SAN FRANCISCO

Saturday, June 26, 2010 (1st Anniversary!)

Our first full day began in San Francisco's Chinatown. We found an amazing tour organization called City Guides San Francisco. The group is run by the public library system and provides free city tours given by local residents who want to share their city with tourists.

SF's Chinatown is large and full of activity. It is also really well laid out and easy to navigate.

Our guide was excellent - full of historical facts and anecdotes about Chinatown.

This picture is of a local shop where you can buy Chinese herbs and medicinal remedies.

There is a lot of affordable housing in Chinatown. 97% of this neighborhood consists of tenants, only 3% homeowners.

Duncombe Alley: used to be the site of opium dens in Chinatown, until a very anti-Chinese politician turned public opinion against it.

Walking around Chinatown... so busy!

I think this was outside an old fortune cookie factory (where they gave us samples...yum!)

After walking around Chinatown we had to go catch the U.S. world cup game...

We watched it at this bar called Kells - great crowd. The owner even had his dog with him!

After the soccer game we walked and walked and walked... SF is an amazingly hilly city - this view was from the top of one of the hills.

More walking...

SF is known for their sour dough bread so we had to stop and have lunch at the famous Boudin bakery shop.

Lunch was followed by more walking....

Ghirardelli Square, where we took a walk (or two) through the factory to get our sample of their delicious chocolate...

(Note the incline of the street... and this was a baby hill!)

After walking around all day we went back to our hotel and cleaned up so that we could go out on the town for our first anniversary. On the suggestion of Steve & Jaimie, we started the evening at the Top of the Mark. For you Bostonians, this is comparable to Top of the Hub. It's a beautiful restaurant/bar at the top of the Mark Hopkins Hotel. The view is spectacular. The walk to the hotel is brutal...

Up a gigantic hill!!

I am carrying my heels because there was no way I'd walk these hills in them...

The hotel.

Looking back down the hill.

We did not get a picture of the view before the sun went down (and actually, this is a pretty weird picture of us... but oh well) so you'll have to take our word for it that the view was awesome.

After drinks at Top of the Mark, we set off for Acquerello Restaurant for our dinner.

Acquerello is a gorgeous Italian restaurant. The service is beyond impressive and the food was delicious. I don't have any pictures of the dinner but you can click the link above to see the restaurant!

Sunday, June 27, 2010

We began our second full day with another City Guides tour of the Golden Gate Bridge. The morning started out full of the famous SF fog... we could hardly even see the bridge.

The tour consisted of an historical overview of the construction of the bridge and the bridge itself. We walked to the halfway point with the tour guide and then decided to walk the rest of the way over once the tour was over.

As soon as we got to the halfway point, the fog lifted and we could see!

The white cloud-like image in the background of this picture is the fog, rolling over the hills. It was as if someone were pouring the fog over the land... so cool!

This picture has the SF side of the bridge in the background. You can definitely tell the difference... sooo much fog in SF.

San Francisco in the background.

SF.

After the tour, we could see the whole bridge from the San Francisco side. Beautiful! (Also, random fun fact: the bridge's color is "Golden Gate International Orange" and is available at any paint/hardware store if you want to use it in your home decor)

More walking around the city...

Followed by dinner at La Mar: Cebicheria Peruana. The most delicious Peruvian food!!

Monday, June 28, 2010

We began Monday bright and early by standing in line to get tickets to Alcatraz. Normally you need to buy tickets days in advance, but for those of us that don't plan well, they offer a limited number of tickets each morning. We had to get there at 7AM (the ticket booth opened at 8AM), but it worked! We got onto the 9AM tour.

The view of Alcatraz from the ship that took us over.

Old admin. building.

This island was really too pretty for prisoners, in my opinion...

This is the main building that held the prisoners...

We did a self-guided audio tour, which was narrated by former guards and inmates. It was excellent.

The library

Breakfast menu from the day Alcatraz closed (due to deteriorating building conditions and lack of funding)

Outside the main building, the view of SF

I don't think we have many pictures of them, but there were lovely gardens all around Alcatraz island. The families who lived on the island (families of employees) and some prisoners cared for the gardens.

At one point after the prison was closed the island was taken over by Native Americans, reclaiming land. The occupation did not last too long... it's not the greates spot to form a society!

After Alcatraz we spent more time wandering SF...

And sitting in a sidewalk cafe, enjoying vacation with some coffee and croissants.

And that was our last full day in SF... Tuesday took us to wine country!