Cable Cars And Rice A Roni Commercials

Of course we had to ride the cable cars while we were in San Francisco. Karen and I walked down to the Powell Street station to catch it on that side of the run. Of course, with the way our charmed trip was going, we ended up 2nd in line for the car that we wanted. Karen had a plan that would land us front row. We just had to focus and "book it" over there. we outsmarted a man that thought he had the seat... I know, sounds terrible, but how often do you get to ride a cable car in San Francisco? I have to say, I think the guy had a bit of respect for these two "southern belles" that took what he thought would be his seat. We are much more shrewd than we appear sometimes ;)

The ride and the views were fantastic. And I didn't realize that the drivers had such a hard job. They practically have to lay down with that bar to get those cars to stop on a hill! It's amazing to watch. They are entertainers all at the same time as well.

It was so entertaining to watch these guys do there work

A look out of the front window of the cable car

A little pose. Lookin' like a tourist. But that's ok, because we were!

Turning the cable cars around to get it ready for it's next run

Doesn't it all remind you of a Rice A Roni Commercial

The Nike Expotique

Friday morning we woke up feeling great. There was no run scheduled for the day, so we were free to get our morning started. We walked down just a block from our hotel to the most charming little French cafe' for breakfast. We saw it the day before, but were certainly not dressed for such a place.
We fingered through the petit dejeuner section and enjoyed an omelet and pastries with coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice. Now, I don't mean to be a snob by all means, but I have to say that I am disinclined to order orange juice from a restaurant because I actually do prepare it freshly squeezed at home. After having it that way, one can never turn back. So it was a welcome surprise when Karen ordered hers and it was as fresh as fresh can be.

The cafe' was the perfect place to start our day

Karen with her Anthropology top on... you know how I love that store

So it was off to a fantastic start for the day.
After filling our tummies with a good balanced breakfast, we were off to pick up our packets for the Nike Expotique. We were early so we hung out at an outdoor cafe for a while and did some people-watching.

There was such an energetic and up beat vibe at the Expotique

Look and see why we wanted to caption this photo "Run Like A Pirate"


It was very inspiring to see all of the athletes walking around with a certain "glow" about them. Then we realized that it was time for the Expotique to open and we wanted to get going and pick up our packets. Well, we should have known better, there was a line that had formed on the other side of Union Square all the way down the block.

So this was our first glitch of the trip (and I believe our only one). We got into the back of the line and accepted the idea that we'd be there for a while, and that was ok because we had the time. There was nothing on the agenda for the day.
Well, the line moved at record speed, and I would say that we were there for maybe 20 minutes tops and with all of the entertainment going on, it seemed like seconds. We went in, gave our information and bar codes, and received our packets. Then we toured the area. Nike was so organized and clever. This whole experience was to cater to women, and boy did it ever! You could get flavored oxygen, a margarita blended by a, let's say, "athletic" man spinning on a stationary bike all while getting a mani-pedi. Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating, you couldn't get them all done at once, but they were all available.
Karen and I tried some flavored oxygen (why not)

My oxygen flavors.
Karen reminded me of our childhood days when she asked me if I wanted to switch with her without telling me her flavors were gross. Karen, can you say "king"? "Make is smoother! No, now it's too runny" hahaha (sorry everyone else... that's so inside it goes back to childhood)

Me sporting my oxygen
And then we were off to Niketown to do some shopping.

This is the wall where our names were posted in Union Square
We walked through the doors as Lady GaGa blasted over the speakers (that paparazzi song is still in my head to this day) and rode the escalators up to a plethora of Nike gear.
Karen and I did some shopping and stopped off to explore all of the fun "extras" that Nike was offering to race participants and fans.

This shirt explains it all... how we got here

The race poster. Our names are all written into the background

Johnny Hollywood emailed me my playlist that I listened to during the run. As a matter of fact, Saturday Kings of Leon "Use Somebody" came on the radio in the car and I totally teared up from the emotion of being part of such an amazing event/weekend. Of course his version was some cool DJ version.

Karen "immortalizing" our cause on the Niketown wall

This is what it was all about

A picture of Karen hanging out at the DJ table to get a play list made.

It was a whirlwind experience, but we had to get back to our room for our noon check-out.

The Rock

Our next adventure was on to "The Rock," or Alcatraz. Karen booked the night tour because we had heard that it was such a unique experience in the dark.
Karen went over to will call and I saved us a spot in the line. We waited for a little over 10 minutes before we started boarding. Things were working in our favor, it was awesome.
The bay was clear (we just got off of our ferry ride back to San Francisco about and hour before this point, so we knew it was nice out there). But there was an almost surreal surprise waiting for us from the view of the boat.
The bay was still crystal clear, but there was a cloud of fog sneaking up and over Alcatraz Island.

(I almost feel like I need to say that this is a picture from my sister's camera... not from a postcard or one we found on-line)
It was the eeriest looking site I've ever seen.
It is only a myth that Alcatraz is haunted, but if you were to ever believe anything was haunted, this would be the scene that would set that off. Even the ferry driver said he'd never seen a view of Alcatraz quite like this one.
This only piqued our interest even more. We were so excited to get there and take the tours and learn more about this very infamous place.
We had great tour guides and learned so much while we were there. I won't give away any of the details because if you ever get to San Francisco, this tour is a must-see!
As it grew dark, we toured infamous cells and the solitary confinement area. We also walked through what was considered the worst part of Alcatraz prison to be assigned. It seemed as though it would have been the best because the cells were so much larger than the 5 x 10 cells in the other cell blocks, but it was the windiest and coldest area of the prison. You could hear the air moving through as the wind bellowed outside.
We took the self-guided recorded tour, we attended the "Famous Prisoners" tour, the "Jail Break" tour, and the "Myths About Alcatraz" tour. I would like to say that I am well versed on all of these topics, however the day caught up with Karen and me and so we zonked out toward the end. We put in a valiant effort though.
I will say that as tired as we were, we still appreciated the spooky scenery while we were there. Here are some of the shots that we got (still just from our phones, so not very high quality) from the fog covered island at night.




So a ferry ride back to San Francisco and one of the craziest "Town Car" (we didn't even feel like getting a taxi) rides back to our room and "good night Day 1."

A Quick Bite To Eat At Fisherman's Wharf

The ferry landed at Pier 41 and Fisherman's Wharf (or at least all of the action) is at Pier 39.

It was perfect. We got right off the ferry and after about a 5 minute walk we were in the midst of all the activity of the wharf. We thought we would go for a nice seafood dinner, but we decided we didn't really have enough time.
So instead we ended up eating teriyaki pineapple chicken sandwiches at Wipeout Bar and Grill. It had a very "Margaritaville" feel to it. It was perfect and we were so happy that we ended up there.
Yet again, things were just coming together perfectly.

I didn't take any pictures at the time, so I swiped this one off of Wipeout's website

Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay

Immediately after getting to Sausalito, we went straight to the visitor center to find out about the ferry. The sweetest older lady was working there and she helped us out a lot.

Well it was par for the course.... the ferry would be leaving in about 25 minutes and it was about a 5 minute walk away, just enough time for us to take ole' Ottis' advice and just enjoy "sittin' on the dock of the bay wastin' time."

We were so excited. It was a bit of a bummer that we couldn't hang around in such a charming little area, but our Alcatraz tour was booked for 6:15 and we still needed to eat after we got back to San Francisco. We figured at that moment, that we would come back to Sausalito the next day to do some shopping and have dinner at a little cafe'. It would have been fun to tour around a city where the average home sells for over $500 / square foot.

The town was beautiful! Set right there on the north side of the bay with beautiful views of the bay. The marina was charming and the weather was perfect (of course).

We loaded up on the ferry and we were San Fran bound in no time.

A view of some of the beautiful homes and condos in Sausalito

So this was "sittin' on the ferry, wastin' time" 'cause I didn't get any pictures from the dock.

A view from another part of Sausalito

The ferry ride back to San Francisco was beautiful just before sunset.

Now What?

.....the only problem is we don't have a plan to get us back to San Francisco. We have just been winging it and we thought surely there would be some easy sort of transportation to get us back.
After asking the driver to one of the many tour buses sitting in the parking lot of the north side of the park, we took a walk along the highway that the bridge turns into. We were looking for "a bus stop right at the first exit ramp?!?" What? That makes no sense, but we'll go with it we figure.
We walk down to the area he was talking about and there, painted on a pole are the words "Bus Stop." The only problem was that they were off to the side and very small, so of course we walk right past it. Luckily, the way things were set up, the walking path ran out about a hundred feet up from the stop.
There Karen and I stood, nervous and without a plan, waiting for this bus. We wondered how in the world a bus could possibly stop on an exit ramp, but upon further inspection, there was a pull-off area ... huge .... that somehow or another we missed in our anxiety..haha. We only had about a 10 minute wait and back to the adventure!
Now we were off to the heart of Sausalito!

A picture of the bridge from the north side. I don't have many pictures from this time period because I was too busy worrying about how in the world we were going to get back to San Francisco without wearing ourselves out for our upcoming race.

Our "Golden" Moment

Next, we got back on a bus and went straight over to the Golden Gate Bridge (well, not exactly "straight," we did have to take one transfer). We got off the bus at Golden Gate Park and grabbed a couple of drinks to hydrate at the gift shop. We called home to check on our families and enjoyed the view, taking tons of pictures.

Golden Gate park was beautiful in itself... even without the bridge as its backgound.

Then we decided to cross the bridge. It was on Karen't "bucket list" and I thought there would be an amazingly beautiful view of the bay from the bridge, so I was definitely up for it.

The walkway was very safe and there was plenty of room for the amount of people on the bridge that day. I can imagine that it would be pretty crowded on the weekends though.

The view of San Francisco from the bridge

Up close and personal.
A little fact and yet more proof that my parents were such a big part of this trip. The Golden Gate Bridge was opened for traffic on May 28, 1937. May 28 is my dad's birthday!

There are approximately 600,000 rivets in each tower!

The view of Alcatraz from the bridge

The cables are HUGE which of course makes me feel better as I cross

It was a beautiful fog that loomed around the north side of the bridge.

Whew, what a breathtaking walk.... and now we're here! At the other side......

It's All In the Details: Lombard Street

We started our tourism day out by catching a bus up Columbus to Lombard Street. It was beautiful. My mother was with us for so much of this trip. I find more and more of her as I look back at the details. She was woven all throughout the details of this trip. Even at Lombard Street, hydrangeas, one of her favorite flowers, overflowed along the edges of the charming brick, crookedest street ever. They were as big and beautiful as ever, refusing to pack it up for the cool October weather. I'm sure she visits them quite often. I know she did that day with us.

It's such a stunning sight. Unfortunately my "camera-phone-pictures" don't do it any justice at all.

They remind me of my mom so much.

It's so interesting to watch cars travel down this road.

The charming brick just sets the finishing touches oh so perfectly

We decided we aught not climb the entire hill due to our upcoming race, so we opted for halfway. This is the view from halfway up.

We couldn't leave without walking on at least part of the famous street.

Our Marathon Tourism

We thought we were going to San Francisco for the Nike Marathon, but it ends up that we were there for a tourism marathon of our own.
After getting cleaned up after our morning run, Karen and I decided we wanted to see the sights. We knew we wanted to see Lombard Street and the Golden Gate Bridge before going to our Alcatraz tour, but our charmed day turned out to be so much more than just that.