Raising Roberts

Blog, vacation

San Francisco (Part Three)

So it probably isn’t wise to start out my post saying how lame I got about taking pictures with the DSLR on our last two days in San Francisco. Really draws in the reader, eh?

One of the big things I wanted to do while we were in San Francisco was to visit Alcatraz. For some reason, I have been really intrigued about the island’s history. I think part of it had something to do with Jorge Garcia’s short lived series called Alcatraz. But I’ve read up on the island and the attempted escapes and have wanted to visit ever since.

We scheduled our trip there for the morning, allowing a ton of time to find parking, and we were able to make it on an earlier cruise…which I’m very thankful for because it gets pretty crowded as the day goes on (though they sell a limited amount of tickets for each time slot.)

I don’t think you can do anything in San Francisco without walking a ton, and Alcatraz is no exception. After dragging your body up the huge hill to the prison, you are given an audio device and headphones to begin the tour. It walks you through the prison and gives history on the different parts. It was pretty neat to be walking through this empty prison, full of so much history, especially after seeing a lot of it on TV. I didn’t take a single picture inside with the DSLR. Not because you aren’t allowed to, but because I just thought pictures would get pretty old and repetitive. Just thank me now haha.

But I did snap this one of San Francisco from the island. Can you imagine feeling so close to freedom, but unable to do anything about it?

Oh, and just in case you’re wondering–it IS possible to swim from the island to the mainland, under the right conditions. They hold a triathlon there every year and said a 7 year old has even made the swim! There’s no way I’d throw Liam in that water and let him swim, no matter how long he trained.

and a little reverse view of the island from the mainland

After we got back from the island, we walked over to In-n-Out for lunch. I had been there before but Don hadn’t. And my opinion remains the same–just another fast food burger. BUT it was better than our hipster burgers from the day before so it’s all good. I looked up Lombard Street–you know, famously known as “the crookedest street in the world” and saw it was about a mile walk. (Which feels like 10 miles when your legs and feet are on fire from all the walking!) So we walked instead of driving and attempting to find parking!

I feel like it’s so hard to tell where the street is in these pictures because of all the greenery but you can kind of see the tops of cars zig-zagging through the middle.

There are stairs on either side so you can walk to the top. We were rewarded with this view!

We didn’t ride on the trolley but I did snap this picture and the proceeded to make it look like a cheap postcard you’d find in one of the souvenir shops.

palm tree!

We came across this fun vine wall along our walk so we had to snap a few pictures

We spent the rest of our time walking around Fisherman’s Wharf, which has a super fun atmosphere. But my legs were hurting so bad at this point that we didn’t stay too terribly long. We did swing by Pier 39 to see the sea lions that hang out there.

We were wiped out by the time we got back to the hotel. We found a random pizza place and walked (again, ouch!) there and back and decided to use the rest of our $100 food voucher on some room service dessert. We were cracking up with the fact that this is what we got with our remaining $40 so I had to take a picture. But hey! I didn’t have to walk anywhere to get it.

Our last day started out at an amazing bakery, which I’ll share a bit more about on my next post. And then we just tried to find a few things to do to kill time before our flight. I ended up seeing this place on the map and I’m so happy I did. It’s called Twin Peaks and the view was amazing, looking out over all of San Francisco.

Thanks for sticking around and reading! Honestly I’m more excited about my iphone post, coming up next! And if you have any questions about what I thought was and wasn’t worth our time, I’d be happy to answer!

Part One–HERE
Part Two–HERE

April 28, 2016

Blog, vacation

San Francisco (Part Two)

It’s so crazy to think that we have already been back to reality for over a week now. Time really is a funny thing. Counting down to something can seem so slow but then it zips by when you don’t want it to. I know I say that often but it’s true!

I’m back to share some more about our time in San Francisco. And in case you missed it, here is part one.

Our hotel, if you remember, was pretty fancy. As a part of our package, we were given coupons for free breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant every morning. I had to laugh at the whole situation as we walked up to the hostess showing her our coupons while the waiter (in a suit) whisked us away to be seated. One look around the room and I noticed everyone else was dressed in business suits while we were dressed in….well, not business attire. You could tell we were out of our element but the staff was always so very kind to us and did not make us feel stupid.

While looking up things to do in San Francisco, I came across a place called Muir Woods. From a blog post that I read, it was suggested to arrive when they open at 8am to beat the crowds. We arrived around 9:30-9:45 and I really would suggest arriving no later than that. By the time we left a few hours later, the parking lots were full. Also note that there is a fee to enter the park. We didn’t know this when we arrived so we just walked right in haha. I didn’t realize until later that we were actually supposed to pay. But the way it is set up made it easy to slip by without even realizing.

Muir Woods was probably one of my favorite parts of our trip. The redwoods were gorgeous. I was at a really good point in my pregnancy for this trip (15 weeks) so we were able to do a hike that was around 3 miles.

The worst part about Muir Woods? The drive to and from it. The road was extremely curvy and on the side of a cliff. Don was having too much fun whipping around those curves and I about had an anxiety attack. And then I got extremely carsick on the way back. But the part of the drive that was really worth it? Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge.

I have seen this bridge so many times in pictures, movies, and tv shows. But I never expected it to be that amazing to see in person. I mean, c’mon, a bridge? But seriously, it was so neat. We went to a few lookout points to take some pictures and we were going to walk across at least a part of it. But we were so worn out from walking at that point and weren’t sure where to park to get there. So we opted to just skip out.

We did go to the very windy, chilly beach by the bridge–Baker’s Beach–to take a few pictures as well!

After that we drove through Golden Gate Park. I wasn’t really sure where to go once we were there but I did see they had a Dutch windmill with a Tulip Garden so we headed there…only to realize there were no tulips in the tulip garden. At least not that I saw. It reminded me a bit of Forest Park in St. Louis but instead of a lot of free things to do, there were multiple things that you had to pay to do. So we just drove by the random field of bison (yes, for some reason they have bison at the park) and then we headed back to our hotel.

The rest of these pictures are just a few things that caught my eye as we walked through the city.

We were so kindly given a $100 voucher to spend on food and beverages at our hotel so we went down to the bar and grill and stuffed ourselves on the most filling burgers and fries. Actually, it was our second burger of the day and our third on the trip already. I love burgers, lay off me! I actually could eat them every day for the rest of my life and never get sick of them. But our lunch stop, Causwells, I would definitely not recommend. Their burgers looked amazing on instagram but as soon as we walked in, I realized that this was a hipster place. Which basically means that they overcharge you for a junky looking atmosphere because it’s trendy and serve you things like water WITH NO ICE (like, who does that?) and their homemade ketchup (give me heinz, please.) Their burgers were nothing special, they serve mixed greens instead of fries (again, who does that?) and the service wasn’t great. So if you’re ever in the area, I do not recommend going…unless you’re into that kind of stuff. (Although they had very high ratings on yelp)

But the most hilarious thing happened after dinner. As we walked back into our room, I noticed right away that our curtains had been closed. Then I heard the smooth jazz being played on the radio and the reading lights turned on. Our bed was fixed again (we had moved a couple of pillows before we left for dinner) and there were chocolates on the bed. I guess it was a kind gesture from the hotel, however, whatever mood they were aiming for, I don’t think that it was the one they got. I made Don check the shower, the closet, and behind the curtains. I was almost certain that someone was about to kill us. (Paranoid much?)

Anyway, this turned into a much wordier post that I had intended. So if you made it this far, you are amazing! Thanks for following along. Part three will be up as soon as I get the chance!

April 22, 2016

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