The One Year

This post has been a long time coming because there are a lot of pictures and it's been a little difficult putting them where I wanted them to go.  I gave up toward the end so just keep scrolling :)

A few weeks ago (umm a month ago now :) Justin and I celebrated our first anniversary- yay!!  We decided to go to San Francisco since neither of us had ever been and it's a "drivable" distance.  I don't necessarily consider 10 hours one way "drivable" but Justin likes to drive so I get a lot of crocheting done on our road trips :)  We had 2 days in the city and packed as much in as we could.  I never really understood how people could say "Oh, I love 'blank' city even though I don't live there."  But now I do- I absolutely LOVE SF!!

Our hotel was in Oakland so we took a ferry across the Bay Saturday morning and went on a tour of Alcatraz- very cool.  I highly recommend it.

Justin liked all the bridges.

I just liked the city.

We ate breakfast at the Eagle Cafe on Pier 39 and they had

fresh squeezed apple juice.  Who knew there was such a
thing it was amazing!!

Pier 39

I love that they've kept this sign up!!  It's the first thing
you see approaching the island and makes it feel very real.

The Rock!
(The big pink spot is a field of flowers- random!)

Typical cell at Alcatraz.

During an attempted escape a prisoner starved himself,
climbed the wall, and squeezed through these bars to
overtake a guard and steal his gun.  Crazy!!

For our fellow Prison Break fans- we were walking
through the aisles of cells when I saw this!
There were a few other birds on the floor so
obviously this was pre-planned.  Love it!!

Cell Block.  Oddly enough Alcatraz is really pretty.

The island is now a sanctuary for birds.
And no, that is not white rock.

The prison warden's home.  Employees actually lived on the island!  This house caught on fire and I think it looks like a haunted castle.

Was Sanford saying he was neither of these things?

For some reason I found this really funny.

Dinner at Tony's.

We were worn out and starving from a day of touring but still

couldn't finish this pizza.  Much bigger than we anticipated!

 We actually bought tickets for an open top bus tour but got rained out Saturday night so we opted to go Sunday morning instead.  Our tour guide was great!  He added so many funny stories and knew a lot about the history of the city.  Here are some of my favorite pictures:

 

Look close- yep, that's a naked lady sleeping on top of the
building.  Gotta love San Fran!!

I was trying to get a picture of the awesome architecture when
our friend passed by.  Made it worth taking another when I
realized he has a true handlebar mustache!!

The focus of the previous picture.  San Francisco
has amaaaazing buildings!!

Amazing buildings like city hall.
This is where Marilyn Monroe married Joe DiMaggio :)

This is the old Tiffany's store.  So pretty :)

And this is the Tiffany's skylight that any owner is contract
bound not to remove.  I'm very impressed the picture looks
this good- I took it from a moving bus!

The Dewey Monument in Union Square.
The model had a very interesting life story-
she's the one who coined the term "Sugar Daddy."
(If you're interested, look up Alma de Bretteville on wikipedia)

I think the Tanners used to live here :)!!  If you can't tell,
I got seriously obsessed with the architecture.

Seriously steep roads.  Can't imagine driving here.
The green at the top is Lombard St.  (see next pic)

Lombard- the crookedest street in the world!

The sign is an understatement- there are 8 hairpin turns!

The bus tour was great because we figured out where a few things were that we wanted to see and it dropped us off right by Ghirardelli Square- yum!!  Justin has learned that I prefer junk food and was nice enough to buy me a huge cheese pretzel for lunch.  Don't know why, I just love 'em.  Then I topped off my healthy lunch with a scoop of mint chocolate chip in a chocolate dipped waffle cone at the Ghirardelli ice cream shop.  Heaven!!  Move over Cold Stone!



Ghirardelli Square!!!  And my pretzel- 'nuff said.  I was happy.

In the Ghirardelli ice cream shop.  They had displays showing
the machinery behind chocolateering.  So tempting!!

Justin thought Ghirardelli was cool too.  Or he
loves me and let me be a kid for almost an hour :)

After Ghirardelli we walked up the street and caught a cable car.  Justin was sad we didn't get to hang off the side but I think riding inside was even better.  We were right behind the gripman and I was captivated watching him control the brakes.  At the end of the line the gripman even let me work some of the levers.  It was tough- that job is a workout!!

Look how steep the streets are!!  I was lagging
behind because I was still eating my ice cream.
I'm in heaven just remembering it...

And I kept stopping to take pictures of these neat

doorways.  Tell me that's not gorgeous.

I was so impressed.  These were my two favorites.

One section of the city is full of these.  Go figure.

We hopped on this cable car.

On the cable car!  They're always packed full of tourists.

Me pulling one of the many brake levers.  I wish I
had a picture showing how complicated these are.
There's one lever to grip the cable and about 5 brake levers, all with multiple gears.

Justin was excited you could see the cable in the street.
They really are cool.  Incredible feats of engineering.
Man, I feel like a nerd.

After some city sightseeing we headed to the Golden Gate Bridge.  Huge!  It is huge!  The entrance to the Bay is just beautiful.  And I'm glad we waited because we were able to take pictures at sunset.  Gorgeous! 

One year of wedded bliss :)  It's been great!!

The Bridge is so popular we had to park and hike to it.  But
we took some great shots on the way.

Justin in front of the Golden Gate.  We have a lot of pictures
of these two...

 





Something to match the flags?

One of my favorite shots.  Good job Justin!

Justin liked all the boats going under the Bridge so again, we have a few of these :)

After walking halfway across the bridge and back we drove across.  Traffic was crazy so we took a "shortcut" through Sausalito, just across the channel from SF.  The streets were even steeper and smaller!  Never live there!  Beautiful city but not the easiest place to get around.

Monday was Memorial Day and we used the extra day off school to get back home.  Longest drive ever!  We did make a quick side trip to see the Oakland temple though.  Most interesting architecture of the weekend.  It is very '70s and has some, let's just use "interesting" again, murals on the outer walls.



Justin at the Oakland temple.

We sure know how to pick locations.
This is the view from the temple's terrace.

Can you tell which direction leads to the ocean?

I felt bad that Justin's present didn't arrive before we left.  It came in the mail during lunch on Tuesday so we opened presents then.  I don't think Justin minded waiting after he opened his :)

It's a Gator grill set!  I know my husband :)

 



"Unwrapping" my present- from Justin's suitcase.

Yay for pearl earrings!  I mentioned to Justin back in March
or so that I've always wanted some.  He loves me :)

What a great anniversary!  With many more to come :)