San Francisco!!

Markham had a conference in SF last week that ended Thursday. He had a fabulouso idea to fly me in for a long weekend so we could play and explore this crazy fun city kiddo free. What a grand idea!!!!! A huge shout out goes to my totally awesome parents who came and stayed with the kiddos!! oH MY Goodness!!! Thanks so much!!!

After I landed, I caught the airtrain from the airport to the Bart station and then rode that into the financial district to meet Markham. He had flown out on Sunday so I was excited to see him again. When I saw him after coming up the escalator, my heart skipped a beat ♥ He still does that to me 10 years later. How fun it was to finally be there!!

Our first night, we walked around Fisherman's Wharf, and enjoyed the sights. It was a really nice night and people were out everywhere! There were so many restaurants! wowzers. We decided on a yummy place called Lou's. Super fresh salmon and grilled veggies for me. Delicious fish tacos for Markham.

 So incredibly wonderful to have a relaxing meal together. It was so so great and just the beginning!

The first of way too many selfies, lol!

Markham was super excited to find a Ben & Jerry's storefront!

 

The next day we were "looking for adventure" just like those stupid Maverick commercials say on the radio. Markham kept asking, 'Are you ready for adventure?" He cracks me up. We rented bikes and headed for the Golden Gate! It was a really nice day again, kinda windy at times but to be expected.  

Look at how fresh and happy I look! If I had known what I had gotten myself into that morning I would have pounded a couple rockstars and brought along a few bottles of 5 hour energy and drank every single one of them! Yikes! 

Little side note: As we were taking this selfie on the pier, there was a tiny Asian woman with her arms outstretched to the sky yelling, "Hallelujah!!" She yelled it around 10 times. It was certainly interesting. We couldn't figure out if she was sane or not. Maybe she was super excited to be alive that day, maybe she was having some sort of spiritual awakening, or maybe she had lost a bet. Who knows. But hey, no one batted an eye.  

On the way to the bridge, we made a stop to explore the Palace of Fine Arts.

 So incredible! It felt like we had stepped through a portal to ancient Rome or something.

Afterwards we were back to our journey, headed for the bridge! Here we are right before a pretty decent hill to the top. Could have used that rockstar about now!

We made it!!

It was exhilarating! A trip highlight for sure.

After we passed the bridge we rode to Sausilito- a very cute little town. We ate at a super yummy Italian Restaurant. We were feeling pretty good about ourselves, we had covered 8 miles with a decent head wind.  I ate whatever I wanted with reckelss abandon, complete with appetizer and dessert :)  

 Yum!

At this point we could take a ferry back to SF or keep going to on to Tiburon. What do you think we did? I know what we should have done. lol.

We went for it. Giddy up!  Carpe Diem! When else were we going to be in SF kiddo free to be crazy reckless fools? 

So here is the route we took, we actually rode right next to the water through Sausalito, whoops. After that we headed up through Mill Valley and stopped at Old Mill Park.  

It was a beautiful park with big red woods. Kids were running around and climbing on the play set. I imagined bringing the kiddos there if we lived anywhere close, it was a beautiful spot.

Then we were off again. At this point, I was having serious doubts about the wisdom of our journey. Markham stayed super positive though, it wasn't until later he admitted we might have pushed it, lol. Hello I was wearing a cardigan and ballet flats! Earlier in the morning he asked me if I had brought any tennis shoes. I scoffed, I don't wear tennis shoes I told him. 

For the record, it wasn't my feet that hurt. I understand why hardcore bike riders wear shorts with butt pads. We had a good laugh about why the bike rental place was called "Blazing Saddles." My saddle was ablazing all right.  

Along the way, we stopped and laughed several times. It was madness, but it was fun. I'm pretty sure I had a healthy does of endorphins flowing because I should have been sobbing, lol. It was a beautiful ride though. We were along the water for a lot of it, on mostly bikes paths. It was the adventure we were looking for!

We made it to Tiburon! Happy Day!

We stopped at a cute candy store and bought some fudge to enjoy on the ferry ride back to SF. It was the most delicious fudge I have ever had. Markham was all over it, lol. And he said he wasn't a huge fudge fan. Ha! I wish I would have bought 5 lbs! I might call them someday and see if they will ship some to me. It was that good!!

 

Here is the beloved ferry that we rode back to the city.

 Bye Tiburon! You are beautiful

We landed back at Pier 39 and had to ride another 2 mile to drop the bikes. Yikes!! What a day. All together it was around 22 miles. 

Markham wanted a picture to prove I survived the day!

 After we dropped our bikes we walked to Boudins and ate the best sourdough bread on earth!

YUM! Maybe it was the day we had, maybe it was because we were starving, but this meal was so amazing. We just sat there by the window and soaked it in for awhile. We talked and laughed about our day. It was around 9:30. We went back to the hotel and went to bed. We were trashed.

The next day we set out to do some more exploring. We waned to see Lombard street. We couldn't get over how many steep hills there were. People seriously step out of their front door and drive into their tiny garages at a crazy angle.

 I can't even imagine how expensive it must be to live here!

 We made it to Lombard. One word. Crazy.

Next we headed down the hill again to Ghirardelli Square. A chocolate lovers dream. Mine anyway.

We watched chocolate being made. It smelled like a dream. I felt a little like I was in the Willy Wonka Factory or something. 

We picked up some chocolate treats for my parents and decided it was time for lunch. Markham had spent some time on yelp scouting a good place for fish and chips. We found it at The Codmother Fish & Chips. It was a tiny trailer with about 10 tables. It was packed and super super yummy. wow. Apparently locals don't go to the wharf because it's so touristy. We sat next to a couple who were chatting like locals. The guy took a call and said, "Don't laugh, but we are at the Wharf.  I know but this place has killer fish tacos." It made us laugh.

Later that night, we had tickets to the night tour at Alcatraz. So we wandered around and picked up a few things for the kids. It was our last night. 

The tour was fascinating. I learned a lot about the history of Alcatraz. 

Definitely had an eerie feeling. 

 The cells were tiny and it was cold and damp.

 It was an audio tour. So everyone got a set of earphones and played the tour at their own pace. Pretty clever. Original inmates and prison guards narrated it. It was super interesting. I really enjoyed it.

 Pretty creepy

Here I am in the "hole" solitary confinement. Where the baddies go when they can't play nice. There were about 10 cells like this. Later that night, Markham was reading factoids about Alcatraz. Apparently, this cell, the one I am in is said to be haunted. yikes.

One of the crazy things is the whole island is something like 22 acres. Most of the prison guards families lived there on the island too because it was so expensive to live in SF. Talk about a bad area. lol. That seems kinda like a crime. In all seriousness though the residents felt very safe and "rarely locked their doors." It had a small community feel where "all the dads were cops." I still think I would have locked the doors.

 We had a lot of fun. We thought we were so bad.

 When in Rome, lol.

After the ferry ride back to the city, we rounded out the trip with dinner at Boudin's again. We just couldn't get enough of that bread! Afterwards we walked back to Ghirardelli and shared a sundae. It was 10:30p and the place was packed. Line out of door, standing room only. 

What a fantastic adventure!! WOW! Thanks for making it so fun Mard!! xoxoxo

We flew home and saw this taped to the garage door. It's good to be back.