San Francisco

I can not get the pictures to post for the life of me, so you'll just have to imagine them:) I think most of you have seen them on facebook anyway, so here you go. Michael and I had one of the best vacations last weekend in San Francisco. We left early Friday morning and got into the city at a little after 11. We headed over to this fabulous place called Pete's Tavern across from AT&T park for lunch. It was so good. Then we headed over to the Exploratorium. Michael had never been there, and me being the science nerd that I am, I was excited to take him. We had so much fun! We were seriously like two little kids in there. After checking out the condo we were staying in (our room on the 22nd floor had a pretty good view), we headed down to Fisherman's wharf, which happens to be one of our favorite places. If you're ever there you have to go to The Fudge House and get the Raspberry bark. It is heaven! We hung out there for a while and then went upstairs to Swiss Louis for dinner. Out of all the restaurants we ate at that weekend, it was by far my favorite! The food and service were amazing, plus you sit overlooking the sea lions and you have a great view of the bay. I really recommend this place. Later that night we went down to Baker Beach (a nude beach!) with our clothes fully on :) to take pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge at night. The view was spectacular, I have never seen anything like it. It was kind of creepy though as we were walking back we realized someone else was on the beach and we hadn't noticed them! The next day we got up and found an amazing doughnut place while we were looking for a McDonald's. Those doughnuts totally have Mickey D's beat. They were fantastic. We drove on over to the beach right below the Cliff House. Did you know that at low tide you can walk out to Seal Rocks and look at/touch all the marine life living on the rocks? It was so cool! From there we crossed the street to the zoo. We had been there before, but it is a great zoo and fun to visit. They had a whole bunch of baby animals, including the cutest baby gorilla I have ever seen. He was dancing all over the place! After the zoo we went to the Japanese Tea Gardens inside Golden Gate Park. They are so beautiful and tranquil, I loved it! We walked around the Botanical Garden inside the park which was pretty too. We left there and went to get ready for a fancy dinner at Palio D'Asti, a great Italian place. It was fun to get dressed up and since it wasn't too far from the condo we walked. The weather was perfect for walking all weekend. After dinner we walked to different hotels in the Financial District (The Mandarin, The Hyatt Regency and the Hilton) that all offer spectacular views of the city. Let me tell you, they are even more incredible at night. So yes, we snuck up to the top floors of these hotels to snap some pictures. It was worth it. The next morning we headed back to Pier 39, walked around Ghiradelli square and checked out the ships at the Hyde Street Pier. They have some really cool old ships and barrels along the pier that have ropes and instructions on how to tie sailors knots. We took a Bay Cruise (if you go with a small boat instead of one of the large commercial ones it is a LOT cheaper) which took us under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz. I've seen the bridge from many viewpoints, walked it , driven across it, but none of these was ever as amazing as going underneath it. Seeing the immense power was incredible. We had lunch again at Swiss Louis ( I told you I liked it) and headed home. It was a busy weekend but truly incredible!