San Francisco in Pictures

Just over a month later, and I am finally getting around to posting about our trip to San Francisco. It was a great trip. We had pretty decent weather, and we got lots of exercise from all the crazy hills! The pictures below are just the highlights - if you want to see all the pictures I took, just click on one of the pictures included below and it should take you to our flickr page. Or you can just click here.

First stop, Alamo Square to see the houses that were used at the beginning of the Full House episodes.

After that, we headed to our hotel which was at the top of a really steep hill. This is a picture of one of the streets that Ryan had to drive up (and sit at the almost-top waiting for a red light to change) to get to our hotel.

Dinner at a restaurant called The Stinking Rose. Their motto was that they season their garlic with food - hence the strands of garlic hanging from the ceiling.

One of my first pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge, taken on our way to Muir Woods.

Ryan and me at the Golden Gate Bridge.

The entrance to Muir Woods.

Ridiculously tall and perfectly straight redwoods.

Back in San Francisco, one of the old streetcars.

The Bay Bridge that goes to Oakland (the one that they just found a big crack in).

Ryan on the cable car on our way back to our hotel one night after dinner. We wouldn't have survived without the cable cars!

Ryan and me at the Phillies/SF Giants game.

A picture for all the Phillies Fans. We had great seats that were right near the bullpen, and I couldn't resist taking a picture of Cole during the National Anthem.

After the game, we went to Fisherman's Wharf. It was a total tourist trap, but still one of those places that you just have to see.

Ghiradelli Square (in case you weren't sure what this is).

From Ghiradelli Square, we took the LONG walk up to see the crookedest street in San Francisco - Lombard Street.

A cable car in front of our hotel.

Another picture of the Golden Gate Bridge, taken from the ferry to Sausalito. Notice how cloudy it is in this picture.

A picture of Sausalito from the ferry. Sausalito is less than 10 miles from San Franscisco, but had completely different weather (notice the blue skies and puffy clouds). This picture was taken about 10 minutes after the picture of the Golden Gate Bridge above.

That afternoon, we took another boat out to Alcatraz for a tour.

Ryan in one of the cells at Alcatraz.

We came back from Alcatraz and got dinner at Fisherman's Wharf before we headed to the airport for our flight. While we were wandering around, we found Pier 39, where the Sea Lions hang out. It smelled really bad, but we suffered through so I could get a few pictures of the sea lions.

Pebble Beach Days 2 & 3 - Recap

Ryan spent the morning playing a round of golf at the Pebble Beach Golf Links. Here he is on the 18th green. He had a great time and shot under 100 (I think a 98).

Since I had no plans while Ryan was playing golf, I decided to take the rental car and drive north about 30 minutes to go back to a produce stand that we passed on our way to Monterey from San Francisco to pick up these. It was so worth it! I ended up buying 3 baskets and managed to finish off one whole basket of strawberries by myself before Ryan had returned from golfing.

On the way back from the produce stand, I stopped in downtown Monterey. The picture below is of Cannery Row in Monterey.

I also visited Lover's Point in Pacific Grove which was over-run with squirrels!

After Ryan returned from golf, we picked up our rental car (see below) and did the 17-mile drive. Just kidding about the rental car. As part of our package, we got to take a test drive of the car below for 2 hours, so we figured what better test drive than 17-mile drive.

One of our stops along the way. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can see the seals on the rock.

The Lone Cypress. This tree has survived out there for over 250 years!

During our last day at Pebble, Ryan had an early tee time at Spyglass Hill Golf Course (see below). He said that this course was much harder than Pebble. While he was golfing, I was lucky enough to spend some time at the spa getting a Hot Stone Massage. It was amazing.

Pebble Day 1 - Recap in Pictures

On our way to Pebble Beach, we took Route 1 (the scenic route) and saw this.

Half Moon Bay

Some amazing coastline

More amazing coastline. Yes, we drove over that bridge.

We stopped at the River Inn in Big Sur and saw what we think is a woodpecker.

The view from the River Inn at Big Sur.

We made it the Inn at Spanish Bay in Pebble Beach in time for Happy Hour and listened to the bagpiper that plays every day from 5:45 - 6:30pm.

We sat around the firepits and enjoyed some libations (sorry, didn't get a picture, but Ryan had a mojito and I had a snuggler - a hot chocolate with pepperment schnapps, marshmallows and whipped cream)

And ate pretzels shaped like golf tees.

Then we had dinner at Pebble.

And had our picture taken in front of the famous 18th green.

The View from 15,000 Feet

After a little bit of a rocky 4am start this morning, this beautiful sunrise at 630am on our way into Charlotte, NC made it all better! We arrived at the Inn at Spanish Bay at Pebble Beach this afternoon and it's so beautiful here! More to come soon!

Aruba

Thought I'd post the link to our pictures from Aruba - click on the picture below. We loved it as much as the first time we were there, and thanks to a great deal from Marriott, we will be going back there sometime in the next 18 months.