After driving through the Redwoods and enjoying the perfect night in a hotel room with some very comfortable beds we headed on another hour long drive to San Fran.
We came in in style by driving over the Golden Gate Bridge. It was fun to have that be our very first site and to actually drive right over it. We then headed straight to a parking garage.
After parking the car we hurried as fast as we could to Fisherman's Wharf. We wanted to go on a free walking tour that they have for it. But Brian accidentally read the address wrong and we passed the place and ended up blocks away at the starting time.
So we detoured to Pier 39 and saw the sea lions instead. It was really funny to watch a few of them duke it out in a good game of KING OF THE HILL. They sure can jump out of the water fast. That was something I didn't know.
From there we went and brought our tickets to go to Alcatraz. Then caught a bus to China Town. Now the public transportation in San Fran can be very confusing and we actually ended up in the wrong side of China Town. It was the scary side. We stayed for a little bit and then tried to get back to Fisherman's Wharf....but got lost!! I guess we caught the wrong bus. We only went forever out of our way and ended up in the ghetto......but we still made it back in time for our tour.
We even all started laughing really hard which is amazing because we were all in a bad mood because we were walking down the sidewalk and saw this guy by a garbage can and he was holding some branches. Just as we got to him, he moved the branches and yelled, "ROAR" at a couple walking toward us. We all cracked up laughing. I turned around a got a quick picture so you could see that he really did look like a bush. It was so funny.
After Alcatraz we walked around some more and took in the sights. But we were all starving so we decided to find a place to eat. We ended up eating at Wipeout. It was pretty good food but the waitress was probably one of the best ever. We also brought some sweatshirts in a little shop here since Jan and I were beginning to freeze with all the rain. We had purchased umbrellas earlier in China Town and they totally saved us from being soaked several times during the day.
After dinner we got some delicious donuts. I love the little fair like donuts. So I was really happy to find a shop that sold them and Brian agreed that I could get them! :)
We then went to get a few pictures now that it wasn't raining and we weren't needing to be anywhere. It was during this time that we carefully studied the map of the bus routes and decided to try one more time to get to our hotel since we had been walking a lot that day and we were all hurting, especially me.
While making our way to the bus stop we found the mermaid fountain we had been looking for earlier for our first tour we missed in a little square. It was quite the scandalous mermaid but it was fun to find it at the end of the day.
After the mermaid fountain in Ghirardelli square we caught the bus to find our car and the hotel.
(Here is where I will leave a little disclaimer to those going to San Fran...it is WAY TOO EASY to get lost in this BIG city)
The next day we began out again with the plan the find the trolley car and go for a trolley ride. We ended up lost again.....this time finding the correct side of China Town that we wanted to day before. Funny huh??
After spending a little time in China Town enjoying the pleasant side of it after such a crazy one the day before. We kept walking and found our way back to our original destination and got in our car to attempt finding some other places and hoped to stumble across an area the cable car was working in since we had found the other spot but was told it was not working due to construction.
We saw some amazing structures and some very pretty sights while driving around. It is probably prettier in the sun and not the drizzle mess we happened to be in...but we still had a blast.
We drove down two of the most steepest streets I have ever seen. They seriously began just like a roller coaster and it looked like you were going to fall off an edge.
This is the best picture I could get to show you how steep the road was but oh man. It was insane.
But after a little turning around with all the one-way streets we found the street we were looking for and took a little winding drive down the street.
At the bottom there was a huge group but we found a quick spot to park and to get a fun picture.
After driving there we headed to some cool Victorian houses. They look a lot like the ones from Full House. Yeah Jan and I totally both watched that show and loved it. So we had to go find these houses.
We found them with a little time to spare. So Jan and I jumped out of the car and got some fun pictures while the guys took a scenic drive around the block two times.
They then told us about the cool view from the top of a street so we made them go around one more time for us. Since we both had the cameras and they didn't get a picture.
After the houses and seeing some cool buildings in San Fran we headed out to the Giants Stadium. The guys both had wanted to go to a baseball game during our trip but all the teams were out of town for every where we were. They do however offer a tour of the stadium when they are out of town....so we hit that up instead of a game.
Although the guys would have enjoyed a game more we enjoyed learning more about the inside workings of a baseball stadium and some of the opportunities Brian could have available to him.
We also learned a lot about how things function in a baseball stadium with the teams and the seats and why certain things were built at the Giants stadium.
That coke bottle was built with the Coke company paying 14 million dollars to put it there. So although it isn't pretty it was 14 million dollars the tax payers of San Fran didn't have to pay to get a new stadium.
It was fun to come down and see the field up close and to visit the dugout too. They had so many funny stories of how new things have had to be added since they won the World Series so that the uncomfortable setting of the dugout for the visiting team was a little more comfortable.
After the dugout they took us into the visitor's locker room. The guy that runs that room sounds like a funny guy and it is yet another job that Brian could do one day.
The guy had a door that he had the players sign when they came to play there. The door had some many signatures on it. The tour guy told us the door was worth several million for all the signatures it had on there. It was hanging in a glass case on the wall.
After visiting the locker room we then headed up to a suit. These rooms are amazing and worth way too much. I should just be happy to say I have been in one. Believe me, we probably will never be able to afford stepping into one again.
The tour guy was very informative and he gave us so many stories that I was entertained through the whole tour. Jan and I were even able to understand everything he talked about except at one point....we both didn't know too things but didn't want anyone else to know that. So we just asked our sport guys later about it.
After visiting the stadium we drove back to San Fran to find the one thing on our checklist that Jan really wanted to do.....ride a cable car.
We hadn't been able to find one all day but we finally figured out where they were and were able to walk to them. They were a one way price so we decided to ride it to the Fisherman's Wharf and then take it back.
Since we were going to the Wharf again and had still yet to have some good sour dough pizza we decided to find that for lunch.
We stopped at Boudin's Cafe which is a sour dough factory. It was amazing and was super yummy sour dough. We brought some to have later that night when we got to our room by having some sour dough grilled cheese. They were way good.
It began to clear up as we rode the trolley which made it much more pleasant then it would have been if it had to continued to rain like it did at some points on us.
The animals at the factory were amazing. Brian and I wanted to buy one but they were priced pretty high. SO we decided not to.
I definitely would recommend San Fran to anyone just be prepared for expensive parking and some pretty intense hills to walk up and down. But over all it was a perfect time.
Just be prepared for some possible showers that could make it a little miserable and cold.
