Monday, October 10, 2011

My New Favorite City!


                                                         I love San Francisco!  

A few weeks back Greg surprised the kids and me by booking a mini vacation over fall break!
We were all SO excited and thankful for such an awesome Daddy and husband to always plan fun stuff for us!!!
We had a wonderfully packed weekend with everything you could ever want to do in San Fran!  We were actually only there for just over 48 hours because the cheap flight tickets that Greg got had to be on certain days.  We didn't care though we made the best of every minute and saw everything we wanted to!  
We got in Thursday night about 5:30pm got to the hotel and had a great Italian dinner and walked around Union Square and enjoyed the night life in the city.  Friday we hit the ground running catching a boat over to Alcatraz and toured the jail for about 3 hours.  We did an audio walking tour and even the kids enjoyed it...it was very informative and interesting.  Before our trip Greg made sure that we watched Escape from Alcatraz so it was really cool seeing all the stuff in the movie and having some point of reference... brilliant Greg:) 
After the tour we ferried back to shore and went to Fisherman's Wharf.  We had fun walking around, seeing the sea lions and eating at Boudin Bakery (wonderful sourdough bread). *Abby's new favorite place to get a burger:)  We were also wanting to go to the Golden Gate Bridge and the kids were kinda getting tired from walking so we decided it would be fun to bike to the bridge.  We rented tandem bikes so the kids were connected to us:) Don't get me wrong they could have done it but we (I) felt more comfortable having them hooked to us instead of going wild and crazy on their own possibly riding off the bridge:/
Now for the story...
It was a hilariously HARD ride.  Little did we know it was about a 4 mile ride to the bridge that culminated in about a mile long, 1,000 foot climb from the shore to the bridge level.  And the bridge itself is an incline (who knew, right?) Oh and I was wearing a silk shirt, brown boots, leather jacket and skinny jeans...ha, I looked really funny:) I was struggling keeping my jeans up!!:/
The kids did awesome though and LOVED the ride so Greg and I tried not to cry on all the hills. (Greg did a little;) The kids worked hard pedaling and were a great help and after all was said and done we had a great time...sweaty and happy! We made it to the first tower on the bridge, enjoyed the views, and then started the 4 mile mostly-downhill-but-sometimes-uphill return trip.  haha! 
After the ride all we wanted to do was take a shower, eat and go to bed...and that's about how the night ended!:)  
We ate at a great Crepery in the city and then were in bed by 9:30!!  Hey, we needed our rest because we still had to be able to walk the next day;) Don't judge!! 
Saturday we had our most epic "eating" day to date! (in the States that is--nothing will ever top Italy:)  We went to the Ferry Building Market.  I'm not sure I can explain it and bring it justice but just trust me...YOU MUST GO there if you ever make it to San Fran.  It's like every "foodie" in the country all comes together and tries to top everyone by making the most incredible food! It's ground zero for foodies in the U.S. of A.  
We just walked around all morning spending a few bucks here, a few bucks there eating. eating. eating.  I was so sick. sick . sick.  I should never, ever eat again.  ever. :)  
Reese loved this fried bread with lemon custard inside.  Basically it was a glorified doughnut BUT it was like no other thing I have ever tasted...it was out-of-this-world.  crazy good.
Greg loved breakfast at il Cane Rosso.  It was the best breakfast food we both have ever had. The kids got to have bacon waffles....they were happy:) We also ate gelato, cheeses, salami cone, candied almonds, chocolates, etc, etc.  The most unique thing was a very thin, crispy rye bread covered in dark chocolate.  Seriously??  And of course it was incredible.  
After that we needed to walk it off so we headed back towards the hotel (many, many blocks away) and we just walked through the city.  We stopped where we wanted to, got coffee, rested here and there, and had a wonderful time to together, our sweet family of four.  I love my family.  I love to travel with them and experience all the wonderful things each place has to offer, oh and by the way, my new favorite city is San Francisco....sorry all you other amazing cities but this one beats you hands down!  So much to offer, so much culture, so many hills:), so many amazing people (not as crazy as I had heard) and great eats!  I hope everyone gets the opportunity to go...it was wonderful!  Thank you Greg for such a great gift!  We love you!

Ferry Building Market!

enjoying the beautiful weather
My kiddos


busy market --amazing food!

resting while the kids eat gelato

playing as we stroll through the city
Reese carried a tennis ball everywhere and bounced it along the way (he found it in a bush somewhere:) 


Chinatown

Greg and the kids in Chinatown

Reese with the plate he cracked with his HEAD!  He was showing us how to do the old pie-in-the-face and he slammed the heavy ceramic plate into his head---he was hurt a little bit but he was more proud of the crack than anything else:)



Getting on the boat to Alcatraz


on our way...

the whole fam


Alcatraz in the background


taking the kids to jail!:)


listening to the audio tour

Abby in the rec yard

Reese:)

Good picture Greg! (view of Golden Gate Bridge from Alcatraz Gardens)

this was as serious as Reese could be:)

behind bars

Library...listening intently:)

so serious

yikes I would not like to live here!

my funny hubby:) (she made me do it --Greg)

Escaping Alcatraz:)

Bye-bye!

It was Fleet Week in San Francisco so we got to watch the Blue Angels air show--bonus:)

SO beautiful! 

Reese and me watching the Blue Angels!  Awesome!

one happy chocolate girl:) (and one happy Italian man --Greg)  click on picture to see this guy's killer mustache.

dig in!

all gone:)

Reese wanted a cupcake instead;)

Cute little biker with the bridge in the background


Reese and me on our bike to Golden Gate Bridge

Greg and Abby


Made it to the bridge...yay!

Big Bridge!



walking the hills....lots of hills!

on the airplane headed to Cali!

view from hotel window

again...

Union Square with my Abby


Sweet boy...not sure where this is?

Lombard Street...very curvy:)

2 comments:

Krista said...

Looks like you guys had fun! You guys are such cool parents. :)

Faith said...

Awesome! Jason proposed on the golden gate bridge:) it was a great trip! We have a picture of Jason in the EXACT same pose as Greg on the toilet... I think even the same cell!' haha.. Jason wasn't straining as much though;) glad you guys got to go... Great pictures!