San Francisco

Laren had to go to San Francisco for work and so we got Grandma to watch the kids and I tagged along with Laren for a mini-vacation. It was lots of fun!! It was the first time Laren and I have ever gotten alone together since we have had kids. Ever. We need to do it more often!!

Inasmuch as I wanted to put these pictures in a particular order, I ran out of time doing the post and it just didn't happen!

A trolley that we rode in San Francisco. The trolley's are really lots of fun to ride! I just cannot believe how many people they pack on these. Even when you think it is fuller than a can of sardines, they let more people on! And the bus is the same way.

San Francisco is such an old city with gorgeous architecture. This is me standing in the entryway of one of the many, many beautiful buildings.


A ship parked in the San Francisco Harbor that is no longer in use, it can be toured though. This ship was actually used in wartime, but I can't remember which one.

Me and the Warm Brownie Hot Fudge Sundae Laren and I shared at the Ghiradelli Chocolate Factory ice cream shop. It was heavenly! (So much for watching what I ate in San Francisco, this was the first the night we were there.) And it was expensive, $8.50 for one sundae. Everything in San Francisco is expensive!!


The Famous Golden Gate Bridge with the infamous San Francisco Fog. We got to walk over about 1/3rd of the bridge and then drove acrossed it as well.

Another self portrait, notice our warm coats that we bought and wore the entire time, except on Sunday when it warmed into the 60's.

The Beach.

We left Denver early, early Friday morning. We barely made our flight. We seriously arrived 30 minutes before it was to take off! We ran through the airport like we were competitors on Amazing Race. I still cannot believe we made it! Of course after we got on the plane, we had to wait on the tarmac for 30 minutes before take off. Crazy.

We got to our hotel and Laren took off for work acrossed the street. We were staying in the Marriot Courtyard in the Financial District.

One of the many homeless people we saw there.


Every part of San Francisco is divided into "sections", like Chinatown, Financial District, Union Square, Pacific Heights, etc... I was hungry and ready for lunch but more than anything I was tired. So I laid down and took a 2 hour nap. I was nervous to brave the streets of a foreign city by myself but I did it to walk a couple of blocks to get some lunch. I debated going back out by myself on that day, but opted to stay in my room and read. It was nice and relaxing!

I loved this pretty archway entrance.

A scultpure next to the Museum in the 3 mile long City Park.

One of the many sailboats we saw out on the Bay.


After Laren got off from work we headed to get our MUNI Passes. I did not know that Muni was a separate system from BART (the subway/light rail which is the Bay area rapid transit). The Muni is short for municipality and is only good on buses and trolley's in San Francisco and BART is good for the entire Bay Area. We got our Muni Passes and took the Trolley to the Wharf.

A beautiful view. That is Alcatraz Island out in the distance on the left.

We could NOT believe how COLD it was in San Francisco. I did not check the weather and had brought only shorts and capri's. The weather got into the 50's every day except Sunday when it reached a balmy 65! So that first night we bought fleece jackets from a street vendor for $10. I am wearing my jacket in the ice cream sundae picture.

We then headed to Ghiradelli's for ice cream! I had eaten the other half of my sandwich from lunch for dinner and Laren had yet to eat. The ice cream really, was SO good!! We decide to walk Jefferson street down by the Wharf. It has lots of fun shops. We stopped in another shop after realizing the fleece was warm but that it didn't stop the wind. So we each bought another jacket in a little shop. They are actually really nice jackets and only cost $14.95 each. I guess some things are cheap in San Francisco!!

There are quite a few people that stand out on the street selling stuff. We decided to stop at one of the street corners and we had a cartoon picture drawn of the two of us. Of course neither of us thought the picture looked very much like us, but it was fun. And we had quite a Gospel Discussion with the guy as he drew our likenesses!

Laren ate at In and Out Burger for dinner. Yeah, it's not a real authentic food taste, but it is one of my personal favorites! I wish we had it here!! Then we went into more shops. I finally got to go in Steve and Barry's. I have wanted to go in that store forever and finally had my chance!! I bought a pair of jeans, a pair of slacks and a pair of capri's. They were only $8.98 each. That is the price of everything in the store, practically.

We stopped in quite a few more shops and took a bus back to our hotel. We had to wait forever for the bus and while we were waiting a limosine stopped and offered us a ride back to our hotel for only $5 a piece. Laren and I regretted not doing that! We did meet some other tourists while we waited for the bus. Once the bus finally came, we had to stand up the entire way back it was so crowded.

The next morning we had to get up bright and early in the morning. A bus met us outside of our hotel for a City tour. It was 3.5 hours long, but really quite interesting!! We were able to go and see all the major sites in the City. The only problem was the bus driver had quite an accent and he was a bit hard to understand!

We did learn quite a few things about San Francisco in that tour. I didn't realize that San Francisco will no longer allow anyone to build anything brick, because in the recent earthquakes more people have been killed by falling bricks than anything else. The city is 49 square miles, 7 miles long by 7 miles wide.

The city is mostly concrete, they have very few parks. But they do have one big, really big, park that is 3 miles long. It is a beautiful park. The water in the bay is always 56 degrees, but yet there are people that go out and swim in it every day of the year. But at the beach, people are wiser and no one there had a a swimsuit on and the only one's in the water were surfer's and they had wet suits on.

After the City tour, we took a Cruise on a boat around the Bay and under the Golden Gate Bridge. They gave us headsets and there was a "pre-recorded" tour telling us all the major sites along the San Francisco Skyline and Bay, like the TransAmerica Pyramid being the tallest building, the Presidio, Fort Mason being an old military base, Sausalito, Alcatraz and places like that. It was really a lot of fun to be out in the water. While we were out we saw a little row boat out there with all the big boats and ship and it was all but getting inundated by the waves. We couldn't believe the audacity of the boater who was onboard rowing it!!

The little row boat in the Bay.

After our cruise we took a tour of the The Pompanito, a submarine that was used during WWI - I think, but is no longer in use.

Laren in the submarine.

On Sunday we went to Church over in Pacific Heights and attended the Bay Ward Sacrament Meeting. I didn't think there would be anything more than a branch in the entire city (because of the worldliness and it mostly being apartments, etc...). But, I guess there are 3 stakes!! The ward was mostly younger couples with either no kids or 1 or 2 children. I don't think any family had more than 2 kids. And there were a few Asian people, but most everyone was white.

A cool looking windmill we saw down on the West side of the city between the Beach and the Park.

Around the city though, most everyone is Asian. I would've expected mostly hispanics like the rest of California but in San Francisco the population seemed to be over 70% Asian. After Sacrament we talked to some people at Church and got directions on how to get to the Oakland Temple using public transportation. So we went there and on our way down to BART saw lots of people with alternative lifestyles watching a certain parade going down the street. Most of the people we saw were scantily clad and proudly displaying their affections.

A freak going to a freak show aka parade! Not sure if it was a he or she?

Looking down Market Street in San Francisco.

An interesting looking bus we saw going down the street.

Laren and I, one of many self portraits.

Many boats that are parked at the Pier.

I was so glad to leave and get out of there! I told Laren as we pulled away on the subway that it felt as though we were leaving Sodom and Gomorrah! The Oakland Temple is beautiful! It was nice to hear the beautiful hymns being played on the loud speaker while we walked the temple grounds. I was impressed that we could actually walk up on the roof of the building, much like you can on the Conference Center in Salt Lake. We also got to go in the Visitors Center and see a Book of Mormon that was an Original published in 1830. The views from the temple are spectacular, you can see the entire Bay. And Oakland was SO much warmer than SF!

We got back to SF and tried to catch a bus to the Wharf for our tour to Alcatraz, but it seemed that there were no buses when and where we needed them so we ended up running the entire way from The Embarcadero Station to Pier 35. One thing is for sure, we got in tons of walking on this trip! Alcatraz was pretty interesting. I didn't realize there were some uprisings where prisoners got killed there. It was interesting to see just how small those cells really are and to see that they had a library and special housing just for the guards and their families.

After Alcatraz we ate at the Pier Market on Pier 39 and went to Lombard Street, the crookedest street! We started off waiting for a trolley, but again the wait was going to be 40 minutes or more so we decided to walk it. It wouldn't be so bad to walk 6 blocks from the Wharf to Lombard St. but considering it is all walking up steep hills, it was quite a workout! We were able to catch the trolley the rest of the way to our hotel, thankfully!

Lombard Street, the crookedest street. Also, notice how "hilly" SF is!

The Oakland Temple.

I love the spires on the Oakland Temple.

This is an Original Copy of a Book of Mormon published orginally in 1830.

We got back to our hotel the earliest we did of any night on Sunday. We got back around 8pm. And because we were back so early we went and relaxed in the hotel hot tub.

On Alcatraz.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Meetinghouse we went to in San Francisco.

Laren outside of Pompei's Grotto, another good seafood place we ate at on the Wharf.

A jail cell in Alcatraz.

The drawing of Laren and I that the guy on the street did of us.

The next day Laren had to work again. I was feeling much braver on this day to go out by myself. I went and walked Chinatown for 2 hours and then went on a Victorian Home Walk tour, which was very cool!

Chinatown Entrance.


In Chinatown all of the locals are Chinese. They hardly speak any English. The shop owners are anxious to sell their wares. Some of their prices are really good (like the t-shirt I got for Kyle for $1.88) and other stuff is not so cheap. It was interesting to look up to their apartments above all the little shops and see their clothes hanging out on the fire escapes to dry.

On the Victorian Home Walk Tour we learned the history behind the Victorian Homes in San Francisco. The Victorian Era was during the life and reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901) in England who had a great influence on architecture during that time.

There were 3 types of Victorians built in San Francisco, the Italianate, the Stick, and the Queen Anne. My favorite is the Italianate because I like the arched windows, the brackets at the roof line and angle bay windows. Although the Queen Anne are nice because of their triangle rooflines and turrets. We got to see the $15k home of Jessica McClintock and the house where Mrs. Doubtfire and Party of Five were filmed. We also (on the City Bus tour) saw the house where they filmed Full House.

The Stick Style Victorian Houses.

The Italianate Victorian Homes.

The Queen Anne Victorian Homes we saw on our Victorian Home Walk tour.


After the tour of the Victorian Houses I walked around Union Square. I was creeped out to find a guy in the girls bathroom in Old Navy! Yikes!! I flew out of there so fast!! Then I got on bus route 5 to go to Ocean Beach. It was a long bus ride and we rode through some of the "projects" in San Francisco. One teenage boy that got on the bus was blasting his boom box super loud with rap music and singing along to it. I got the clear sense that the bus driver was afraid to say anything to him about it, along with everyone else. So we all tolerated it for a matter of about 15 minutes until he got off the bus.

The reversible Coach Bag I bought and got a bargain for on the Wharf. The gal that owned this shop told us her rent is $20k per month for her little business.


The upscale elderly lady sitting next to me told me that that particular area was where a lot of recent murders have taken place in SF lately. But it had calmed down in the last 3 months or so. She said they just flooded the area with police on every street corner.


One of the amazing things about SF is how the young and the old, the rich and the poor, the Chinese and the Caucasian, the alternative lifestyle and the straight all seem to blend and live together in their amazing city. This upscale elderly lady had told me how she had just had lunch at the Palace Hotel, a hamburger for $24.50 with a salad and water. She was retired and she owned her place on Laguna St.


She usually shopped for groceries in Bloomingdales on the bottom floor in Union Square, but on this particular day because it was so nice, she was taking the bus way out to the Ocean Safeway. Nice is a relative term in SF. It wasn't foggy, there was sunshine therefore making it a "nice" day to get out!

After my trip to the beach I met Laren back by Union Square and we walked back up to Chinatown with our suitcases in tow and found a nice little Chinese restaurant to eat dinner at before we caught our flight back to Denver.

I do want to say all the food we ate in San Francisco was fantastic! We ate Seafood down on the Wharf a few times, we ate in Chinatown, we ate at a Deli around town, we shared a crepe in Oakland at a little shop, we tried to have a little here and a little there just to taste what it is like. It was ALL wonderful!! Our bus driver said there is over 3000 restaurants in SF! It did seem like they were everywhere!!