San Francisco Trip TL;DR WITH PHOTOS!
Aug. 31st, 2014 12:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
orangerfulWow, this is long. Like, crazy long. Feel free to skim, the details are here more for my memory lane strolls in the future.
Okay, San Francisco Trip! Here we go!
Well, the rub was that when I first bought the tickets as a surprise birthday present for Tim, the flight was supposed to leave at 7:10am, so I figured we could probably get to the airport at 6am and be fine. BUT right after his birthday, I got a call from Southwest and they had moved the fligth up to 6:10am. YEP, we had to be at the airport by 5am (and that was pushing it since technically you’re supposed to arrive 2 hours early but, just...no. To quote Homer Simpson “There’s a 4 in the morning?”)
Our friend Carol was kind enough to drive us to the airport so we didn’t have to worry about paying for parking/shuttling etc. which was awesome of her because ew, 5am. (We are not morning people). We got through BWI security pretty quickly and we boarded relatively soon after. Tried to sleep on the flight but I can never really do that, especially on the way somewhere, I get too excited. We had a brief layover in Milwaukee, little over an hour, which was enough time to sit down, eat some of our snacks, play with our phones and stuff.
Plane to San Francisco was full but we were in the A boarding group (A 42? This Douglas Adams fan took that number as a good omen). We arrived right on time, got our bags, and Christina was there to pick us up.
Backstory: Tim has known Casey since they were in elementary school, when he moved to California in 4th grade. Last time Tim flew on plane was for Casey and Christina’s wedding, 10 years ago. Casey and Christina, but some crazy random happenstance, were living in Virginia for awhile, so I got to meet them and we had a few fun game nights. Then Casey got a job in California last year and they had to move, which is when I had the brilliant idea that we should go visit.
Christina drives us to get our rental car. She said that she wanted to let us know the big news before we got back to the house and that she was pregnant! Big surprise and we are really happy for them. But that also meant she wasn’t her usual energetic self as her body is in the OMG WHAT IS HAPPENING phase. No worries though, she was still capable of giving us directions. We picked up our car, found their rental house (tiny little rancher which costs about 5 times as much as any house in Glen Burnie, but because it’s 20 minutes from the city and on a hill in California...yeah, like a million dollar home. People on the west coast be crazy.) We dropped our stuff but even though we had been flying all day, it was only 3pm PST so we had time to kill before Casey got home work. Christina directed us to Half Moon Bay, which was a quick ride down the road.
We drove down to Half Moon Bay and I told Tim I wanted to touch the Pacific Ocean. We walked down to the beach and watched the waves for a bit, then Tim asked if I wanted a picture taken of me so I said yes. As I walked towards what appeared to be the edge of the tide, the waves were all PSYCH! and came up twice as far as before and totally soaked my sandals and the bottom of my jeans. Tim managed to snap a photo right as this happened.
And then we laughed for a long time. I took a photo of him with plenty of distance from the actual shoreline. Then we decided to walk along the trail, giving my feet a chance to dry off and squeezing the ocean water out of my sandals. Along the way we saw a creepy-ass crow that got really mad at us when we walked by him, started flying around and cawing. It wouldn’t have bothered me too much until we turned around to walk back and the crow landed right in front of us on the fence and I was all “It’s a birdemic!”
Then we drove back to the house and Casey grilled us up some delicious burgers and hot dogs. We sat outside but it got really cold outside! Crazy California weather. The lack of humidity and the breeze really make a difference. Tim and I didn’t last much longer after that and we promptly passed out.
Since Casey still had to work on Thursday, we decided to do the “memory lane” portion of our visit that day. We drove about an hour south to lovely Manteca. Tim has seen a lot of the places I lived when I was that age, so it was cool for me to see where he had spent most of his formative years. He pointed out where he was when the big earthquake of 1989 hit, his friend’s backyard. He had a Back to the Future moment, seeing the farmhouse down the road was now a megamall.
Then we drove back up, but along a different route so we could end up at the Winchester House. My parents went to this tourist attraction when I was a kid and brought home the souvenir guide. In the guide was a picture that terrified me when I saw it as a kid - a drawing of the ghosts of the mansion reaching out to grab Mrs. Winchester. I had always wanted to visit and see what the place was all about.
For those of you unfamiliar with the story: Mrs. Winchester was the widow of the president of Winchester rifles. Their daughter and then her husband both died relatively close together. She visited a psychic medium who told her it was the doing of spirits who were killed by the Winchester rifle.They would continue to haunt her unless she bought a house and started building 24/7. So she purchased a small farmhouse and built on to it, with no real architectural plan, just knowing she had to keep building to appease the spirits. There are doors that lead into walls, doors that open to 8 foot drops, cabinets with no back...166 rooms total.
The tour was very interesting, though Tim pointed out that they really toned down the paranormal aspect of it. I’m wondering when that happened and why. Were kids getting too freaked out? Or did someone find it insulting that Winchester believed in such things?
What’s really unsettling is that there are no real stories to go along with the Winchester house. When she died, it was considered valueless and bought for nothing by an outside person, who was just going to tear it down until the locals started to ask if they could see the inside of the crazy house. So it hasn’t been connected to the Winchester family since then. She didn’t leave behind any diaries and, so far, no one has found any servant records to describe exactly what it was like to work in that house. CREEPY! But also fascinating...and a bit sad.
We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the house, but I have a few from the outside, in the gardens.
After that it was back home for dinner. I think the Simpsons marathon started that day or the day before so we watched a few episodes (and continued to watch at least one every day before we left or after we got back LOL) and we played Apples to Apples and I had a beer and the jet lag punched me in the face and I passed out pretty early.
Friday we actually went into the city. And what a wacky place that is. The hills...geez, driving up and down those crazy hills. The only way to get to the Golden Gate Bridge is through the city, so we really had no choice.
Though first we made a stop, since it was on the way, at The Presidio. This army base was slowly shrinking over the years until it was shutdown completely sometime in the late 90s. It’s not a state park, but for some random reason, Lucasfilm bought the building down at one end on Letterman Drive. It is the one Lucasfilm campus open to the public. We got a picture with the Yoda Fountain outside the front doors and walked into the main lobby, which was filled with random books and Star Wars statues, plus the awards won by various Lucas owned companies. I think the best part about this was bumping into the other geeky family that was outside snapping photos (they were kind enough to get a photo of both Tim & I). I talked to them a bit about other Star Wars stuff.
After that, we wandered the Presidio area. There is a Walt Disney museum but it was a little pricey to get into so we just kept meandering up the hill until we ended up in the National Cemetery. We walked through, looking at all the different tombstones, the dates, names...and the construction they were doing to overhaul the cemetery and stop the tombstones from sinking into the ground.
Tim suggested we visit Fort Point, which turned out to be right down the road (though that road was full of crazy people who thought renting a bike in a city full of hills was a good idea when they were at the bottom of the hill, but now that I was driving a car behind them, they were not so sure). This was really cool! It was an old Spanish fort long before the United States had any interest in California. After the Spanish left, the U.S. used the same spot to build a fort. It was actually scheduled to be demolished when the Golden Gate bridge was built but the architect of the bridge visited the site and said it should be declared a landmark and preserved because it was a fine example of engineering from that time period. He actually redesigned the bridge to have a little arch over the fort so both could live in harmony. It was really fun to walk through and try to imagine all the soldiers who lived and worked in that fort. All the history. So much wind! They must have been miserable!!
At this point, we were starving and hoping to visit Muir Woods and find some lunch around there. Driving across the bridge, we saw a sign that said “Muir Woods Lot Full” so we hoped that if we stopped for a late lunch then we could find parking after that. We got a burrito in a town also built into the side of a mountain, with streets that had to be approaching 90 degree angles. But, alas, after we ate and took the windy road into Muir Woods, parking was still hard to come by. We did find a spot, way down the road, and wandered a little, but we only found one little redwood tree...and a lonely vulture. We decided that was a sign to head back (plus, we were going to Sushi Monster for dinner that night!)
Saturday we went to Sonoma Valley for the obligatory wine tasting portion of the trip. Christina was our designated driver and Casey was finally able to spend a day with us! I am far too much of a light weight for wine tasting, that is what I learned. After one tasting, I was tipsy. We did get a nice little tour of one of the wineries, got to even take a grape right off the vine! They also had olive oil tasting, which is apparently the new “thing” in that area, since olives grow so well in the climate. That was a unique experience, I had no idea that olive oils came in that many different styles.
We had lunch at “The girl with the fig” and I was going to order some kind of fig beverage but when I asked the waitress about it, her response was “Do you like to drink vinegar?” so I decided perhaps that was not the drink for me. I went with some other delicious fizzy minty drink instead.
After that, we hunted around for a cheese tasting place (even though Casey had the cheese platter for lunch) and found a little whole in the wall that was actually a local cheesemaking company that had been there for many years. We tried their jack cheeses, which were delicious, and left with a couple different flavors to munch on later.
Except that, by the time we got back home, we were SO exhausted from the wine and the sun that we ended up ordering pizza and passing out again! (and apparently neither of us took any pictures this day...weird)
I woke up at some point in the middle of the night hearing Dozer, the dog, barking at something and his claws on the hardwood floors as he ran out of Casey and Christina’s bedroom. Then I fell back to sleep. In the morning, Tim was reading Facebook on his phone and informed me I had pretty much slept through an earthquake!!! Dozer barked to make the earthquake go away and he did a wonderful job. Christina also slept through it, though both Tim and Casey woke up and said they felt “something”. The epicenter was in Napa, so it was dumb luck that we had gone there the day before.
Sunday, Casey took us down to Fisherman’s Wharf aka Pier 39 aka a huge tourist trap that used to be the main pier in the city. There are signs up all over about how they turned it into this mega shopping center all the way back in the late 70s. Soooo long ago. LOL. We had fun though. Casey pointed me into the Spice and Tea Exchange store and I got myself into a lot of trouble there, stocking up on spices for myself and some gifts for my friend Karen, who was feeding the kitties. We also grabbed lunch while we were there, and I finally got to try Dungeoness Crab. I liked it a lot. I’m not a fan of Maryland crab at all, I’m a lobster girl. I felt like the Dungeoness crab meat was closer to lobster. I’d eat it again for sure.
Casey tried to take us to Lombard St, the windiest street in the world, but it was closed for some kind of event. Looking down the hill, I don’t think I would have wanted to drive that way anyhow! He also took us to the Japanese Tea Gardens, which were gorgeous and surprisingly serene considering how many people were wandering inside. It’s like everyone knew, even the kids, to take it down a notch.
On the way back home, Casey found a board game store and his mission to find Risk Legacy was completed. We went back to their place, cut up some sourdough bread and the cheeses from the day before, popped open a bottle of wine, and played the first game. (Risk Legacy is sorta like normal Risk...except that every game effects the next game. So, I won the first game and was able to name a continent of my choice and if I ever play again, I can start on that continent and get bonus points).
Monday, our final day. I had a mission - I was going to see some Redwoods! Casey had taken the day off so we hopped in the car and drove south to the Big Basin Redwood National Park. GORGEOUS! AMAZING! Yes, it felt like I was walking on Endor. I wished I had the Her Universe Ewok hoodie because I would have been posing all over in it. There’s something about this giant trees that really puts everything in perspective.
Trees that have been around far longer than any of the humans on the planet right now, longer than some of our countries have existed, even our religions. The forest was so quiet. I could have wandered there all day. But, alas we had to head back for the grand finale to our trip.
A baseball game at AT&T Park! I think this is the first baseball game I’ve seen from beginning to end. It was the SF Giants vs Colorado Rockies. None of us were huge fans of either team, but it was an entertaining, sometimes painful game. It started off with a few errors as an attempt to catch a guy stealing a base resulted in the baseman missing the ball so two bases were stolen. There were some bad calls by the one umpire caused the fans to go crazy. And then I bought an ice cream sundae for $10.25, but it was really big and covered in Ghiradelli chocolate so I REGRET NOTHING!
We got home late, set our alarms, got ready for bed since we would be flying home the next day.
It was an uneventful flight, thank goodness. We got home late Tuesday night and had taken off Wednesday so that was just a day of trying to get my clock back on east coast time.
If you just want to skip the post and look at my pictures, this is the Flickr album.
Okay, San Francisco Trip! Here we go!
Well, the rub was that when I first bought the tickets as a surprise birthday present for Tim, the flight was supposed to leave at 7:10am, so I figured we could probably get to the airport at 6am and be fine. BUT right after his birthday, I got a call from Southwest and they had moved the fligth up to 6:10am. YEP, we had to be at the airport by 5am (and that was pushing it since technically you’re supposed to arrive 2 hours early but, just...no. To quote Homer Simpson “There’s a 4 in the morning?”)
Our friend Carol was kind enough to drive us to the airport so we didn’t have to worry about paying for parking/shuttling etc. which was awesome of her because ew, 5am. (We are not morning people). We got through BWI security pretty quickly and we boarded relatively soon after. Tried to sleep on the flight but I can never really do that, especially on the way somewhere, I get too excited. We had a brief layover in Milwaukee, little over an hour, which was enough time to sit down, eat some of our snacks, play with our phones and stuff.
Plane to San Francisco was full but we were in the A boarding group (A 42? This Douglas Adams fan took that number as a good omen). We arrived right on time, got our bags, and Christina was there to pick us up.
Backstory: Tim has known Casey since they were in elementary school, when he moved to California in 4th grade. Last time Tim flew on plane was for Casey and Christina’s wedding, 10 years ago. Casey and Christina, but some crazy random happenstance, were living in Virginia for awhile, so I got to meet them and we had a few fun game nights. Then Casey got a job in California last year and they had to move, which is when I had the brilliant idea that we should go visit.
Christina drives us to get our rental car. She said that she wanted to let us know the big news before we got back to the house and that she was pregnant! Big surprise and we are really happy for them. But that also meant she wasn’t her usual energetic self as her body is in the OMG WHAT IS HAPPENING phase. No worries though, she was still capable of giving us directions. We picked up our car, found their rental house (tiny little rancher which costs about 5 times as much as any house in Glen Burnie, but because it’s 20 minutes from the city and on a hill in California...yeah, like a million dollar home. People on the west coast be crazy.) We dropped our stuff but even though we had been flying all day, it was only 3pm PST so we had time to kill before Casey got home work. Christina directed us to Half Moon Bay, which was a quick ride down the road.
We drove down to Half Moon Bay and I told Tim I wanted to touch the Pacific Ocean. We walked down to the beach and watched the waves for a bit, then Tim asked if I wanted a picture taken of me so I said yes. As I walked towards what appeared to be the edge of the tide, the waves were all PSYCH! and came up twice as far as before and totally soaked my sandals and the bottom of my jeans. Tim managed to snap a photo right as this happened.
And then we laughed for a long time. I took a photo of him with plenty of distance from the actual shoreline. Then we decided to walk along the trail, giving my feet a chance to dry off and squeezing the ocean water out of my sandals. Along the way we saw a creepy-ass crow that got really mad at us when we walked by him, started flying around and cawing. It wouldn’t have bothered me too much until we turned around to walk back and the crow landed right in front of us on the fence and I was all “It’s a birdemic!”
Then we drove back to the house and Casey grilled us up some delicious burgers and hot dogs. We sat outside but it got really cold outside! Crazy California weather. The lack of humidity and the breeze really make a difference. Tim and I didn’t last much longer after that and we promptly passed out.
Since Casey still had to work on Thursday, we decided to do the “memory lane” portion of our visit that day. We drove about an hour south to lovely Manteca. Tim has seen a lot of the places I lived when I was that age, so it was cool for me to see where he had spent most of his formative years. He pointed out where he was when the big earthquake of 1989 hit, his friend’s backyard. He had a Back to the Future moment, seeing the farmhouse down the road was now a megamall.
Then we drove back up, but along a different route so we could end up at the Winchester House. My parents went to this tourist attraction when I was a kid and brought home the souvenir guide. In the guide was a picture that terrified me when I saw it as a kid - a drawing of the ghosts of the mansion reaching out to grab Mrs. Winchester. I had always wanted to visit and see what the place was all about.
For those of you unfamiliar with the story: Mrs. Winchester was the widow of the president of Winchester rifles. Their daughter and then her husband both died relatively close together. She visited a psychic medium who told her it was the doing of spirits who were killed by the Winchester rifle.They would continue to haunt her unless she bought a house and started building 24/7. So she purchased a small farmhouse and built on to it, with no real architectural plan, just knowing she had to keep building to appease the spirits. There are doors that lead into walls, doors that open to 8 foot drops, cabinets with no back...166 rooms total.
The tour was very interesting, though Tim pointed out that they really toned down the paranormal aspect of it. I’m wondering when that happened and why. Were kids getting too freaked out? Or did someone find it insulting that Winchester believed in such things?
What’s really unsettling is that there are no real stories to go along with the Winchester house. When she died, it was considered valueless and bought for nothing by an outside person, who was just going to tear it down until the locals started to ask if they could see the inside of the crazy house. So it hasn’t been connected to the Winchester family since then. She didn’t leave behind any diaries and, so far, no one has found any servant records to describe exactly what it was like to work in that house. CREEPY! But also fascinating...and a bit sad.
We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the house, but I have a few from the outside, in the gardens.
After that it was back home for dinner. I think the Simpsons marathon started that day or the day before so we watched a few episodes (and continued to watch at least one every day before we left or after we got back LOL) and we played Apples to Apples and I had a beer and the jet lag punched me in the face and I passed out pretty early.
Friday we actually went into the city. And what a wacky place that is. The hills...geez, driving up and down those crazy hills. The only way to get to the Golden Gate Bridge is through the city, so we really had no choice.
Though first we made a stop, since it was on the way, at The Presidio. This army base was slowly shrinking over the years until it was shutdown completely sometime in the late 90s. It’s not a state park, but for some random reason, Lucasfilm bought the building down at one end on Letterman Drive. It is the one Lucasfilm campus open to the public. We got a picture with the Yoda Fountain outside the front doors and walked into the main lobby, which was filled with random books and Star Wars statues, plus the awards won by various Lucas owned companies. I think the best part about this was bumping into the other geeky family that was outside snapping photos (they were kind enough to get a photo of both Tim & I). I talked to them a bit about other Star Wars stuff.
After that, we wandered the Presidio area. There is a Walt Disney museum but it was a little pricey to get into so we just kept meandering up the hill until we ended up in the National Cemetery. We walked through, looking at all the different tombstones, the dates, names...and the construction they were doing to overhaul the cemetery and stop the tombstones from sinking into the ground.
Tim suggested we visit Fort Point, which turned out to be right down the road (though that road was full of crazy people who thought renting a bike in a city full of hills was a good idea when they were at the bottom of the hill, but now that I was driving a car behind them, they were not so sure). This was really cool! It was an old Spanish fort long before the United States had any interest in California. After the Spanish left, the U.S. used the same spot to build a fort. It was actually scheduled to be demolished when the Golden Gate bridge was built but the architect of the bridge visited the site and said it should be declared a landmark and preserved because it was a fine example of engineering from that time period. He actually redesigned the bridge to have a little arch over the fort so both could live in harmony. It was really fun to walk through and try to imagine all the soldiers who lived and worked in that fort. All the history. So much wind! They must have been miserable!!
At this point, we were starving and hoping to visit Muir Woods and find some lunch around there. Driving across the bridge, we saw a sign that said “Muir Woods Lot Full” so we hoped that if we stopped for a late lunch then we could find parking after that. We got a burrito in a town also built into the side of a mountain, with streets that had to be approaching 90 degree angles. But, alas, after we ate and took the windy road into Muir Woods, parking was still hard to come by. We did find a spot, way down the road, and wandered a little, but we only found one little redwood tree...and a lonely vulture. We decided that was a sign to head back (plus, we were going to Sushi Monster for dinner that night!)
Saturday we went to Sonoma Valley for the obligatory wine tasting portion of the trip. Christina was our designated driver and Casey was finally able to spend a day with us! I am far too much of a light weight for wine tasting, that is what I learned. After one tasting, I was tipsy. We did get a nice little tour of one of the wineries, got to even take a grape right off the vine! They also had olive oil tasting, which is apparently the new “thing” in that area, since olives grow so well in the climate. That was a unique experience, I had no idea that olive oils came in that many different styles.
We had lunch at “The girl with the fig” and I was going to order some kind of fig beverage but when I asked the waitress about it, her response was “Do you like to drink vinegar?” so I decided perhaps that was not the drink for me. I went with some other delicious fizzy minty drink instead.
After that, we hunted around for a cheese tasting place (even though Casey had the cheese platter for lunch) and found a little whole in the wall that was actually a local cheesemaking company that had been there for many years. We tried their jack cheeses, which were delicious, and left with a couple different flavors to munch on later.
Except that, by the time we got back home, we were SO exhausted from the wine and the sun that we ended up ordering pizza and passing out again! (and apparently neither of us took any pictures this day...weird)
I woke up at some point in the middle of the night hearing Dozer, the dog, barking at something and his claws on the hardwood floors as he ran out of Casey and Christina’s bedroom. Then I fell back to sleep. In the morning, Tim was reading Facebook on his phone and informed me I had pretty much slept through an earthquake!!! Dozer barked to make the earthquake go away and he did a wonderful job. Christina also slept through it, though both Tim and Casey woke up and said they felt “something”. The epicenter was in Napa, so it was dumb luck that we had gone there the day before.
Sunday, Casey took us down to Fisherman’s Wharf aka Pier 39 aka a huge tourist trap that used to be the main pier in the city. There are signs up all over about how they turned it into this mega shopping center all the way back in the late 70s. Soooo long ago. LOL. We had fun though. Casey pointed me into the Spice and Tea Exchange store and I got myself into a lot of trouble there, stocking up on spices for myself and some gifts for my friend Karen, who was feeding the kitties. We also grabbed lunch while we were there, and I finally got to try Dungeoness Crab. I liked it a lot. I’m not a fan of Maryland crab at all, I’m a lobster girl. I felt like the Dungeoness crab meat was closer to lobster. I’d eat it again for sure.
Casey tried to take us to Lombard St, the windiest street in the world, but it was closed for some kind of event. Looking down the hill, I don’t think I would have wanted to drive that way anyhow! He also took us to the Japanese Tea Gardens, which were gorgeous and surprisingly serene considering how many people were wandering inside. It’s like everyone knew, even the kids, to take it down a notch.
On the way back home, Casey found a board game store and his mission to find Risk Legacy was completed. We went back to their place, cut up some sourdough bread and the cheeses from the day before, popped open a bottle of wine, and played the first game. (Risk Legacy is sorta like normal Risk...except that every game effects the next game. So, I won the first game and was able to name a continent of my choice and if I ever play again, I can start on that continent and get bonus points).
Monday, our final day. I had a mission - I was going to see some Redwoods! Casey had taken the day off so we hopped in the car and drove south to the Big Basin Redwood National Park. GORGEOUS! AMAZING! Yes, it felt like I was walking on Endor. I wished I had the Her Universe Ewok hoodie because I would have been posing all over in it. There’s something about this giant trees that really puts everything in perspective.
Trees that have been around far longer than any of the humans on the planet right now, longer than some of our countries have existed, even our religions. The forest was so quiet. I could have wandered there all day. But, alas we had to head back for the grand finale to our trip.
A baseball game at AT&T Park! I think this is the first baseball game I’ve seen from beginning to end. It was the SF Giants vs Colorado Rockies. None of us were huge fans of either team, but it was an entertaining, sometimes painful game. It started off with a few errors as an attempt to catch a guy stealing a base resulted in the baseman missing the ball so two bases were stolen. There were some bad calls by the one umpire caused the fans to go crazy. And then I bought an ice cream sundae for $10.25, but it was really big and covered in Ghiradelli chocolate so I REGRET NOTHING!
We got home late, set our alarms, got ready for bed since we would be flying home the next day.
It was an uneventful flight, thank goodness. We got home late Tuesday night and had taken off Wednesday so that was just a day of trying to get my clock back on east coast time.
If you just want to skip the post and look at my pictures, this is the Flickr album.
