I surprised my handsome husband with a trip to San Francisco for his 28th Birthday! I kept it a secret for almost 6 weeks (that is an ETERNITY) and told him on the year mark of when we first met (07/25/10). He was SO EXCITED! This poor child hasn't traveled the world like I have and I was SO EXCITED to take him!!
Michael's birthday is August 25th and mine is August 28th. No, we will not be having a child in August...if we can help it! :) My parent's anniversary is also on August 28th so I invited begged them to tag along because they are young, fun, hip parents and my mom totally knows the city. We left the day after Michael's birthday and came home on my birthday. It was a FABULOUS short trip, but we had a blast and it's one more thing we can check off of our "go to places" list! THANKS MOM & DAD FOR GOING!!!
Superman! His favorite thing on earth...next to me of course...even so much so that he wants to name our son "Clark" (*cough* not happening). Isn't he cute?? I'm really not the creative type, but I was super proud of myself with my first attempt at making a cake :)
We landed in Okland (sometimes you have to fly to different cities when you're flying standby - disadvantage of flying for free!), jetted to the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) to get to San Francisco, walked to our hotel which was a few miles from the BART station, waved down a taxi who sped 60 mph to the dock area so we could get on the barge and make our reservation for ALCATRAZ!!! Phew! It was literally go-go-go, but we made it!
Riding the Alcatraz Ferry...
- Mr. Motion Sickness -
He really does get motion sickness, but this was a pretend photo. Hilarious!
The hilly city...
~ ALCATRAZ ~
Alcatraz is located in the San Francisco Bay just 1.5 miles offshore from San Francisco. It is often referred to as "The Rock" or "Traz" and was developed with facilities for a lighthouse, military fortification, military prison, and a Federal prison until 1963.
As soon as you walked in you went up some stairs and entered the shower room. Pretty embarrassing, don't ya think?! To the right of the shower was where the inmates were given their prison clothes. Past the showers to the left is where you picked up your 35 minute audio headset tour of Alcatraz available in 6 different languages. Mike almost chose Portuguese :) Without the headset, it would have been an ugly old prison to me. I'm so glad we had a headset so we knew what we were looking at, it was AWESOME!
The cells were so extremely small I would not have survived one day there as a prisoner with my claustrophobia. Just to give you an idea, each cell in B & C Block was 5X9 feet. They each had a small sink with cold water, small bed/sleeping cot, and a toilet. Most of the prisoners could extend their arms and touch each wall within their cell. The cells in D Block were more spacious, but the least popular as they were confined to their cells 24 hours per day with the exception of one visit per week to the recreation yard, and these visits were alone. Incredible.
I've never had the "pleasure" of visiting someone in prison but I'm pretty sure the visitation nowadays are a lot better than what's pictured above. Inmates were allowed one visit per month, which had to be approved by the warden, and there was no physical contact allowed. Visitations were also monitored by a correctional officer. I was amazed by everything...
One of the 6 solitary confinement cells. Scary! The majority of the prisoners were sent to Alcatraz after causing problems at other prisons. During its 29 years of operation, the penitentiary claimed no prisoner had successfully escaped. 36 prisoners made 14 escape attempts, 2 men trying twice; 23 were caught, 6 were shot and killed during their escape, and 3 escaped and were never found.
Alcatraz view from land. It is one of the coolest historical sites I have ever seen. I was very intrigued and thought it was worth the money. Not to mention, you climb a steep steep hill after you get off the ferry and my thighs got the best workout they've had in a looooong time! Just ask my mother; we're going to move there for exercise purposes only ;)
After our tour we met up with a family friend, Scott Freeman, for lunch at Fishermen's Grotto and I was the only one who ordered spaghetti! SCORE! I hate seafood. D.I.S.G.U.S.T.I.N.G. Scott is a pilot for United Airlines and had a layover in San Fran, what are the odds? OH, and my food was delish!
Are these not the most bizarre mammals ever? I could watch them for hours!!!! Mike and I were just about ready to get a picture with one until a boat captain shut us down. Boooo!
This is why my Dad wanted to come to San Fran. He loves salt water taffy!
How many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop?
Who doesn't love arcades?! Arcade bowling, father-in-law VS son-in-law in some basketball hoops, and air hockey with my Dad. I won't tell who won! SO.MUCH.FUN. I gave my tickets to a young boy and the look on his face was priceless!!! Ohhh to be a kid again!
A Lefty's Store! I wanted to buy EVERY.SINGLE.THING. in it.
Our hair was dragging at this point...
The next day we went to the.....
It was a little more foggy the day we went to the bridge and I was kind of bummed because I wanted Mike to see the full effect as I've been to this bridge several times, but it was still fun and we walked up and down it and got some great shots!
We had to wait in line to ride the San Fran Cable Car to get to the bridge and had these guys for entertainment. They sang and danced to Michael Jackson and many other songs we knew, clapped, and yelled "CHEEE-HOOO!" all the time. Best street begging entertainment, by far! We rode the cable car as far as we could, stopped for some Ghirardelli Chocolate, and rode the city bus the rest of the way.
Cable Car Fun!
~ The Golden Gate Bridge ~
I took this shot! Isn't it beautiful??
It was in the low 50s which was fa-fa-freeezing to us since it was 116* back home!
We planned on going to a Giants baseball game but the tickets were pricey so we ate dinner and watched a movie at the hotel instead on our last night there. It was a great, quick, fun, short trip! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US!!!
3 comments:
Great trip! And all the Giants fans were letting your dad know that they thought the Diamondbacks were No. 1! haha
Fun times...we often go to Dave and Busters here cuz my hubby and I enjoy a little friendly competition. Also, just wondering at the candy store are those like edible underwear right behind your head, lol not sure why I noticed but the woman silouettes stood out to me.
That's cool! I had no idea there was such a thing as a "left-handed" store. : )
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