Friday, May 13, 2011

San Francisco trip April 21st-25th

Jenna, Lynlee and I went on a much needed girls trip! We left Thursday night, April 21st and stayed in Roseville, CA the night thanks to my brother and sister in law Bryan and Dana! (Thanks again guys!) Fri morning we woke up, went to Sacramento and the state capital then headed towards San Fran where we would stay the rest of the trip.Driving in downtown San FranThis was one of the first sights we saw...how sick huh? Underwear and fish..you know it reeked!! We headed toward Chinatown and ate a restaurant called "The Oriental Pearl" and it was pretty good!

Then we checked into our hotel at the Marriot and then went to Ghirardelli Square. We thought we were going to get an actual tour and free chocolate, but I guess the plant closed down years ago so it was just shops to buy the chocolate.



Fri we kind of just drove around to get a feel of the town. We went to Pier 39 and saw all the seals

We drove to a spot to see the Golden GateWe took the train




Sat. afternoon we went to the Giants vs. Braves game. We lucked out because all the tickets were sold out for both Fri night and Sat. afternoon. We didn't want to spend $80 a ticket so we thought we weren't going to get in. But then a very nice man at will call told us he had two extra tickets that we could have (for free) and then buy one from the scalper! So that's what we did! We talked the scalper down to $40 instead of $60 so $40 for 3 tickets..plus the 23rd rown was not bad at all!!! :) Especially considering the nose bleed seats were $25 each!

Yummy garlic french fries plus we got chili, clam chowder in a bread bowl and a brat. :)




There was this japanese sweets place downtown. Lynlee's husband went to Japan for his mission and she wanted to bring some back. Unfortunately, they are only good for like 2 days after so she was unable to bring them home, but we tried some.

The lady was so cute explaining what it tastes like. I love the asian accent!We tried the one above and the one below. It actually didn't taste bad! (I'm proud of myself for even trying it!) :)

I thought these were so pretty. All of the sweets were so perfect.



Sat night we went to Fisherman's wharf. It smelt like..well a wharf. The guy in the back...silver "mime" or whatever you call him.

So...while we were there, the girls wanted some crab and shrimp. I wanted to throw up. The smell was VERY fishy. But I did it!! I like shrimp, but usually when it's breaded. So I tried both the shrimp and the Crab...straight from the boat...just boiled and I liked it!! Wahoo! :) Now, will I order it at a restaurant...not sure, but I did eat a lot of it so I get points! :)


And this was just funny. hahahah!! So I've always have heard the food at hooters (Especially the wings) were really good. Jenna said, "Let's get just some wings there! Please?!" So we did....we were cracking up the whole time....especially when they put the group of girls off in the corner. We looked around and that's how it was all set up and the men were in the middle. So funny. And yea..the wings are SOO good. I REALLY want to eat there some more!! Jenna and Lynlee were laughing so hard at this pic, they couldn't get in it. :)


This guy was so amazingly talented. He made the most beautiful paintings! We were watching him for at least a half an hour!

So this whole trip, I was the girls "puppet" i guess you can say. The beginning of the trip we talked about funny pranks....and I was the only one that would do them. The plan was that they would get the camera set up and then I would do my thing and leave....not talking to them afterwards at all. we didn't know each other. So here's one of those. This couple behind me in the window....the girl was puckering for like 1/2 hour to her boyfriends camera. it was really weird. we were laughing so hard. So after this picture, I walked up to the window and stared at them really weird looking for like a minute (Which is a long time of straight staring at a stranger!) We had some fun for sure! :) Later that night, I did a whole bunch of other pranks like swimming breast stroke laps in the hot tub with a group of people around or the next night doing a cannonball with one random person in the hot tub and got him all wet. Or walking through the lobby in my swimsuit, hunched over with my "wings" sticking out looking like a crackhead. Or running for 1/4 a mile downtown really weird. Really, the list goes on....we definitely had a blast! :)

Sunday was Easter Sunday and it was a BEAUTIFUL day!! Unfortunately, Lynlee's Grandpa passed that morning so that was a rough way to start the day, but we felt blessed that Papa is now with AJ and I am sure it was a very glorious reunion. We needed to get out so we rented bikes and rode them over the Golden Gate Bridge to Salsalito (A cute little town or the other side). There and back, was 28 miles and probably half of it was uphill which was AWESOME! :)



Taking a quick stop...it started getting really windy!

Jenna cracks me up

Getting closer!!

so pretty on the golden gate!



We ate our Easter dinner at a place called "Scomas" which was AWESOME!! Seriously...it was REALLY good. They have one in downtown San Fran, but we wanted to do this one since it was right on the bay with the water. The girls got fish and I tried it again! It was actually REALLY good and I would probably get some later. I got the spinach and artichoke raviolli's that were BOMB too!


On our way back....it was SO windy on the golden gate!! Everytime we passed the corner, it knocked us completely off our bikes so we had to get off and push through it. Here Jenna is embracing the wind. ha!


Right when we got to San Fran we knew we wanted to go to Alcatraz no matter what. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that it was SO hard to get tickets to it!! So we were really nervous. But they had tickets for Monday at 9 so we had to jump on that!! We were flying out at 1pm so we knew we had to do it fast, but it was a good experience for us to go see it!

Showers

Jail Cells

"The Hole" when they were misbehaving. Complete darkness and limited food for days...max like 19 days or something.

Dining Hall and the last meal menu






We had such a great trip and really made some memories that we will remember forever. Given the circumstances, it was unfortunate, but I am blessed to have such good friends that help get through the trials in this life. I think AJ was probably smiling (and laughing) at us that weekend and I really find joy in that.

2 comments:

Heidi said...

looks fun. hubbie and i went last year and had a blast.

Lisa said...

Your new blog design is really cute and these pictures are great. I love
San Francisco. You have me craving seafood now, and I'm really proud of you for trying it!