San Francisco (part five)

Our last full day we drove to Sonoma, CA, stopping on our way out of town to see the Painted Ladies from the show "Full House."

 The drive to Sonoma was beautiful! We had a full day as we visited four different vineyards.

 We packed a picnic and enjoyed just relaxing and spending time together. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

 Our last meal of our journey out west was in Sonoma at a quaint little place called The Girl and the Fig:

 We sat and chatted as the sun set and the fire glowed.

 It was an amazing trip filled with many special memories of fun activities, delicious food, and scenery etched in my mind forever!

San Francisco (part four)

Sunday morning we took the CalTrain to Palo Alto to Stanford to get Mary Elizabeth's car which she had left for a few days at Stanford where she works.

 Right outside of the Emergency Room, there is an sculpture garden:

 We grabbed a quick lunch to go at this little cafe:

 Once we were back in the city, we decided to rent bikes and ride across the Golden Gate Bridge. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate with us! A "fog blizzard" (as I called it) rolled in and totally changed the day!
Can you see the Golden Gate Bridge? Apparently, this was a picture perfect view on a clear day. Unbelievable!

 Braving the elements:

 Once we got to the top of the bridge the wind was blowing furiously, it started sprinkling, and it was so foggy you could hardly see in front of you! Maggie and Mary Elizabeth both thought we should go back and not try to venture riding across. I told them that I was on a bike on the Golden Gate Bridge and I might not have the opportunity again, so I was going to go ahead and go across.

 I pedaled fast across, and would you believe that on the other side, it was sunny and warmer? I looked behind me and saw that the girls had decided to follow me, and I was so glad that they did (they were glad I made them, too!)

 Once we were back at the Marina area, we toured around this impressive structure called the Palace of Fine Arts:

 We stopped at Tacolicious and had a little bite to eat:

Such a fun day in spite of the "fog blizzard!"

San Francisco (part three)

Saturday morning we headed downtown to the Ferry Building where they have a weekly Farmer's Market.

 The flowers were absolutely gorgeous!

 We purchased our ferry tickets and loaded up for a quick trip across the Bay to Sausalito.

 Leaving the Bay:

 We saw lots of sailboats:

 View of the city:

 We spent most of the morning and early afternoon here:

 Where we sat right on the edge of the water on this amazing deck:

 Enjoying the beautiful day, some refreshing drinks, and scrumptious food:

 Savory donuts with herbs paired with yellow beets and goat cheese!

 Such a relaxing time!

 We enjoyed watching all of the action from America's Cup from our little perch:

 On the way back to San Francisco, we took a close look at Alcatraz:

 Back at the Ferry Building, we walked around browsing in the little shops:

 We jumped on a cable car home:

 I am so sad that I did not take pictures of our super fun evening out on the town. I didn't have my camera with me and I think I was just too busy taking it all in to think about pictures! :)

We came up with a great way to try different restaurants in a new city. It's called First Dinner and Second Dinner. We went to Flour and Water as our first pick for dinner but the wait was over 2 hours. We decided to go ahead and put our names in and walk around a bit. They were going to text us when the table was ready. As we walked around, we came across another fun place called Central Kitchen where they worked some magic and were able to seat us immediately with the stipulation that we would be finished in an hour and a half to accommodate another party. That fit perfectly with out plan! We are first dinner at Central Kitchen and by the time we finished, Flour and Water was ready for us! You should check out these places!!

First Dinner:

http://www.centralkitchensf.com/

Second Dinner:

http://www.flourandwater.com/