San Fransisco Trip

A group of friends from work took a little weekend trip to San Fransisco last weekend. :) We saw a bunch of stuff we've never seen before and had a grand old time. The picture above is the view from my hotel room. It looks warm outside, doesn't it? Looks can be deceiving! :) It's a good thing Paul told us all to pack sweatshirts and jackets. I didn't know that San Fransisco is generally in the 50's to 60's during the day with a strong sea breeze. While we were there, it did not get above 58 degrees. If not for Paul, I would have been forced to buy some warmer clothes. :) SF was a very interesting city! We saw most of it while we were there- and I took a lot of pictures, but I'll just talk about the highlights. :)
One thing we were told to look for was the abundance of crab and crab-filled dishes. We saw bunches of crabs, but no one wanted to try eating one. :) That didn't bother me any....they are kind-of to cute to eat. :) ha ha ha ha
Our hotel was a block from Fisherman's Warf- so we were able to walk down and see a bunch of touristy type stuff without paying for parking or cabs. It reminded me a bit of being in any other large city....scammers trying to stop you about every 20 feet to get your money. We saw some creative ones....Mike said that some of the same "performers" had been there over the years when he had come before. The most interesting was a guy who hid himself behind a fake bush just to jump out and scare people who weren't paying attention. Of course, he had his can out for change....but I don't know if I ever saw a frightened person give him any money. :) There were the break dancers and the men dressed as statues. There were the ladies selling pearls. The most annoying one was a man who stopped us and pointed at a tag he was wearing on his jacket like he was some kind of law enforcement. He told us that he was going to write us a citation for littering and then he asked us to sign his petition and give him a donation of $10 or more. YA RIGHT. :) The photo above is as close as we ever got to Alcatraz.
Off of one of the piers, there was this little resting place for sea lions. Each of the little floating rectangles seemed to hold a family of sea lions- a large male with his group of females and little ones. :) They were interesting to watch. The large males didn't move a whole lot unless a little one jumped on his head. The young males took turns pushing each other into the water. We sat and watched this until we were too cold to stand it anymore. :)
One night we went out to a fancy Italian restaurant. Cory noticed that our napkins had a button hole in them. :) I'm not up on ettiquette, but we guessed that this is what you are supposed to do with your napkin when you are wearing a button up shirt. :)
The main purpose of the trip was to see Wicked. Parking was $41 for the day or $20 for an event. Wow!! I thought Disney Land was a rip off for $11 a day. The theatre was amazing- beautifully carved- not a bad seat in the house. It was in an interesting part of the city. As we walked into the theater, it looked like the homeless people were finding their spots for the night. When we walked out, they were all huddled under their blankets around the sewer openings and man holes where, I guess, it was warm. It was really cold- and yet we saw lots of prostitutes out on the streets wearing next to nothing. What a life that we just aren't exposed to. You want to help, you want to give change, but it's so overwhelming. There are so many homeless that we saw- how can you choose which ones to help? And will your change make any difference? I suppose that isn't for us to judge.
The play was just as amazing as I thought it would be!!!! :) The cast was perfect and really brought the songs to life for me! I really want to bring Emma to see this play some day....just not in SF. :) The costumes were extraordinary and the singing was so good, I don't have any words for it. :) Everyone should see Wicked if they can. It's a great story that really makes you stop and think about life, good and evil, and how we percieve things.
Now for the food.....we had SO MUCH good food while we were there! This is where we had breakfast one day- we got to watch them make our crepes with strawberries and chocolate. Oh, so yummy!!
Ashley wanted us to bring back some sourdough bread. There were bakeries on almost every corner. This really big one made bread in all shapes....teddy bears, crabs, crocodiles, lobsters, and on and on. They also made normal shaped bread. :) It was fun to see how they made the shapes....although I'm pretty sure I couldn't duplicate any of them. You might think that a bakery would have cinnimon rolls.....well, we looked at every bakery we saw in SF, and never found a cinnimon roll. WIERD. They had lots of scones and butter rolls....how could no one ever think of making a cinnimon roll? I guess SF is not the place people go wanting cinnimon rolls...except us.
This was a crocodile as big as me sitting on the floor in the bread shop.
If you enlarge this picture, you can see all the fun types of bread this bakery sold. The sourdough was very good- especially with cheese on top. :)
This is the view from the top of Lombard street, which we heard was the crookedest street in the USA.
We also drove and walked up and down some VERY steep streets. I was just imagining that this would not be the city to learn how to drive a stick.
I thought this was interesting because the cars were all parked sideways on the hill and looked like they could roll down the hill if someone heavy sat on the right side. Yikes.
We were fascinated by the hydrants here- which are different than ours. :) ha ha ha
We walked through China town and saw fresh food I had never seen in my life. The streets were absolutely crowded with people and I could not see any other gringos but us, as well as not hear anyone speaking english. :) I was wishing I knew at least a few polite words in Chinese in case I bumped into someone. We saw buckets of live fish, dead fish, frozen fish, big fish, little fish, giant fish, crabs, something growing out of a shell that I've never seen before, live frogs, fresh pig legs, chickens cooked with their heads still on and much much more. :) If I hadn't thought I was being rude, I would have taken some pictures. While we were there, we stopped in a bakery....no cinnimon rolls.
We wanted to try riding the trolley cars, but we never quite got the system right. We were either standing on the wrong side of the street, or at a non-stop. :) This is the closest we ever got to riding a trolley in SF. :)
We only saw one fire station.



I thought this was funny. :)
Sorry Cory, I had to put this in. :) Cory is deathly afraid of bridges, so crossing the Golden Gate was super fun for him. This is his nervous face. :)

The $10 Ghirardelli chocolate cookie sundae. :) Worth every penny.
The $25 small pizza with hand tossed crust. :) We thought mom would like to see the food we ate. :) Yes, it was good.
Me and Cory standing on the street in front of Pier 39.
The massive baked potato that was our last meal before coming home. It was literally as big as my head. We had to share it. :)

Great trip, great friends. We'll have to do it again in another city!! :)

Namaste