San Francisco - The Rice-A-Roni Treat

The Mulk and I will be celebrating our 20th anniversary this year and decided to take a vacation together - without the children. We decided to go to San Francisco, because the Mulk had been there once before on a business trip and loved it, but couldn't see all that he wanted to, so we decided to go there and see it all (or what we could fit into a week). I didn't really know what to expect, but it was awesome! So many things to do and see (just the people watching was entertaining)! Here is some photos to let you share in the trip:



The Salt Flats were sooo amazing - like a sea of salt!



Our first stop was in Reno for the night. We didn't want to drive straight thru to CA, because we got a late start and didn't want to risk having an accident. This was our hotel room - now compare it to our hotel room in CA.



This rest stop was the most beautiful one I've seen. You have to appreciate the good one's!



The beautiful scenery - if we had flown we would have never been able to see these gorgeous views!



I really had wanted to stop and see the Muir Woods because they are home to the giant Redwoods - which I have never seen before. As we planned our trip, we just couldn't fit the Muir Woods into our schedule. I was sad, but agreed there just wasn't any way to do it. Well, as The Mulk woke up the morning of our vacation, he was inspired to see if we could fit it in by driving a different route. So he got onto Google Maps and found that indeed we could fit it into our trip if we stopped by on our way to San Francisco. I was thrilled! Then, because we drove that route, we were able to enter SF by crossing over the Golden Gate Bridge. Is that cool or what?!
The trees were AMAZING! I can understand why people would want to be "tree huggers" because the spirit coming from these trees make you want to hug them and protect them. There really was a spiritual feeling when you entered these woods. I felt such respect and reverence while in their midst. I was so grateful that the Mulk was inspired to find a way to fit it into our schedule.



I video taped the trip over the bridge and into SF, but I hurried and got the camera out to take a picture as we finished driving over it. Oh, it was just sooo exciting!



Here is our humble abode during the week of our SF trip - not so flashy as Reno, but we felt so much more at home in this room than we did in Reno.



Here's the view from our room. Not picturesque, but we found so many beautiful views on our trips outside our hotel, that it didn't matter. It was kind of funny though, to have a non-view on our supposedly "romantic" vacation.



It did have a walk-in closet, though, and I thought that was awesome!



And we even had a little kitchenette so, really, we had all we could want in our room. And they provided breakfast every morning, too.



The door of our room - cute, huh?



And I had to get a pic of the elevator. It's the kind where you open up a normal door and then you pull back the gate and step inside. Then you pull the gate shut and you can see each floor as you go up or down. I just thought that was sooo cool!



You probably can't tell from this pic the full extent of how steep the streets in SF are, but they are soooo steep! As we entered the city in our stick shift car, I was very grateful the Mulk was driving! It makes me nervous thinking about it even 2 weeks later! Here we are on the steepest hills I've seen and in a stick shift (which roll backward very easily if you're not careful) and the map we had directed us up about 6 hills to get to our hotel (we found other ways to our hotel with only a few hills later on). I thought I was going to have a panic attack! I kept leaning forward so that there wouldn't be any extra weight in the back end that might tip the car backwards. And I kept telling the Mulk, "Good job, honey... You are awesome, honey... Don't worry, we will get there, honey... I'm sooo glad you are driving, honey." He was chuckling and telling me it was ok, but I know it wasn't fun for him. I don't think I would ever get my license if I had to learn to drive in SF. Not only are the streets super steep, but they are really squishy, and very hard to park on. I was sooo glad that we got a transit pass for the week so that we only had to take our car out of the hotel garage one time for our trip to San Jose. Other than that, we either walked or rode transit.



Here's my hero, my man, my friend. Love him sooo much!



One of the gorgeous views I was talking about - the crookedest street in America: Lombard Street.



What the Mulk likes to call, "the flying rats of SF". These pigeons were all over the sidewalks. People just didn't even pay attention to them, even when the pigeons would swoop over your heads and land on the ground in front of you to get some scrap of food. It was a bit unsettling.



And here is a preview of what we did the next day - Chinatown!