Al and I have been pinching our pennies and saving up so we could go on our first trip alone together since our honeymoon. We thought long and hard about where to go and finally decided on San Francisco. San Francisco is one of those places that when people hear you're going there, they don't say, "Oh cool. Have a nice trip!" Oh no. They become really excited and start to list off all the things that you HAVE to do and CAN'T miss seeing. When we nabbed a "Secret Deals" package on Expedia for airfare and hotel, we knew this would not be a lay around and relax kind of trip. We hit the ground running and packed in quite a few of the suggestions of our family and friends, so the following photo journey through our trip may get a little long. Feel free to turn on the mood music I've provided and enjoy the ride...
Our trip began with a classic San Francisco experience, a ride on a cable car to Fisherman's Wharf. We bought a City Pass that gave us free public transportation (including cable cars) that we used all week to get around. It also had lots of tickets to cool things to do around the city. What a great deal!
We could not have hoped for better weather for our trip! It was a bit windy, but sunny and warm most days.
We visited the Aquarium of the Bay on Pier 39. It was pretty cool! My favorites were the jellyfish.
This fella reminded me of Davy Jones on Pirates of the Caribbean.
They also had cool tide pools where you could reach in and touch starfish and sting rays.
We couldn't head back to the hotel for the night without stopping for an ice cream sundae at Ghirardelli Square. (Don't worry, we shared.)
The next day we took an all day tour that took us to Muir Woods, Sausalito, and all around the city of San Francisco. Muir Woods was my favorite, it was BEAUTIFUL. It's officially my new happy place.
Golden Gate Bridge--walking on it gave me the willies.
A gorgeous view of the skyline from Twin Peaks.
The next morning we had a delicious pancake breakfast and hit the town on foot. We hit Coit Tower, Union Square, and Chinatown.
A Mr. Monk Moment
We had to make a trip to Nike Town on Union Square for Alex. (Even though everything was too expensive and we decided not to buy anything.)
Then we visited the Palace of Fine Arts. It was built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition when the Panama Canal opened. It was also the inspiration for George Lucas to create the Star Wars character R2-D2! We went to a museum called the Exploratorium there, but our favorite part was walking around the beautiful grounds.
These women are rumored to be weeping over the lack of straight men in the city, haha.
When we decided to go to San Francisco, Al knew we had to take in a Giants game at AT&T Park. We got some cheap seats that actually gave us a beautiful view of the water--the park sits right on the bay. We had a blast at the game even though it was cold. Who'd have thought we'd be buying hot chocolate at a baseball game in June?
The next morning was misty and foggy, but we spent it outside at Golden Gate Park. If I lived in San Francisco, this park would be a lifesaver. There is zero yard space, so lots of people and families use the park. We loved the Japanese Tea Gardens and the California Academy of Science where we couldn't take pictures of a coral reef dive and earthquake planetarium show we saw.
We loved the koi ponds full of chubby fish.
We ended the trip where we began--Fisherman's Wharf. We took a ferry boat ride around Alcatraz and under the Golden Gate Bridge, and had a yummy seafood dinner (I usually hate seafood, but San Francisco seafood is not Utah seafood.)
We had such a great trip. Now that we've been there, we know we'll have a long list of activities we'll tell people to do if we hear they're heading out to San Francisco, too. It was such a fun time eating, sight-seeing and exploring together! We couldn't have loved it more. (And you must love us if you have made it to the end of this novel.) Thanks to family and friends for all your suggestions!
