Weekend in San Francisco.

Many of you have been wondering where I'm at since my blog has been pretty silent recently. First we had Thanksgiving in Michigan, and then I've been in California for the past two work weeks. Since I needed to be there two weeks in a row for work, I decided to stay for the weekend and Aaron flew out to see me. We spent our time in San Francisco exploring and enjoying the beautiful scenery (and blowing through all of our credit card points to stay in a nice hotel downtown). 

Aaron and the Bay Bridge

I've been to San Francisco for dinner a couple of times, but haven't spent much time doing all of the touristy things there are to offer. It has been pretty chilly in California recently (the news there has been very dramatic about the "cold snap"), but the sun was out and it was above freezing so we were happy!

Our first day involved tons of walking: we went to the Ferry Building, Coit Tower (unfortunately closed for renovations), and then made our way to the Golden Gate Bridge. We should have got a taxi but the weather was so nice we wanted to stay outside. We were extremely lucky to get such clear days with no fog (you can actually see the Golden Gate Bridge!). By the time we got to the Golden Gate Bridge our legs were so tired we only went halfway across before getting a taxi and going to Chinatown for lunch.

Ferry Building

At the bottom of the steps to Coit Tower

Halfway up the steps. We had to stop and catch our breath.

Nice quad burner going down this street.

I asked the hotel concierge how much public transportation was… she told me the street cars cost $6 and they were "the ones you see on the rice-a-roni commercials."

After all of our walking we were exhausted and spent the evening watching the Big Ten Championship game. On Sunday we went to Alcatraz, since apparently Aaron has seen a lot of movies about it. I didn't know much about it except it was a prison. It ended up being a really interesting tour, if not a little creepy. The views from the island were fantastic! We ended the day with a delicious dinner at SPQR.

There are a lot of other things I want to do in San Francisco, so I'm hoping Aaron will be able to come back sometime. Next on the list is the Golden Gate Park, some wine tasting, and seeing some redwoods.

On the ferry.

What used to be the social hall.

Recreation yard.

They said a lot of the prisoners sat on the bleachers and looked at what they were missing, so Aaron played along.

Aaron in isolation, or "the hole."

So close to San Francisco

Sunset from our hotel room.

Macy's Christmas Tree.