Making Lemonade : California Dreamin'

Thanks to DC's "snowquestor" storm I am finally getting to share about our wonderful anniversary get-a-way to California.

We capitalized on our time off over Christmas and booked a jam-packed travel week to the West Coast. There were so many places that we wanted to visit when we were there, but unfortunately with a finite amount of time and a New Years Day holiday in the middle of our trip we had to cut the list down. This just means that we're hoping to make another trip to the Pacific Coast again soon! So enjoy quite a few (well, way too many) pictures of our 6 month anniversary trip to California:

Day One: San Francisco

We successfully arrived without hick-ups to San Fran, navigated the subway, checked into our beautiful hotel, The Serrano, and hit the town to see everything!

First stop: hitchin a ride on the classic cable cars. While this may be the coolest mode of transportation I've ever taken, it was also the slowest and least practical in the world!

We went down to the waterfront, enjoyed the view from the bay, Alcatraz, and Ghiradelli Square while doing some shopping!

Travel Bugs

We couldn't go past the old chocolate factory without sharing a sundae and some peppermint bark!

Antique boats at Hyde Street Pier

Are those sea lions singing?

We waited for almost 2 hours to catch a cable car back into the heart of downtown- clearly I wasn't happy about waiting (this was the worst travel decision of our trip, but thankfully we wised up as the week went on)!

Finally sitting on our cable car... which broke down in the middle of an intersection during rush hour at the top of a hill (so we walked the last 10 blocks back to our SF home for the week).

Day Two: Escape to Alcatraz

We spent much of our second day learning all about the island in the bay, Alcatraz and the inmates who used to call that place home. It definitely brought out the history nerd in both of us.

All bundled up for the boat ride across the bay

Of course we donned the tourist-token head sets. This was the only day when the sun didn't shine the whole time

Look out for escaped prisoners!

After grabbing lunch at Fisherman's Warf, B was adamant that we had to go see Coit Tower. While the view was nice, it was not worth the effort it took to get there on public transportation. On the upside I single handedly navigated us on too many bus lines and on foot all around town.

Coit Tower's biggest fan!

We walked through China Town and found the official Fortune Cookie factory. Yes, that sign in the background is correct, you had to pay $.50 to take a picture in there. We each took one. ha!

One of the moments we will always remember from this trip happened around this picture. As we walked down the mainstreet in China Town we found a tiny tea shop. We were yelled at and encouraged to walk in and "drink some damn tea!" (which we did). We not only drank (and bought) great tea, but we got life and marriage advice and had quite a few laughs with Uncle Gee.

Day Two was so full and exhausting that drinking wine back at our room was the icing on the cake

Day Three: San Fran City Sights

With so much still to do and see around the city, we filled day 3 with The Cable Car Museum and Lombard Street before heading to "The End of the Earth"- The Cliff House

All the hundreds of miles of steel cord that it requires to run the cable cars around the city feed back into the Museum and repair shop. It takes 6 hours (the exact time the cable cars are down each night) to repair a tear in a cord. Again, this totally played to the history nerds in B and I!

We jumped on a cable car and experienced the crookedest street. Weirdest thing we saw in San Fran (besides all the hippies and hipsters of course).

Next on our Tour: The Cliff House- The CH was a victorian resort/ hotel/ medicinal bath that the rich escaped the city to relax at. It's been rebuilt 3 times due to fires and serves a killer menu (and Irish Coffee)! We loved eating at the restaurant, enjoying the view, and exploring the ruins.