Can you go to San Fransisco and not visit Alcatraz Island? Well, we didn't think so! I really didn't know much about it at all...I mean, I have heard of Al Capone, and the movie The Rock, but that's about the extent of my Alcatraz knowledge. (That is until we watched Escape from Alcatraz the night before going there! Ha!) We took the ferry boat across to the island, did a walking audio tour, bought my mom a Christmas ornament (because apparently Alcatraz is on her bucket list of places to visit), ate the most delicious chocolate I've ever had, took some silly pictures, and then headed back on the boat to walk around Pier 39 one last time. Oh, and for the third time, we got a bag of hot donuts...oh, those donuts! So yummy!! Even though we walked a ton on this trip, I definitely didn't lose any weight with all of the food we ate. We took the shuttle from our hotel to get downtown earlier in the morning, so we had to catch it to get back. Lots and lots of walking... Then it was back to our hotel to get some sleep, because we had to fly out at like 5:00 AM the next morning.
I don't think I've included this on any of my SF posts...so here's a huge shout out to ours moms for being the best ever & taking care of the kids for us so I could go with Brian on this trip! So grateful and blessed by them!
Until next time, San Fransisco!
This was kind of funny...the exact cell from the movie Escape from Alcatraz that we had watched the night before.
Not even kidding... The. Best.
One last walk around Fisherman's Wharf & Pier 39, We seemed to spend a lot of time down there during our trip!
Heavenly...
Walking down Chinatown...it didn't smell good...but it looked cool I guess.
I wonder how many of these we had to wait on...too many to count!
Saturday morning we caught the shuttle bus at our hotel to get downtown. Our first goal was to ride the cable cars, as they are apparently called. Or, if you ask me, the plan was to ride the trolley. I mean, if you've ever watched Mr. Rogers, this thing I'm standing on is called a TROLLEY. Moving on...
It would just be wrong to visit San Fransisco and not ride on one of these! So, we decided it was worth the nearly 90 minute wait to ride. Ugh! (It wasn't all that bad though, because there was a street performer doing songs from Grey's Anatomy, which I absolutely loved!) It was a beautiful morning to explore San Fransisco! We took the cable cars from the Union Station area all the way to the Pier 39/Fisherman's Wharf area. We had just a little bit of time to look around and grab some lunch before heading to Alcatraz landing for our 1:00 boat ride to the island. This was a fun way to spend our last day in San Fransisco! I would never want to live in this city, but I have to say that I kind of fell in love with visiting it!
We spent most of Friday riding a tandem bike around San Fransisco. This was something Brian really wanted to do, and while I wasn't overly enthusiastic about it, it was very fun and I'm glad we did it! We rented our bike on Haight-Ashbury street, which is where the hippy movement started. From there, we rode through Golden Gate Park, and then down along the ocean to Baker Beach and finally FINALLY we made it to the Golden Gate Bridge! When we started this adventure, I had no idea we would be riding 17 miles! Thankfully Brian did most of the hard pedaling, but my backside hurt SO BAD! I had a few grumpy meltdown moments *the golf course, specifically, but overall it was good. I was definitely nervous about riding across the bridge...I don't like heights at all, and the thought that people commit suicide by jumping from there pretty often had me completely freaked out. We made it across just fine and didn't see any jumpers, so that was good! I did okay as long as Brian stayed on the inside part of the bike lane...I didn't like it at all when he would veer over to the side of the bridge. And I didn't look down very much at all!
The Golden Gate Bridge is just such a cool landmark in the U.S. and especially on the West Coast. It was really neat to explore SF by bike, with my favorite person by my side! I wouldn't want to do it again anytime soon, but this will go down in the books as one of our favorite days!
After we returned our bike, we checked another thing off my bucket list and ate at In-n-Out Burger...which Brian thinks is overrated...maybe I was just starving and exhausted from our 17 mile journey across San Fransisco, but I really loved it! We Uber'd back to Embassy Suites (which felt like it took FOREVER because I was so tired) and spent the evening in the hot tub and laying in bed watching Escape from Alcatraz, to get geared up for the next days adventures! What a fun day! And how great is Uber, by the way?!
We saw some interesting things on Haight-Ashbury Street...
Some very interesting things...we were quickly reminded that we weren't in Oklahoma!
At the bike shop...
I'm glad Brian is a confident bike rider...
We started out by riding all the way through Golden gate park. We stopped at a little vending cart for a pretzel and a hot dog. It was so fun!
We eventually made it to ocean! This was a beautiful part of our bike ride! (Well, we walked a big chunk of this next part because it was so uphill...)
We were still a long ways from the bridge!
It seemed like we were getting closer, but then we went on this little trail that bikes weren't really supposed to be on, and we ended up walking around a golf course. This was one of the unhappiest moments of the adventure for me...I was getting tired and the end seemed to never be in sight...
These pics and videos make me laugh so hard! I can't help it if I'm a princess sometimes!
Having a moment...
Yep, this kind of a moment...
Turn that frown upside down!!
Baker Beach
We took the bike onto the sand and Brian carried it for a long way. I don't know how he did it...I was exhausted, and he was the one doing most of the work!
Then he had to carry up this long set of stairs...ugh!
Getting Closer:
Almost there!
Okay, let's do this...
So once we got across, we rode for what seemed like forever to get into the little town of Sausalito, which is where we got on the ferry to get back to the other side. (I was NOT riding the bike back over the bridge!) We found this little ice cream shop & it was a yummy refresher to get us through the end of our trip!
We were so tired, and really just wanted to get back to the hotel, so we were very happy that this was close by! We reserved an Uber and it picked us up about the time we got our food, so it worked out perfectly!
I FINALLY got to eat In-N-Out Burger! YUM!!
Ahhhh....the hot tub! This felt SO good!
(How fun is this filter?! Look how tan we look! One can dream, right?!)
This one probably gives a more accurate picture of what our skin (well at least my skin) really looks like! Ha!
I slept through half the movie. My body hurt all over and I just couldn't keep my eyes open. I'm pretty sure Clint Eastwood escaped though... :0)
