More SF Fun - Soooo Cool

San Francisco has really yummy sour dough bread and I enjoyed a bread bowl with clam chowder - mmmm mmmmm good! Here is a bakery that sold sour dough bread and they were very clever in their presentation of the bread. If you can't tell, it is an alligator with a turtle on his head. Isn't that soooo cool?



On Pier 39 we got to the see the sea lions sunbathing. Oh, they were hilarious! They love to play "king of the hill" and knock each other off the pier in order to be the ruler of that pier. The sea lions are way in the back - sorry you can't see them better.



Here we are with Alcatraz Island in the background. Oh what fun memories!





Then we got to go on a tour of the bay which took us around Alcatraz Island and under the Golden Gate Bridge. Oh, it was beautiful! And the bridge is just HUGE!



And, then, can you guess what we got to do next? It's something I've never done before and may never do again, but would love to, if given the chance: biking across the Golden Gate Bridge! And, not only that, but riding a tandem bike with my honey! It was soooo cool! And I was pretty proud of myself because the mileage from the bike shop to the end of the bridge was 8 miles! Whoa! I am not a bike rider, so this was quite the feat for me.



Here is my t-shirt proving that "I biked the bridge" and my square of Guiradelli chocolate I earned as a result (and may or may not have eaten a few more later on!)



Then we went to China Town. Oh my goodness! I was looking around so much with my jaw dropped, that a bug/dust ball flew into my mouth and I had a cough for the next hour! Everything in SF is so tall and squished together. And they fit all these little stores and restaurants and schools and homes into these tall squishy buildings and it is just amazing to see. Then the people walking around, all speaking different languages, it was just a lot to take in. China Town has 2 parts - the tourist trap part, which has many things for sale, and a lot of things at really good prices (that's where we found our souvenirs for the kids) and then China Town where the chinese people actually do the shopping for their own families. They both have a fun vibe. But I especially got a kick out of the "native" china town. We happened to walk through there when they were pulling out their fresh fruits and veggie carts onto the sidewalk for the morning. I felt like a giant compared to all of them, but it was so much fun listening to the store workers yell out their prices and the customers negotiate a price - all in their native language. It was sooo cool ("sooo cool is the phrase I caught myself saying a lot on the trip, so why not use it when describing it to you?!)



Then for dinner that night we got to have dinner with our beautiful niece, Macrae, who is living in SF right now. She is so sweet and we had a fabulous visit with her. She is single, by the way, which totally blows me away, so if you know of anyone in that area who is handsome, brave, and kind let me know and I will send her that way! :) As we left the restaurant, it was getting dark and we had to take a different route home than Macrae needed to go, so we had to send her off by herself. Now, mind you, she has lived there about a year and totally knows her way around, but I felt so scared for her as she took her pretty little self down the road. I was grateful for my strong and handsome honey who could go home with me. Someday she will have a strong and handsome honey, too. (By the way, she didn't ask me to say any of this, but I'm just putting a shout out for her anyways!)

If you've been able to get through this whole post, then I guess you will be willing to sit through my big ol' post tomorrow. Thanks for letting me share!