San Francisco

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Ok. Now on to San Francisco!  I am FINALLY almost caught up on my blog.  After our last stop to the Oakland temple we crossed the bridge to San Francisco.  I was so excited... this was my first time to this city!

We knew we only had the day in the city and we weren't quite sure where to spend our time, but we ended up at Pier 39.  After walking along the Pier, we decided the best way to see the most in a short amount of time was to take a bus tour throughout the city.

Two lessons learned:

(1) Bring a jacket when you visit this city.  I actually brought mine, but left it in the car because it was warm when we parked.  But as the day went on and we got closer to the Golden Gate Bridge, it was COLD. As Mark Twain put it, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."  Apparently summers can be colder than winters here!

(2) Wear sunscreen.  Because it was deceivingly cold outside, I didn't even think to load up on the sunscreen.  Sitting on the top of our double-decker bus for two hours, I got probably one of the worst sunburns I've had in a long time.  Not good.

Our bus driver compared the ride to a roller coaster ride, going up and down all of the crazy hills in this city!  We saw lots of sights... Fisherman's Wharf, China Town, Union Square, Civic Center, Lombard Street, Painted Ladies, Coit Tower, Ghirardelli Square, Botanical Garden, to name a few.

We also saw lots of awesome architecture and really neat historical apartment and other buildings...

And of course we saw the Golden Gate Bridge!  I was surprised to see that it's for sure NOT the biggest or longest bridge in the area, but it looks pretty awesome and definitely draws a crowd:

The bus tour was a great way to see a lot in a short amount of time, and it gave me a taste of what I want to come back and see!  We unfortunately didn't get to go to Alcatraz, but next time I definitely want to go on that tour.

    

While waiting for our dinner reservation we walked around Pier 39 some more.  We found a bunch of people gathered around and were suprised to find this sight: 

 They were so funny!  Each sea lion was trying to just keep warm and dry off, but as you can see there wasn't a whole lot of room for them to all fit!  Some starting wrestling and everyone cheered when one got pushed over the edge. 

Our last stop of the night was at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. for dinner.  It was delicious!  But by this point in the night I was miserable due to my previously-mentioned sunburn that was already in full force.  But I was glad to have the sweatshirt my dad surprised me with at the Bridge! 

 I loved, loved, loved this city and can't wait to come back!