San Francisco

I'd never been to Northern California or San Francisco so we decided to spend a couple of days doing the touristy stuff so that I could experience everything...next time we can devote the majority of our time to just hanging out with Jeff and Linda as I won't want to do and see everything possible.

We headed out pretty early - I believe it was about 6 AM one day to make the two hour drive down to San Francisco. The traffic wasn't as bad as we were expecting so we ended up getting down to Pier 39/Fisherman's Wharf before any of the shops were open and were one of the only people walking around. It was great. We actually went down and were checking out the sea-lions. If you can believe it, we were one of five people total that were there. Besides the overwhelming fishy smell, it was good times.


Ha - we made our way down to Lombard Street (the curviest street in the world) where we found that absolutely NO ONE was driving down it, but instead walking in and around in order to take pictures. Our little car was a champ. We drove right down it with no problem at all while all these asian tourists gasped and snapped photos. Great. Unfortunately, because we didn't take the time to physically get out of the car and climb all the way up it - we only have pictures of us coming down the hill. Classic. (PS...All the people you can see in the distance are taking pics of us. OH and look at the city/houses in the distance. Amazing. I love the houses here).


Of course we had to go across the bridge, pay the ridiculous toll and take pictures in front of the Golden Gate Bridge. (I was photo-bombed by this old guy).



We decided to hang around in the wharf while we waited for our sail time to alcatraz. There were some pretty good photo ops. :)






Ghiradelli Square






And this picture was taken especially for Brent. The man can (and will) eat mustard on anything and everything.




Coming up next: Alcatraz, Jelly Belly Factory, Apple Hill

Northern Cali/San Fran Trip - Winchester Mystery House

At the end of October Kevin and I took our very first road trip together (not counting Wendover) to Northern California. His aunt and uncle graciously let us crash at their place for a week as we came and went as we pleased. Thanks guys! We had a blast!

The first couple of days we lounged around the house and hung out with the Rupps. I had only met Jeff and Linda a couple of times, so it was nice to just relax, take it all in and get to know them better. I definitely got a fair share of knee slapper stories - mostly from Jeff. He attempted to persuade me to watch Hellcats and was convinced that both Kev and I would be hooked. Needless to say, we were not and have no plans of watching that show in the future. No offense Jeff.

Our first blogworthy tourist trap visited was the Winchester Mystery House located in San Jose. Amazing. I may be quoting the story wrong, but basically the widow of Mr. Winchester (the famous gun manufacturer/retailer...something) started going crazy and kept building onto her already extravagant house because ghosts/spirits told her to. I believe that by the time she passed, there were 180 rooms total - incredible. There were staircases that led to the ceiling, doors that would open to a drop-off, closets that would just be walls.

We were not allowed to take pictures inside the house so took about a gazillion pictures of the outside. It was a huge bummer - quite a few of the windows were stained glass by Tiffany and Co., the woodworking throughout the entire house was unbelievable and to think that it was all done by hand and not by machine is just mind-blowing.

The landscaping and grounds were immaculate and well cared for. There were numerous fountains, shrubs, wild flowers, etc.

Halloweenie

The beginning of October we had some friends over to carve pumpkins and play games. These pictures don't do the pumpkins any justice... let's just say that we had some creative minds and mad skills. We may or may not have ended the night by eating dog treats...but only because it was a dare, and how can you turn down a dare?!


(Amy, concentrating on not cutting herself)

(Excuse the quality of the pictures, we noticed after the fact that the settings were not set to what we would have liked).











LOL...and just because I like my dogs....We picked up a new Halloween decoration this year. The dogs weren't quite sure about it and would sniff and bark at it all the time. I may or may not have occasionally put a dog treat in the bucket for them to pull out...usually they were a little too scared and would have nothing to do with it, but occasionally they would get the courage up to poke their head in. The dang skeleton isn't the sturdiest thing ever and will wobble if touched...hence the reason the dogs didn't like it.