San Francisco Trip 8/23/12

We went to San Francisco a few weeks ago as a sort of birthday celebration (for me) and Anniversary trip that we never took on our actual Anniversary this summer.

 We had a great time, despite some car trouble on the way there (well regular car maintenance that just happened to need to happen on our way there). We left Wednesday after work, and around 1am in the middle of NOWHERE (about 40 miles from Lovelock, NV to be precise) our car starts freaking out a little bit. We were watching a documentary through the speakers of the car and it got really low and eventually we couldn't hear it. Then the dash lights dimmed and it got a little scary so Brandon pulled over and turned off the car. Well after a few minutes we tried to start it again, and nothing. So we got out and we were talking about what it could be and what to do because literally we were on a little road and the only cars passing were semi's, and this guy pulls up out of nowhere to help us! So Frankie jumped us and then offered to follow us all the way to the next town to make sure we made it, what a champ! Poor Frankie though had to follow us at like 50-60 MPH for 40 miles because we had to be careful because the car kept freaking out if we went over 60, then 55, then 50. Finally we made it and went to the first open motel we saw, the Cadillac Inn! Keep in mind it is like 2AM by this point. The nice owner comes out and gets us checked in. We were so thirsty though so we went to the casino across the street to try to find drinks, and there were literally 2 random people in it. The biker bartender gave us sodas and didn't even charge us, he was so nice! (And he had a goggles tan around his eyes from last weekends ride haha). Then we crashed in our adorable little room in Lovelock, NV.

(I just need to emphasize how NICE everyone in these little Nevada towns were! They were such sweet, helpful people and we loved getting the chance to get to meet all of them.)

Adorable Cadillac Inn!

 On Thursday we had the car checked out in Lovelock, but decided to go to Fernley (the next town because they had the part we needed for the car. We got to Fernley and went to the O'Reilly where they had the part. This nice sales guy tells us basically that it's not that hard to change out an alternator and he knows how, so he offers to help us do it instead of taking it to a shop where it would take forever and be at least $400... So long story short Brandon and the guy slave away in the hot sun for 4 hours changing out the alternator, and then we finally got on the road. 

Brandon is just so amazing,  he was covered in grease, hot, his back hurting, but he had the best attitude about it. Seriously amazing husband I've got. When we got to Reno we decided to change out the battery too just in case, because it needed to be changed anyways, so we did that and the car was flawless the rest of the trip! So we finally got to our hotel real late that night in South San Francisco and CRASHED, we were so tired (okay obviously me not so much, but we were both tired). Friday we got up and experienced SAN FRANCISCO!

We woke up and took the BART to the Embarcadero stop.

 

We went to the indoor market on I think Peir 41? It had a big clocktower...

 I could go to these markets every day for my food, they were insane.

 Some fountain I can't remember the name of...

 San Fran has these in some parts of the city, free bathrooms that are totally automated!

Pier 39!

Good ol Fisherman's Wharf! No we don't know that guy, it was just crazy crowded and we had to grab a picture when we could!

The streets were so steep sometimes, it felt like we were hiking!!

 

I'm seriously craving the clam chowder bread bowls and shrimp sandwiches they had!!! SOO good.

 This is our friend stumpy, his toes were mostly gone and one of his feet was totally gone, so we felt bad and fed him some crumbs from our bread bowl.

We actually didn't plan on going to Lombard Street, it didn't really seem worth it but when we were walking to Chinatown we walked near it and said what the heck lets go! And I'm so glad we did, it was actually really cool looking and so fun to walk up and down it because the houses are BEAUTIFUL.

  

Next, CHINATOWN!

Lots of undies hanging in the windows and laundry drying...

 Here's the weird thing, Chinatown has a bunch of bakeries selling American pastries! But made by Chinese people, it's so funny. We kept going back to one bakery we liked in Chinatown, the poor girl barely spoke any English but we managed to get our treats.

 

Oh and there was a restaurant we passed with a duck in the window, and I said "Hey I've never had duck..." and so we went and had dinner! It was delicious, turns out I really like duck. Oh and they give you each a slice of watermelon after you finish eating. Nice touch Chinese people!

 

 Walgreens in Chinatown, all Chinese below the English.

Brandon did get hives after touching some of these dried seafood items, we can't confirm that it was the dried octopus that did it, but I'm almost positive...

 

 It just so happened that we walked by a comedy club and saw that Jamie Kennedy was performing that night! It was kind of fate, because Brandon has every season of the Jamie Kennedy Experiment and we think he's hilarious.Oh and someone gave us their ticket so it truly was fate.

 

 AND he said he was voting for Mitt Romney, go Jamie! Haha.

Saturday was definitely more hectic, we decided to drive instead of take the transit system, which has pros and cons. The cons are that parking is a beast and traffic is insane. The pros are that you can get to places you wouldn't have if you were walking, and it's faster, and you see more. We walked around the boardwalk again, went to Ghiaradelli square, and did a bay cruise under the Golden Gate bridge!

We did get to cruise right by Alcatraz, it was so creepy and deserted looking! We were going to do an Alcatraz tour but they were sold out by the time we looked! We'll do that next time.

That night we finally found Japantown, but most of the shops were closing! We were so bummed, I LOVE Japanese stuff...This shop was open and had TONS of stationary, pens, notebooks, and all kinds of office supplies, I was dying.

 Street signs telling you animals in Japanese.

There were Asians right behind me and they didn't seem offended by this, so there's my justification for this pose.

Japanese people love little erasers shaped like animals, food, etc. so they had this set up at the stationary shop. Little scenes with the erasers, they were so CUTE.

"Halp!"

 

Undercover police penguins!

Well that's about it! On our drive back we happened to stop at the Donner Party memorial area (which was also a rest stop) and saw this plaque. 

All I could think of was THEY ATE EACH OTHER!! AHH! haha.

That's about it! We drove ALL DAY Sunday to get back in time for work/school Monday. Well mostly Brandon drove, I know, he's amazing because I'm such a baby and don't like driving stick shift (I did drive for like 2 hours though!) We got in super late and were exhausted, but it was so worth it because we had a blast!

Until next time San Francisco...