san fran trip. day 1.

Arrival at the SF airport...we really did it!

We stepped out of the subway to this....we felt like country mice in the city...wide eyed and fascinated by everything.

We loved our cute hotel. It had just been remodeled and it was within walking distance to most everything.

showers in the prison.

The view of the city lights from the prison. 

tiny cells. super creepy.

Oh, you know....had to. 

Best. thing.ever.

Oh wow, I've been putting off this blog post because I'm overwhelmed by all the pictures that we took. Jer and I have talked about going somewhere for our 10 year anniversary since we were 2 years deep :) So with wild ideas and lots of daydreaming and time spent booking fake trips to New York, Hawaii, and a 7 day cruise....it just didn't happen for our 10. So, we resolved to go somewhere for our 11 year no matter what. Having an anniversary so close to Christmas is tough, makes you not want to spend extra money when you know that December is a huge money draining month as it is. We talked about where where where for so long and nothing was sitting right. Not the cruise, not Hawaii, not New York. We've never been to a real city so I really wanted to do that, but New York is so far and so expensive. So when I suggested San Francisco, Jer was unsure. But the more I talked to people who had been and googled my heart out, I was so sold. We still hadn't done anything except talk about it until one night at almost midnight when Southwest flight deals to Sf were about to expire...in 15 minutes. So we decided to just book it then and plan later. In the back of my mind I knew that Jer's little sister, Cede was in between jobs and would help us with he kids. So between her help & the Southwest deal, our minds were made up. The timing and situation was perfect, for once. Of course last minute work stuff threatened our trip and right up until that very morning I still felt like it could fall apart, it just didn't seem like it would really happen. But, we dropped the kids at school on Thursday morning and went straight to the airport. Couldn't believe it was actually happening! is this ridiculous or what? I know couples go out of town all. the. time. but NOT US. 

When we arrived at the SF airport, it was pretty funny because we had no rental car, no shuttle, and we needed to get to our hotel quickly. Neither one of us had ever been on a subway, city bus, or taxi. We asked around and figured the best deal would be to take the Bart (subway) to the F Line....what? soooo not our language & it was intimidating. But we got lucky with a few nice locals who helped us along the way and it was a major crash course in city transport right off the bat. We even had a homeless man who was staging himself as a transit employee messing with us for 20 minutes trying to get $ before we discovered he was not even a real employee. We realized that we were going to be easy tourist targets if we allowed it, but resolved to toughen up--quick. When we hopped on the next bus (or the "F line"...really why all the confusion!) the driver almost threw us off when we didn't have exact change. Laughed when I asked if he could break my $20. He berated us and then had some fun humiliating us before it was time to get off and he decided to be nice and let us ride being $1 short. 


Finally arrived at the hotel and checked in and it was time to board the Alcatraz ship. We did the night tour, and in my mind when I booked the tickets, I don't know why but I totally pictured this tiny boat with a motor and 10 or so of us out on the ocean heading to a haunted prison in the pitch black night. I was spooked for no reason because the boat was more like a cruise ship, well lit, and hundreds of people on board. The island of Alcatraz was bright, and actually quite beautiful. The tour was long (2.5 hours) but fascinating. I had no idea that the families of the officers all lived on the island as well. Children grew up there, it was their home. They said they didn't even lock their doors at night and that it was like living in a small town, everyone managed to forget about the prison next door. But there were several stories of escapees, so I'm not sure why they all felt so comfortable! After the tour, we were famished, and walked to the first restaurant we saw and lucky for us it ended up being Boudin--the best bakery, and we went there three more times on the trip. We also walked to Ghiradelli Square and got the most delicious Sea Salt Caramel Hot Chocolate. The best treat I've ever had, and we went back there pretty much every single night after that.