don’t leave your heart in san francisco

Hey, hey! How was your week? Last weekend, Joe and I took a quick little trip to San Francisco and explored their amazing city, cramming as much into our day and a half + two nights as possible. A co-worker shouted after me as I left work on Friday, “Don’t leave your heart in San Francisco!” Uhm, yeah? I get it now, San Francisco is totally lovable and amazing.

I was a bit snap happy, taking a gagillion pictures while wandering this gorgeous place. Everything was so lively and lovely, and we couldn’t get enough! To save you from brain numb, I’m splitting the pictures into a couple posts.

Ready for the first photo dump? Here goes:

Alcatraz! Look, I’m not gonna lie. I have no desire to see the inside of this skeleton.  It seems like it’d be creepy, dark, wet and cold. I envision rats, cockroaches and ghosts. Hell. NO. I chatted with one of the trolly operators about what it must have been like for the people back in the day on the mainland, seeing a constant reminder of the consequences of committing crime every time they woke up, and the flip side, too. What must it have been like to see the mainland living large while contained in the confines of an island prison? It’s fascinating and my mind could wander for ages considering all the details. Dude, my imagination is no joke!

This bridge. WOW. Did you know it’s a suspension bridge? The posts lead all the way to the ocean floor, but the cables (yes, steel cables, braided together into a rope), are all that holds the roadway together between secured posts.  So many cars whizzed by as we walked the length of this thing, plus earthquakes, and people and bicyclists, and wind, and oh holy night.  I’m so skeptical of heights. There was no way I was peeking over the railing as we walked the 1.7 miles. We Uber’d over to the far side, and walked back, taking as many pictures as my brain could handle. BTW, the Uber app is pretty fantastic. And if they want to pay me to say that, I’ll repeat it again and again. Not that they are. Jerks.

Did you know there was a lot of thought into what color the bridge would be? It’s supposedly copyrighted.  I don’t have any links to back that up, but I did read it somewhere.

This place is like a watercolorists dream! Fisherman’s Wharf was pretty cool.  We took the trolley from our hotel to The Buena Vista on Saturday morning.  We held off on having any coffee so we could experience the world famous Irish Coffee this quaint little restaurant had to offer.  Apparently, they’ve entered contests and won? It was a sweet first stop, and we got a souvenir recipe card, a couple of postcards and some matchbooks.  They aren’t messing around here! Our waitress was no-nonsense fantastic. “Look, there’s a table there that seats six, and only two sitting. Go! Make friends! No one here knows each other!” She was all decked out in her orthopedic shoes with tights, hair curled perfectly, apron cockeyed whilst holding a pot of coffee.  The best.

So we started at the restaurant, walked the piers and used the Uber app to get us a ride to the opposite side of the bridge, walked the length and worked our way back to the hotel (Hotel Fusion, which I wouldn’t oppose or recommend. Staff was great, but the bed was a double and whoa). We tapped out about two miles from our hotel and paid a trolley to take us the rest of the way.  San Fran (or Frisco as our LA friend endearingly calls it, which is probably super trendy and cool) = a totally walkable city, if you’re keen on hiking up and down whilst being rained on and freezing your ass off. The same person who told me not to leave my heart there told me San Francisco was not a walkable city, and I totally disagree. My suggestion is: don’t rent a car, use the <totally easy> public transportation, layer up, pack an umbrella and experience this city and all the life and beauty it has to offer. Which is absolutely not something you can do behind the metal and glass of a rental car, in my opinion.

Stay tuned for the second/last installment of San Francisco, Joe and Amy style!