San Francisco!

Brandon and I left Wednesday night last week for the wonderful city of San Francisco! We took the train from Salt Lake to Emeryville, and lets just say it was a long ride. The train left at 11:30 at night, so we got on and crashed for a majority of the night. We stopped in Elko about three hours after we had left Salt Lake, so we both woke up for that stop, and just slept on and off the rest of the night until about 8:00 in the morning. The train really wasn't so bad until about noon. Sleeping wasn't awesome, but when we woke up we got to get off in Reno and stretch our legs. Then we made our way to the lounge car, had some breakfast, and checked out the scenery for a while. After breakfast, we started to get a little antsy. We went back to our seats and read for a little bit, which led to a nice nap, then we watched a movie, which led to another nap! It was a pretty boring ride, and I don't know if I would do it again, but it wasn't as awful as I had expected it to be.

about to board the train!

The seats were like airplane seats with more legroom and more reclining capabilities

 

We were so tired still. If you couldn't tell by my eyes.

This is the lounge car that we sat in!

 That evening, Brandon's parents and brothers picked us up from the train station. We stopped for some dinner, and then made our way to The Coliseum to see the A's play against the Yankees! The game was honestly probably my favorite part of the entire trip. It was so fun! The A's won, we got to sing Take Me Out to the Ball Game, had some peanuts and hot dogs, and I got to eat a ginormous bag of cotton candy. So yeah...I'd say it was a good night!

hot dog!

HAPPY DAY!!! Don't worry, I shared.

So much happiness.

 The next morning we were up bright and early for a hot day at Six Flags. San Francisco wasn't supposed to be super warm, so I didn't pack any shorts. Needless to say I was dying at Six Flags, but we did have a lot of fun!

These are their roller coaster faces.

 We saw a lot of water shows with dolphins, whale, seal lions, and otters, and they were great! I went on the first two rides and they made me feel a bit sick, so I had to sit out on a few of the rides that day, but I was pretty proud of myself for even going on as many as I did!

This was one I did not go on. It was towards the end of the day and I finally felt 100% and didn't want to mess that up!

 Saturday morning we made our way straight to the Piers and Fisherman's Wharf! I was in heaven being around so many tall buildings and so few mountains!

This picture is through a window, sorry.

 First thing on our agenda was to visit the Aquarium of the Bay. It was neat! We got to see and touch a lot of creatures that live right in the bay. There were even sharks, which don't live in the bay.

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I loved all the boats at the pier!

 Next we took a double decker bus tour around the city. That was really neat too because we were able to see a lot of the city in a small amount of time, and it allowed us to find places we wanted to go back to later!

I learned that there are no painting restrictions on houses in California. I think it is so neat and allows for a ton of creativity!

I realized on this trip how much I love fire escapes.  So many great things happen on fire escapes in movies!

 Sadly at this point our camera died, so I will have to post more pictures from that day when I get them from Brandon's parents. After the tour, we went and explored an old war time ship from World War II. It was huge! We learned that it was built in 56 days, and one of the veterans had served on a ship of the same size that was built in 43 days! The ship we toured was actually used in filming some of the scenes from Titantic, and sounds from the boat were also used in the movie. After the boat, we grabbed some lunch. I had fish! It was so tasty. Then we headed to a wax museum. I think they are weird, but it was fun! Afterwards we went back to the piers and took a bay cruise around the Golden Gate Bridge. There was an audio tour included, and that was fun because we got to more about San Fran and the surrounding area. That night we made our way into China Town for some authentic Chinese food! It was sooooooo good, and I ate with chopsticks 99% of the time! I was proud. Then we went back to the hotel for a good nights rest.

Sunday morning we headed to Union Square (their shopping center) to catch a ride on the old fashion cable car! The line was huge; we probably waited for about thirty minutes, but it was worth it! Besides the fact that everyone in line for it was a tourist, I felt like a local! Those things can move, and the streets are so narrow with cars parked all along the side that if you aren't careful, you could get your arm clipped off by a mirror! They have wood blocks that they use to help brake the car, so the whole time we were going downhill it smelled like burnt wood. The whole experience sure made Brandon very happy though!!

It gave us some pretty good views! This is at the top of the Crooked Street!

After the cable car ride we went to Ghiradelli Square and had an ice cream sundae! They turned the old factory into some luxury condos, and there were some cool stores surrounding the area. Mostly it was just neat. And I love chocolate.

Ice cream makes us so happy!

And then, to immerse ourselves even more into the life of a San Franciscan, we used the bus system to get to our next destination! Buses are hard. I don't even take the buses in Logan. But we took them to get to an old house once occupied by the Haas' and the Lilienthal families. They were important somehow, but the house was just neat. After the house we went to a place called the Exploratorium. It is a science place but it was way cool! Unfortunately we only could stay there for an hour before it closed :(

Toilet drinking fountain

We then drove to the house from Full House!

Then to the Painted Ladies! These houses are also shown in the opening credits of Full House, and are probably better known from the Cingular commercials.

Monday we got up really early to make sure we made our boat time for Alcatraz. I had really high hopes for Alcatraz, and honestly think I was a little let down, but it was still very neat!

This one was also an audio tour that told you where to go; there were so many people everywhere!

We left Alcatraz and hopped in the car to go to the Muirwoods. Trees are trees, I didn't take any pictures, sorry! That was our last stop on our vacation to San Francisco. On the way to Reno we drove through wine country, but weren't able to stop at all :(

It was a fun vacation, but I am happy to be home! I only have to work three days this week, and I can't believe that tomorrow is already Friday. Next week we will work all week, but Thursday night we are going to a special showing of the new movie The Odd Life of Timothy Green that I scored free tickets to. Friday we are getting off work around noon and going to Boise! This will be my last time sleeping in the house I grew up in, so that is kind of sad, but I am excited to see my parents new house! After that weekend we will have one work week, one weekend, and one day until we leave for Florida! It can't come soon enough!