The City by the Bay

As I mentioned earlier in the week, this past weekend we took a short getaway with our friends, the Cooks, to San Francisco. While we were somewhat celebrating a milestone birthday for Ashley, so far for several years in row we've come up with some excuse to go somewhere. It's a great blessing to have friends that you get along with well enough to go on adventures.

We flew in on Thursday evening and didn't get to the apartment we rented on vrbo.com until almost 2 AM Texas time. (I'm usually in bed by 9, FYI.)

Thankful to be on left coast time the next morning, we kicked Friday off with donuts from a random place we found driving down the street and were off to Alcatraz. What a weird/neat piece of American history. The weather was a little cool, but it was a clear day on the bay, so we had a great view of the major SFO landmarks on the ferry going to and from.

After Alcatraz, we walked over to Pier 39 for lunch and a check of the tourist traps before driving over the Golden Gate Bridge towards Sausalito and Mill Valley. From there we headed out to Muir Woods, which was beautiful. (This is coming from not-a-nature-lover.) A Co-worker of mine had told us to go on a week day because the parking is bad on weekends. It reminded me of a Twilight movie so we kept making jokes about Edward and Bella. (Hang on, Spidermonkey.) (Also, we have tickets to the midnight showing so we are, sadly, fully qualified to make jokes like that.)



There was a photographer taking pics for a work project (I asked - it was for a catalog), and he let passersby grab some snaps of his project as well.
After all of the walking around we did (my usually desk-bound pregnant self was flat give out) we drove to Ghirardelli Square where I parked myself in front of a warm brownie Ghirardelli hot fudge sundae. It was as good as it sounds.

On Saturday, we all slept in and watched the Aggies beat Mississippi State. All four of us headed out to TPC Harding Park where we ate lunch, then kissed our husbands good bye to play golf while we explored the shopping of San Francisco. Ashley and I found our way to Union Square, which pleasantly reminded me of NYC. It's one of the largest shopping districts in the world. In short, I was in my element.

After a time, we decided to rest our feet with some mani/pedis. I'm going to camp here for a sec because this was nothing like a Texas mani/pedi experience. For one, neither salon we checked out had a store front. They were suites in big office buildings which were kinda deserted on a late Saturday afternoon. Also, they didn't have the big chairs - just tubs lined with disposable plastic liners, which is cleaner than the big chairs anyway. And lastly, mani/pedis were much less expensive. The nail salon I frequent in Fort Worth costs me approximately $40 for a standard spa pedicure, while we both got a shellac mani ($$$ in FW) and pedi for almost the same price.

What's the deal, Fort Worth? Lower cost of housing, but higher mani/pedi prices. Go figure.

Anyway, it was fun, and I'm loving the shellac manicure. My polish shows no sign of wear yet.

That evening we found a hole in the wall pizza place not far from the golf course called Paradise Pizza. It was one of those small shops where the owner comes around to check and make sure that you like your food. My husband loved it!

Sunday, we breakfasted at a little place not far from Fisherman's Wharf called Hollywood Cafe. The food was AMAZING. When the bus boy picked up our plates, I said, "Thanks! that was so good!" He said (with pride), "We know!"

After that, we did more shopping and had a date night out on the town with dinner at McCormick & Kuleto's and one of their fabulous chocolate bags for dessert. (McCormick & Schmick also carries the chocolate bag. If you don't see it on the dessert menu while there next time, ask for it by name because you must experience it at least once.)

The next morning we were up early for the return trip to Texas, and we were so ready to see our sweet little man's face. It was a great adventure and good to get away before the holidays begin with a busy and full calendar. Now the rest of the week will be spent recovering from the time change.