They had another beautiful tree put up – they are all over this city!!

We then grabbed a bite to eat and walked over to the Cable Carn Turn Around (one block away) and grabbed our Muni Pass. You can ride the cable car for $5 one way, or buy an all day Muni for $11 which allows you to ride all of the transportation systems for the day that you buy them. It’s pretty cool really.

We got off the Cable Car just a few blocks up Hyde (a few very steep blocks though) at Lombard street.

This is the view of a Cable car coming UP Hyde stree towards Lombard. You can even see Alcatraz in the background!

And here are a couple of pictures of Lombard street – one from the top, and the other from the bottom (we walked down it).

When we were done snapping pics at Lombard we walked a few blocks down to Starbucks … yes … the same ‘Bucks that was closed on us the night before! LOL The Barista there was pretty cute though – she asked us our favorite animal. The gal in front of me told me to say Giraffe – so I did! This is what I got on my Venti Iced Chai!

After that we hopped on the Powell-Mason Cable Car line (we had always rode the Powell-Hyde one to this point and thought we were now going to have ridden BOTH lines that San Fran had – much to our dismay we found out later that there is actually a THIRD cable car line that we didn’t know about until it was too late!! D’oh!!)

We rode all the way to the end of this line and got off at Powell street. Then we walked over and caught the #21 Bus and headed out. We were making our way to Alamo Square and the Painted Ladies.
They look just like all the pictures you ever see of them. It didn’t take us long to get our pictures and head back!

At this point we made our way back to our Hotel and spent the night hanging our, packing and cleaning up. Generally just getting ready to go! I’m sad that our vaca is over – it always goes way too fast!

Anyway, since the weather was beautiful we decided to head to the Golden Gate Bridge and walk it. It was sooo beautiful. It was a little breazy and frankly if I got too close to the edge I got a little queezy, but it was still good to do. We actually didn’t make it all the way across. We got about 3/4 of the way and had to turn around – Melissa forgot her coat at the hotel and was frozen. So back we went. From start to finish the bridge is 1.7 miles long and we figure we did a total of about 2.8 or so of those miles (there and back). So we were close.

After the Bridge we hung out for a bit and then headed down to In N Out for lunch. Man that place is good!

Then we went our seperate ways – Kel back home and Melissa and I walked down to Pier 33 to catch the Alcatraz Clipper for our night Tour of the famous prison.

This picture was taken on the Ferry on the way out to the Island:

The Welcome Sign – Historical Note – For those that didn’t know (I didn’t) Alcatraz was occupied by American Indians starting in 1969 (6 years after the Prison was closed). They occupied the Island for 19 months before being escorted off by the Military. They were protesting the Governments practive of reclaiming Reservations. That’s why you see the red paint behind the Welcome sign.

The Guard Tower:

The Cell House from down below:

Here’s a Cell – they measured about 5×7 or so:

Someone said this at one point – and it’s all over the Island:

Here’s a picture of downtown from the Island after dark:

Overall, yesterday was a great and very busy day!!! We ended up walking back to our Hotel after the Cruise because we had grand plans at stopping by the Starbucks to get a hot drink (we were quite cold by the end of the night). Much to our chagrin they had just closed. Grrr … there’s gotta be an app for that right?!?!?!!! LOL

We headed to bed early – with over 19,000 steps taken for the day. Needless to say, sleep was most welcome!

Today we had big plans. We were first going to head over to the California Academy of Sciences, then head over to the Golden Gate Bridge and walk across it. Imagine are dismay when we woke up to rain/mist. But we headed out anyway. We started with the CAofS – which includes among other things an Aquarium, an actual living Rainforest and Planetarium.

There were a ton of great pictures taken, but here are a few:

When we left there we decided to head to the Bridge, even if it was still crummy weather. We figured if nothing else we should be able to get some pictures taken today. Well, we hadn’t really intended on CROSSING the bridge, as there is a $6 return toll to get back, but somehow the exit was missed and over we went. So we stopped at the viewing point on the other side and took some pictures. The fog was still low, but it made for a cool picture – unfortuatnely we coudn’t see much else!

Tomorrow we’re hanging out with our good friend Kelly!! We can’t wait!

This is probably the 5th or 6th time that I’ve been to The Pearl Factory. I found it for the first time when I was traveling for my first job out of college. For those of you who don’t know – you basically get to pick your oyster out of the bucket and then go from there.

The oyster is opened in front of you and you get what you get – you can have it set, or not, but where they hard sell you and make their money is in the settings.

Based on the great Pearl debacle of 2008, I was determined not to go overboard.

As we walked in I told Melissa, ONE pearl – that was it. So, we go through the hoops, and I pick my oyster. (Hint – go for the hairy ones – they are definitely the ugliest, but trust me, it works). Low and behold, when she opens it up there sits a nice blue/black pearl. Holy crud. Melissa can’t believe it. She opened no less than 6 oysters last year in Hawai’i before she got one.

So, I had that set in a pendant (of course, not as an expensive one as the lady would have liked, but still nice none the less).

While she still was holding the pendant hostage she insisted that I pick another oyster for free. I told her no to begin with, but she insisted. I told her fine, but I would NOT be having it set. So, we go through the hoops – I pick my (hairy) oyster and she opens it. Damnit. Are you kidding me? Seriously. Yep. There it is. Another blue/black pearl. This time with a pink/purple luster to it. Damnit. This time I looked at the sterling silver settings and have it set it a simple ring.

All in all, it was a fairly successful trip – and not horrible expensive really. Plus I came out with two new pearls to boot!

We then walked up the next blockto Union Square and saw the Christmas Tree that was there all lit up!

After that we hopped back on the Cable car and rode it all the way back with drop off service right at our front door. It was pretty sweet! We also rode in the very back this time so got some great views!

This morning we did get up and get out. Our goal was to go to Boudin’s for Clam Chowder in Sourdough bowls for Lunch. We headed North down Hyde Street from our Condo and our first stop (1 block down) was the Trolley Car stop/start point to check out rates, etc.

From there we got a great view on of the Bridge:

From there we walked down the Hyde Street Pier. You could a great view looking back up Hyde Street! Our Condo is on the corner of the level where the Streetcar is sitting in this picture.

As we left the Pier to find Boudin’s there may or may not have been a stop made at the Pearl Factory where someone may or may not have gotten two, yes I said TWO, black pearls just randomly. Again, like I said, that may or may not have happened. It is not confirmed. I repeat – NOT confirmed.

After we had Boudin’s we decided to walk down to Pier 39. On our way we had a great view of Alcatraz.

On our walk down the Wharf we noticed we were seeing A LOT of people in Football Jersey’s! Imagine our surprise when we figured out that Monday Night Football is in SF tonight – 49ers against the Cardinals!! And we don’t have tickets! Bummer!

But here’s proof that yes indeed, MNF IS in SF this week:

Coors Light is INDEED the best beer (if you like Beer I guess – they didn’t ask me).

And finally, when we got all the way down to Pier 39 we saw the beatufiul Christmas tree that they put up.

Anyway – we’re just taking a breather before we head out to catch the Trolley so we can meet our friend Brenda for dinner tonight!

I arrived in San Fran today for a week of vacation before Christmas. I’m really looking forward to it. Besides the fact that I only have to work 6.5 more days between now and January 3rd. Can’t beat that.

After a little over an hour delay out of Seattle because of weather delays in San Fran I finally made it here. Luckily I only had to wait for a few minutes for Melissa to get here – she drove up from Anahiem for the week!

We finally found our way to the hotel after a bit of a wrong turn. The condo we are staying at is really nice and comfortable and it’s right off the Powell-Hyde Cable car line – in fact we are one block up from the beginning of the line. We plan on taking that as much as possible for transportation (that and walking of course).

Once we got ourselves unloaded we went on the hunt for food. Melissa had seen an In and Out Burger. I’ve never been to an In and Out much to the chagrin of Melissa. So off we went.

Here’s my first In and Out experience — a Double Double Animal Style (for those not in the know, that means w/ grilled onions). YUMMY!

Once we ate we walked down a block and picked up a few essentials at the Walgreens and made our way back to the Condo. On our walk back it started to rain, but for the most part we were able to stay out of it. We’ve just been hangin’ out for the most part tonight and are now Blogging/Facebooking and watching SNL with hottie Taylor Lautner! (You definitely should catch the Team Jacob/Team Edward sketch on HULU if you missed it!)

Here’s a view from our balcony! Have a great weekend everyone!

Anyway, this page is of the first/second day that I was on the Island. I spent the first night there by myself as Melissa and Terri weren’t coming in until late the next day! I pretty much just hung out, found the Wal-Mart, found a Scrapbook Store (!!!) and headed the 1 block down to the Beach and got some great shots! My favorite part of this layout is the line of pictures on down the right side of the page! I really love how it turned out!

Enjoy!

We finally talked her into going to the DJ’s Fall Retreat – in exchange, I’ve promised to post at least once a week to the good ole’ blog here!

So, some new things for me. I’m in the process of getting a new tattoo. Most of the outlining is done, but all the coloring and shading is left to go. It’s an addition to the sunflower I have on my right ankle already, and goes down onto my foot. I would highly recommend NEVER getting a foot tattoo, unless you have a really high tolerance for pain. I don’t, and about 5 minutes in was ready to give up – of course, now I don’t have that choice. Anyway, it looks really good so far, and I know it’ll look good when it’s done! We’re going to work on it again in a couple of weeks – maybe finish it. We can only hope anyway!

I turned 34 on June 28th. I started my own little Project 365 that day and will continue to take a picture a day until June 28th, 2010 – my 35th Birthday. I’m calling it my Journey to 35! I’m still playing with the layouts some, so once I have it more concrete I’ll post some of that too.

So for some art I figured I would start with some pages from my Hawai’i scrapbook. I’m surprisingly close to being done with that scrapbook and I’m quite happy with how it’s turning out to boot!

This was Melissa, Terri and I at the Pearl Factory booth at the International Market Place in Waikiki! Needless to say, we all walked out of there much poorer! But with some GORGEOUS jewelry!

Enjoy! (Click image to bigify)!