San Francisco

Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees is retiring. He is Conner's all-time favorite baseball player and he wanted to see him play one last time. We decided to book a trip to California to see the Yankees play the A's. We thought about canceling due to the move, but I insisted that we go. After all, our anniversary is coming up anyway. McCrae stayed with my mom and we flew to San Francisco for the weekend. We stayed with a couple who lives in Noe Valley, about 15 minutes outside the city. We had our own entrance and a bedroom and a bathroom. It was perfect. And we LOVED Noe valley...it was so cute and had a bunch of outdoor cafes. We ate some DELICIOUS breakfasts at a place called Griddle Fresh.

Despite being directionally challenged, we figured out the public transit system and started out in China town.

We ate a terrible lunch in China Town at a restaurant called The Stinking Rose (despite the name, its actually quite famous), then decided to hop on a double decker bus in hopes that we wouldn't get so turned around.

Lucky for me, we were able to hop off at the Pink Ladies (a set of 6 victorian homes famous to San Francisco). Or, famous to me, because its the Full House house. The nostalgia!!! It was awesome. It brought back so many childhood memories. Made my whole trip to be honest!

That night we saw the first game of the series. Although it was difficult getting tickets to a sold out game, somehow we made it to the 8th row right behind the Yankees dugout. Happy Father's Day to Conner! Jeter received a standing ovation every at-bat.

It was awesome! We both ate a Stadium hot dog, then washed it down with a 2 foot corn dog. The corn dog was phenomenal. I would pay for it the next morning, but it was worth it. And to top it all off the Yankees won. It would be the only game of the series that they would win so we were glad we splurged on good seats.

We loved walking the streets of San Francisco. They had so many cute shops-I wanted to take a picture of everything!

We found a local farmers market-everything was so picturesque.

We took the famous Powell and Hyde cable car to Lombard street the next morning. We stood in line behing Jennifer Garner and I was starstruck! She was beautiful. Conner was trying to talk to be and I literally couldn't even hear him because I was staring at her. 

 Yep, that's her!

 And that's her pink iPhone behind the guy in the red shirt.

These purple flowers were everywhere and they were incredible against this blue house.

At the base of Lombard Street. As you can see, my bloated belly is suffering from the corn dog the night before. I was cramping all morning. Seriously, we had to stop at Walgreens after this to pick up some Gas-X. I was only smiling for the picture.

We walked down to Fisherman's Wharf and visited Ghirardelli Square. We were sure to get our free piece of chocolate!

I was finally feeling better by the time we boarded the ferry to Alcatraz. Thanks goodness!

Alcatraz was fascinating. We took an audio tour through the entire facility. This was the shower room-not a whole lot of privacy!

A typical cell at Alcatraz.

The Yard-where the inmates could earn recreation time. It was so windy out here I almost blew over. The island where Alcatraz is located is known as "Bird Island." Notice all the poop!

The SanFrancisco skyline.

Only 3 inmates escaped the entire time Alcatraz was open. They scraped their ventilation hole with spoons until it was large enough for their bodies to fit through, squeezed out, built a raft and headed to sea...never to be seen or heard from again.

A real Alcatraz inmate! Ironically enough, he was born in Provo, Utah.

We loved spending time in Fisherman's Wharf and visiting Alcatraz, but it sure wore us out for Game #2! This is only the 2nd inning.

We loved getting pictures like this from Grammy while we were gone.

The next day, my old college roommate, Lindsey and her husband met us at the game. It was so good to see her! We were sure to warn them against the corn dogs...

After the game we headed back to Fisherman's Wharf for dinner. We ate, yet again, at the sourdough factory. Oh my! I could eat there every day.

The next morning, after another breakfast at Griddle Fresh, Lindsey was nice to offer her tour guide services and we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge to a beautiful lookout point.

She was sure to drive us through the homosexual area of the city... I would post pictures of some of the stores we drove by, but one day my children will be reading this post and I'm not sure it appropriate!

We loved San Francisco, visiting Lindsey, going to baseball games, and eating delicious food, but we sure were happy to get home to this guy. And I think he was pretty happy to see us as well.