San Francisco Lovin'

As I mentioned earlier this week we spent the weekend in San Francisco for our Anniversary! We thought this would be a great opportunity to celebrate together + have a last little get away before Baby Boy gets here and life gets even more busy.

We flew out of the Provo, Utah airport which was seriously amusing. It was so small it was almost terrifying so dainty and cute! Our flight was delayed a bit, but that meant I had time to squeeze in another lunch before take off. Yes.

When we arrived in Oakland and got a cab to San Francisco my heart was already melting. I had been there a matter of minutes and was already in love with the Bay Area. It was sunny, the city looked amazing, there were sailboats everywhere, and the smell of salt water made my heart race. I must have sent an adrenaline rush to Baby because he was kicking around like crazy.

We got to our hotel which shocked us both when we realized how close it was to everything. We were in the heart of Fisherman's Wharf and I couldn't wait to explore! Walking along the piers I was again so thankful this pregnancy has been so good to me. I would have been barfing up a storm if smells were bugging me. Fresh fish, smoke, salt water, cooking food...

We went to Pier 39 for dinner and I had officially 100% fallen in love with San Francisco at this point. Little shops everywhere, water crashing against the pier, a massive merry-go-round, so many places to eat, treats everywhere, street performers, walking around with Spencer..
 I was so happy.

{..I was even happier when we found the mini donut stand.
We got 12 to share, and may or may not have eaten 12. By myself.}

The Next morning we walked along Fisherman's Wharf & went to Alcatraz.

 

Lookin' snazzy in our audio guide gear. Standing in Maximum Security cells or "the hole"

During a riot, the guards had to drop grenades to the ground to control the prisoners. Here are the marks in the ground where the gradates hit.

Standing in front of the cells where the famous escape was made. If you look closely you can see the holes in the wall where the vents were supposed to be.

 William G. Baker is one of the last remaining prisoners from Alcatraz. He was there for a book signing- quite frankly, his mugshot on the book gives me the ultimate willies. But he was so sweet! We were afraid to ask what he was incarcerated for, so I guess I'll let you know when I read the book!

 

We went back to Pier 39 where I upgraded from 12 donuts to my very own bucket!

 This was the best $5.00 cup of hot chocolate in the world. Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate to be exact. This is also us being awesome and taking a mirror pic to show we were so cold we had to buy sweatshirts.

 Husband-Of-The-Year-Award Goes to... Spencer!

The next morning was our Anniversary!

 

 The Aquarium at The Bay was pretty okay, but I would suggest not going. If you want to see an awesome aquarium, spend your money on going to the one in Salt Lake!

After the Aquarium we went to Golden State Park but I was in a terrible mood so I really don't have any pictures from that. Ha! We walked through the Japanese Tea Garden which Spencer really liked, then hitched a cab to the Golden Gate Bridge, which was freezing and soo foggy.

The fog cleared just in time for us to get a few good pictures, and we headed back to The Bay where it was much warmer.

 

 Baby Boy was soo active this whole trip- Spencer finally felt him kicking on our Anniversary! Baby loved San Francisco too!

We went back to Ghiradelli Square and I probably got another Hot Chocolate.. and we ate dinner at a little diner with ridiculous prices for a mediocre grilled cheese.
We went back to our hotel room and got sucked in watching the TV show, Deal With It! If you guys haven't seen it, I suggest you look it up. Like tonight. We were laughing so hard and stayed up way too late when we had to wake up at 3:30AM to get a cab back to Oakland to catch our flight on time!

This was absolutely my favorite Anniversary so far, and my favorite weekend spent with Spencer. It's been so fun to look back & see how things have changed in the last two years, and it made it extra special celebrating our Anniversary this year with a baby bump.

I would say I left my Heart in San Francisco.. but the fact is, I most certainly brought my two loves home with me!

XOXO


California Day 3 & 4

DAY 3

Disneyland seriously took it out of us. We decided to walk a few blocks to Target because I wanted a pair of flip flops and they didn't have any. WTH is with stores in Cali not selling summer clothes? I get it's Fall and everything, but it was still SO WARM! Target had all of their beanies, scarves & mittens out. WEIRD!

After trudging through the neighborhood of abandoned buildings and used pregnancy tests on the ground, I finally found a pair of shoes and we walked back to the Hotel just to decide we were hungry and had to walk somewhere else. This was my verge of breaking. I'm 8 months shy of being able to get a rental car and I called my dad for help. He's always been able to get me a rental car but he didn't call me back. Spencer tried as well and it was a complete no-go. (There's ONE reason I'm looking forward to 25.)

We had paid for the Medieval Dinner already and the girl at the front desk of the hotel/motel made it clear the place was just a 5 minute walk down the street. I asked if we could take the shuttle and she said we already used our ONE TIME Shuttle use going to Disneyland. ONE TIME USE. 

We went to our room to shower and get ready for dinner. Nat was in the shower while I was putting my makeup on at the mirror when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I yelled for Natalie to look from the shower and she totally didn't buy it. I look up and see "ALICE" written on the bathroom mirror. I had to swear on my life I didn't write it.

We were super creeped out and laughed about how Alice was the one making all of the weird noises the night before. ew.

We started walking to dinner which took us 25 minutes in the blazing sun with, again, cars honking and yelling things in languages I don't understand. Maybe that's a good thing. Complain complain.

We got to dinner and we were SO EXCITED again that we were around civilization. You guys, if you haven't ever been to a Medieval Dinner place.. you are SERIOUSLY missing out. We loved it so much and the food was great! We had soup, 1/2 chicken, garlic bread, potatoes, BBQ Rib & a drink, all with NO utensils. We had a blast!

 

For the record, we took a cab home.

DAY 4

We decided we really wanted to go to the beach so we had to figure out bus routes through Orange County. We originally wanted to Santa Monica Pier but our bus route literally drove right through Inglewood & Compton. So we decided on an hour and a half bus ride to Huntington Beach instead!

 Huntington Beach was one of my favorite things. There's something so majestic about the ocean & breathing in salty air. Plus I saw a huge seal and it pretty much made my whole day. It was the PERFECT temperature & Nat was dying to get back into the water. She rented a surf board and wetsuit and rocked it on the only waves coming in. We found some AWESOME local shops & I really didn't want to leave Huntington Beach.

We headed back to the hotel/motel on the bus & got off on our stop. Which ended up not being the correct bus stop. We were totally stranded with all of our shopping bags in the middle of ghetto-ville. The next bus didn't come for another hour and a half, and the closest bus stop we needed was 2 miles away. We tried calling 3 different cab companies none of which could send a cab right away. We called the hotel for a ride, but again, we already used our ONE SHUTTLE ride to Disneyland. We walked to a burger place down the street and waited for what seemed like an eternity for a cab to finally pick up our location.
We got back safely & it was just another adventure...


XOXO