Day 6 - San Francisco!

Thursday was my FAVORITE day of the whole trip. We woke up early(ish), skipped any thought of working out, ate some breakfast, and headed out to see San Francisco! Yet another city that looks so cool from the coastline! This time, our entire group stayed together the whole day. We all wanted to take advantage of our cool tour guides, Cyndi and John. This lucky couple from San Francisco drove all the way to LA in order to go on a cruise to their hometown! They live just outside San Fran, and were gracious enough to spend the day with this strange group of folk from Idaho and Utah! It was even Cyndi's birthday and she was awesome enough to spend it with us!

First off, it was a GORGEOUS day in San Fran. It was sunny, clear, and cool enough, but not cold. We couldn't have asked for a better day to be there. It was also nice that it was Thursday and not overloaded with tourists. We got off the boat and headed over to Pier 39 first. We walked around the little shops and I was tempted to buy some beautiful jewelry pieces, but resisted. Walking around the pier, we saw these images:

I loved the huge crowd of seals and the cool views of the bay.

Next, we walked over to Fisherman's Wharf and saw all the yummy food you could buy there. We didn't get anything (since we'd just eaten), but it did sure look good! We also kept walking and made it over to the cable car turn around by Ghirardelli Square. We jumped on the car and took a ride across town to China Town. I LOVED climbing and going down those steep hills and seeing the amazing architecture of the area. Those homes are so close together! Definitely a different lifestyle than what we enjoy here in Springville, UT. But it was very cool to see it. Paul took some pictures to get the idea of just how steep those roads are. We got off the trolley at Union Square and walked by the pricey stores in that area (Saks 5th Ave, Tiffany's, Prada, etc) on our way over to the gate to China Town:

These pictures capture the view from the top of the hills and here is the entrance to China Town!

Of course, we did a little bit of shopping in China Town. "Special deal, just for you!" I ended up buying a necklace and some wooden swords for Andy and Canon. For the record, it took Canon less than 48 hours to break his sword once we gave it to him! He was bummed when we told him it would be a while til we went back to China to get him a new one. Tough luck, kiddo! Since John and Cyndi weren't Chinese food connoisseurs, they didn't feel comfortable recommending any of the restaurants there. They didn't want to recommend something and then have it be yucky or overpriced. Since we'd already walked through 15 stores that all sold the same things, I recommended that we walk back to the ship, eat lunch there, and then hit Alcatraz after we've eaten. This is what we ended up doing and by the time we made it back to the pier, we were VERY ready to sit down. We'd already done a lot of walking that day!

After lunch, all of us, except Shane, wanted to tour Alcatraz. That island is just sitting right there in the middle of the bay with so much history attached to it... we just HAD to go! We took the tour boat over there and walked through the awesome audio tour. It was SO COOL! I just love historical sights and like to imagine what it would have been like to be there in all the different capacities. There were so many different "ways of life" on that island; from the guards to the prisoners to the children who lived there. Amazing! Here's a collage of just Alcatraz:

Thankfully, the ship was disembarking later than usual, so we had some extra time in the city. We made our dinner appointment for 7:00 that night and enjoyed our meal before heading up to the deck to watch the ship sail under the Golden Gate bridge. Pretty much, the whole ship was up there and it's a good thing... this was a moment that I would have HATED to miss! The night was clear, the sun had just set, and the moon was full casting a stream of light on the ocean. By the time we got to the bridge it was getting pretty dark, so you had all the lights of the city in the backdrop as well. It was breathtaking and incredibly romantic. I was so happy to be there witnessing that scene with Paul. Nobody else I would rather be with! Unfortunately, this was the result of the shots I tried to take...

This picture captures what the moon looked like (that's not Golden Gate right there)

This picture captures the city lights

And this was the attempt to capture the moon, the city, AND the bridge, but no luck!

yep, too bad my camera stinks and this is all we came up with! Guess you had to be there!

The night ended with just walking around the ship and then listening to some other people pretend they were talented enough to sing with a real rock band! To say the least, some of the singers were just not good! At 10:30, we headed up to the bar to help Cyndi wrap up her birthday with some dancing! A bunch of her friends bought her some birthday shots, which was probably a bit much for her since she admitted she wasn't much of a drinker! Paul and I ordered mocktails and I enjoyed every sip of that pina colada and strawberry daiquiri yumminess! Mmmmm! We also had a good time dancing. I admit though, I was pooped! So I actually went to bed earlier than Paul... he wanted to try his luck with $20 in the casino. It didn't take long for it to disappear, and I think he learned a valuable lesson. You get more entertainment out of $20 in the slot machines than you do at the craps table!

So that's our day in San Francisco. I totally fell in love with this city and can't wait to go back. There is so much to see there that one day doesn't do it justice!