is the place that has all sorts of yummy organic fruits, and their specialty is cherries. I enjoyed a cherry turnover for breakfast #2, and Wes grabbed a bag of cherries. I finished my turnover just in time to jump on the tour bus.
The Ferry Building

We drove down the Embarcadero through Fisherman's Wharf. We rode past Ghirardelli and then stopped at Lombard Street. We walked a bit towards North Beach (I'd rather call it Little Italy). We then cut through Jack Kerouac Alley and suddenly appeared in Chinatown. We walked through Chinatown a little and learned what a prestigious job it was to be a telephone operator back in the day. We also saw Portsmouth Square, where San Francisco first became Yerba Buena.
We headed to Nob Hill, where we saw the last of the Big Four mansions left standing, the Fairmont Hotel, and we went inside Grace Cathedral. It was beautiful, of course, with excellent stained-glass windows. We actually saw a wedding rehearsal going on there, and it was 10:00 in the morning! Beautiful Grace Cathedral

Our next stop was Alamo Square Park from where you can see the Six Sisters, or Painted Ladies. These are the Victorian houses that you see at the beginning of Full House. Wes and I couldn't figure out why the Tanners weren't home. In front of the Six Sisters

From there, we headed into Golden Gate Park. We looked into the Japanese Tea Garden and then went to the de Young Museum. There is an observation tower inside the museum, and we went up to get a good view of the city.
We rode through the Presidio and stopped at the Palace of Fine Arts, which was sadly being renovated. It was covered all over with scaffolding. We then began our drive over the Golden Gate Bridge. This was a really sad ride for Wes's first time over the bridge. It was so foggy that you couldn't see a thing! We couldn't see any of the bridge. We might as well have been driving down I-85. We stopped on the other side to get some pictures of the bridge, but again, it was just so dang foggy!

One of our favorite places on the tour was Sausalito, where we headed for lunch. We were let out to fend for ourselves for lunch. Wes and I found a perfect place to eat called the Winship. We even got to sit outside on the sidewalk. The food was perfect! Once our bellies were full, we went into a few Sausalito shops and jumped on the ferry to go back to the city.Eating the best crab salad sandwich ever!

When we left the Ferry Building, we went back towards Nob Hill and headed to the Cable Car Museum. We looked around at all of the wheels that turn the cables under the streets. It's pretty cool, actually, to see that this is what powers all of those cars that we'd been hanging off of.
I then get to receive credit for the best idea of the entire trip. I decide that we should WALK to Coit Tower and head up to the top. This is why Wes loves me so much; I make things so exciting. This was the most excruciating part of our vacation. We literally had to STOP for breath as we were walking up the hill. We are not in good shape, but we can both walk forever. However these hills are just too much. We finally got to the top and even though we really wanted a stretcher, we rode the elevator to the top of Coit Tower. I think that the views were worth it. The only thing that got me through the hike was knowing that there was a yummy Italian meal waiting at the bottom of the hill for me.Coit Tower

View of the city from Coit Tower.

That meal was worth it. We went to Michaelangelo, which is very small and cozy with stained-glass lamps hanging over your table. My lobster ravioli, Cabernet, and Tiramisu were perfect. Wes liked his spaghetti and meatballs, too. The best thing about Michaelangelo is that they bring you a plate of Gummi Bears after your meal.
Thinking that our legs just might need to be in casts for a few weeks, Wes and I hopped on a cable car and headed straight for our comfy bed after dinner. Wesley enjoying his gummy bears

San Francisco...Getting Started

We've been back for two weeks now from one of the best trips ever. We left early, early from Charlotte so that we could arrive at our hotel in San Francisco by lunchtime. We checked in, sat on our fancy bed in our fancy room for a few minutes, and headed out to get some lunch. We were famished, so we tried to find something quick to eat in Union Square near our hotel. We were so desperate for food that we actually had our first San Francisco lunch at Burger King! There seems to be a theme here: that was also the first place that we ate at in Hawaii. If you know me at all, you can probably not imagine me eating at Burger King, but that's how hungry I was!
After a delicious meal of chicken fries, we headed for the cable car turnaround so that Wes could have his first cable car experience. Of course we had to take our first ride standing up. I thought this was a great idea until an armored truck appeared in our way on the side of the road. Since I was on the front of the car, I was most in danger of being decapitated first. I was really scared when the brakeman asked me, "Do you think we can make it past that truck?" Are you kidding me? How the heck do I know? I can barely park my SUV.
We actually did make it safely down to Fisherman's Wharf. We walked around a bit, looking at the touristy shops. Good thing we were in the tacky shop area, because I left Wes's sunglasses at the Charlotte airport and he was able to buy a pair here. They are really cool - Choppers glasses. Sounds just like Wes, doesn't it?
We walked around Pier 39, the really big tourist trap made to look like an old boardwalk. We treated ourselves to a cookie and watched the sea lions who hang out there.After watching the sea lions bicker over dock space for awhile, we headed on down to the Alcatraz ferry. We rode out to Alcatraz and had a nice, pretty fogless view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Once on Alcatraz we took the audio tour, which I had never done before. It's really good! Wes and I were being our nerdy selves by constantly timing our starts and stops on the tour so that we could talk to each other. We really enjoyed going through the old prison, and I found out much more information than I had known before (I used to be obsessed with Alcatraz).By the time we got back on land from Alcatraz, we were beat. It was now 9:00 EST, and we had been up since 2:00 in the morning. We hadn't had a decent meal, either. All I could think of was the Cheesecake Factory. Conveniently, there is one at the Macy's right next to our hotel. We rode the cable car back to Union Square and headed straight for the food. This Cheesecake Factory is awesome: it is on the eighth floor of Macy's, and we got to sit outside on the terrace. This is the same Macy's where David Beckham made an appearance two days after we left the city.
We ate it up at Cheesecake Factory. I always get an appetizer there, but I definitely put away a meal of Chicken Littles and mashed potatoes. After we filled our bellies, we trudged up to bed for the night since we had to get up at 6:30 the next morning.