San Francisco

Meadow and I spent four days in San Francisco. It was grand fun.

We committed to not renting a car or taking any taxis, which meant we took public transportation, walked or biked EVERYWHERE. Let's just say we got A LOT of steps! And luckily the MUNI system in San Francisco has this AWESOME pass that we paid $18 for and got 3 days of unlimited rides on any of the MUNI vehicles (buses, streetcars & cable cars). And since Meadow thought it was the 18th when we got into the city we actually got 4 days of riding, because really it was the 17th, but we had marked off the 18th, 19th and 20th. And I would feel guilty, but none of the drivers even looked, they just saw the cover and said "okay".

Here is a picture of the BART. It was the first and last form we took in the city (not including planes). It was not included in our MUNI pass, but it was only $5.35 from the airport to the city, so way cheaper than a cab or a shuttle.
Next we rode on the bus. The bus we really wanted to take was PACKED, like not even standing room packed and since we had suitcases, we moved on to find another line that was not as packed. Luckily, locals are more than happy to stop and give directions, even if you are not asking, in fact I don't think we had to ask once, whenever we pulled out the map, someone always stopped and helped.
The next form was the "F" Line. The "F" line cars are these historic street cars. They are so cute and fun to ride.And we resisted the first day, but on the second day we tried out the cable cars. THEY WERE AWESOME!!! And once we rode them the first time, we were hooked. I believe we ended up riding on them like 12-15 times, always on the running boards. Okay I got stuck inside once, but after that I always got a running board spot. I felt like a total tourist, but if I ever go back, I will still ride the cable cars as much as possible.
Here are the innards of the Cable Car Museum. The white wheels are what pull the cables. Each of the four routes have their own cables. It was a cool museum to see, I had it on my itinerary originally, but Meadow was like "LAME", but then after we rode the cable cars she was like "LET'S GO!"Here are pictures from Alcatraz. I had really wanted to go there, so I bought tickets like a month before we left. It was totally worth it.
Here are the gardens. They were really pretty. Apparently, when Alcatraz was first spotted it didn't have any vegetation and the people brought soil to the island and began planting. And now it has a ton of flowers and other plants.

The famous lighthouse

Here was some weird white bird on the island. It was not listed on the signs about the birds, so I don't know what it is.
It was mating/nesting season on the island, so some parts were closed off. And there were a TON of birds.
Here is a seagull sitting on a nest, it was really close to the walkway, so I had to take a picture.


Okay, so our hotel was not the greatest, but it was inexpensive at only $70/night (crazy, right). It didn't have AC (which was fine, except the first night, because it was SO HOT!). There was tissue shoved in the door to stop it from rattling. And there was no screen in the window. (Which in its defense, I only saw once screen in the whole city, it was rather weird, I love screens on my windows!)

BUT, the best was the tower of eggs! They advertised having a continental breakfast and the first day it was this tower of eggs and muffins. The next day it was oatmeal and the final morning the tower of eggs was back. Needless to say, Meadow and I went out for breakfast every morning.
On Monday, we rented bikes to ride across the bridge. And we totally did it, in all, we rode about 28 miles and were outside for 5 or so hours (including eating and sightseeing).
This shot is looking back from the other side of the bridge. The fog and wind were insane! At one point, I thought the wind was going to knock me off my bike.
Okay this picture doesn't look like much, but the white spot in the middle is a seagull eating a crab. Guess you had to see it live to appreciate it.
And here are some redwoods. We thought about riding to Muir Woods, but heard the ride was gnarly, so we rode to Old Mill Park and called it good. Here is a picture taken from the cable car looking at Coit Tower.
These signs were on a gate that we walked passed a couple times. They said "Beware of Cat" in three languages. I am guessing that someone else has a KPP.

And here is the Kiki Supermarket, I am assuming it was named after Christie.
And of course we had to see the sea lions, they were loud and smelly.

And the famous crooked street - Lombard Street. We actually stayed on Lombard, but about a mile from this part. And to get to this we had to HIKE up a steep steep hill! Or ride the cable cars (see they are useful as well as cute).
We also went to SFMOMA. We couldn't take photos of the paintings and stuff, but we could photograph somethings. So here is a really cool bridge, Meadow walked across, but I didn't, because the floor was see-through and I don't do see-though floors.
Close-up of bridge. I guess it was different colors from different angles.

One of the massive painting at the entrance of the museum. Oh and the museum had benches on the columns that rotated, so when the other people on my bench got off, I started rotating it (because I could) and I got in trouble and told that it scratches the floor. Which, hello, if they do damage, maybe they should make the stationary to remove the temptation, because frankly it is hard to resist rotating a bench.
San Francisco is known to be a little wacky. Here is one example. On the sidewalk it says "Larry Bird's Mustache" WTF!?! What does it mean?
Here is another. This dude is in lederhosen, I don't know why.
And here is the Ferry Building. It has a farmer's market as well as having a ton of posh shops and eateries. One of the eateries was a caviar bar, see posh.

And here are some giant heads that were by the Ferry Building.
We also spent a day in Chinatown. It was interesting. But this was one of my favorite finds. It was a tub that had this picture. That's right, a naked baby, a kitty, a SNOWMAN, a desk and some other weird things. Hilarious!
And the reason I chose SF for my trip was shoes. I have wanted some Fluevogs for a while, but didn't know what size I would need, so I couldn't buy them online and SF has a store. So I went. We arrived about 15 minutes before the store closed, but the lady running the shop was SO nice and stayed until we were ready to leave (like an hour). Here are some photos from inside the store.
I was really tempted by the blue boots in the middle of the photo, but I resisted as they were a lot $$, but so dang cute!

And here are the shoes I bought. The first pair are named Michael and they are Angel shoes. They are resistant to many things, including Satan. They are so cute and have blue soles, however I made the mistake of wearing them the last day in the city walking around and I got a massive blister, they need to be broken in : (

Also, I got these cute shoes. Their names are Marion and they are Bass Minstrels, note the cute music notes on the soles. They do not say they are Satan resistant, but I am betting they are!
Oh and here is a picture of my hands. I forgot to apply sunscreen to my hands the day of the bike ride and got BURNED! They still hurt. I did however apply sunscreen to my nose and still got burned to the point of blisters, it sucks.

So this is a basic overview of my trip. I took 271 pictures so obviously I did not post everything, but if you want to see all my pictures you can go here. They are super exciting...

And I am very glad to be home. I am such a homebody! Plus, I missed KPP and she totally missed me, as she has had to be RIGHT next to or on me for the past two days.