San Francisco

We went to San Francisco this weekend for a quick little getaway—Dave, me, and our friends Kelly and Kasey (sadly, Winston didn’t make the trip.)

Everyone say hi, Kelly and Kasey! (Yep, two Casey/Kaseys. Which does get confusing.)

There is lots to do in San Francisco, including Alcatraz (which creeped me out and I don’t mind admitting it) and cable cars and fun, non-creepy views of things other than Alcatraz. But do you want to know my favorite part of the city?

This lovely place!

Yep…the Ghirardelli factory/shop/ice cream store was right under our window. We stayed at a beautiful hotel right in Ghirardelli Square. So this was the view from our suite:

I would like to point out that I was in San Fran from Friday evening to Monday evening, and only got a Ghirardelli ice cream sundae one time. I blame the temporary insanity on all the other yummy food in the city…like sourdough bread baked in the shape of crabs. Animal-shaped bread has the ability to distract me from a lot.

But before I show you the picture of cute little breads, here is a cute, not-so-little, Ghirardelli sundae:

That is peanut butter you see smushed up against the side, along with the obvious hot fudge. Looking at this is making me sad that I’m not eating it currently. So I’ll move on to the animal-shaped bread:

And little bears and alligators:

If you have a craving for sourdough bread shaped like our animal friends … look no further than San Francisco.

Speaking of cute animals, here’s another highlight of the trip for me. At Fisherman’s Wharf, there is a big area where seals go to sunbathe, play, and talk to each other in their secret seal language. (If you’re thinking I will be following this up with a photo of hot men in Navy uniforms, sorry to disappoint you. We’re talking the animal variety of cuteness.)

Hi guys!

That one on the left there is yawning…how cute is he?! First he yawned, then he laid down, then he wiggled all around to get comfortable. Seals are hilarious because all they do all day is lumber awkwardly from the water to the dock, which takes a  lot of effort, then as soon as they’re up there one of their friends pushes them back off. I could have watched them play and snuggle for hours.

But we couldn’t hang out with my new friends for long b/c we were headed for a ferry leaving for Alcatraz. We had gorgeous views on our way:

Duh duh-duh-duh….here it comes.

So there was an audio tour of Acatraz, which was a neat way to see the prison. At least, for those who didn’t turn their headsets off halfway through. I’ve always been a little weirded out by certain aspects of history. The audio tour was narrated by actual prison guards and prisoners, so I chose fresh air and the gorgeous view instead of the rows of tiny, dark cells and dramatic door-clanging happening through my headphones.

Much better.

Can you imagine looking out at that view, but being trapped inside a prison? Yikes.

View from the other side:

Side note: did you know that the only charge they managed to make stick for Al Capone, who spent years in Alcatraz, was tax evasion?! Just a friendly reminder that it’s tax season, and no one wants to end up like Al Capone.

We packed a lot of fun things into one weekend, including watching the 49ers win the division game on Saturday at a ridiculously crowded bar. People were jumping around in the streets and cheering, which was pretty cool to watch.

We also wandered through Chinatown.

And rode a cable car.

Strolled through a Farmers Market at the pier

And took a quick ferry ride to Sausalito!

Sausalito is an adorable town about 20 minutes from San Francisco—you can ride a boat or drive over the Golden Gate Bridge. We didn’t get to spend much time there, but it was so cute! I would love to go back some time. There were some fun little shops and restaurants.

(It was freezing outside on the boat, so I stayed inside and took most of my photos through the door. It worked for me.)

Sausalito! We basically docked, had lunch and had to head back, so I just got a couple of photos from the boat. Next time I’ll have to wander around and explore more with my camera … and my wallet.

As you can see, San Francisco treated us well. And Ghirardelli Factory … we’ll be back for you!

Happy almost-weekend!