California Adventure Day 4: Carmel to San Francisco

We slept in a little later than usual in Carmel since the bed was SO comfortable. I still woke up around 7am, finished my first book (a really interesting story about traveling circuses in the 20's), then when Bean woke up we enjoyed a continental breakfast in the lobby. My favorite part of the hotel was the decor of the lobby, the robe, and the bed.

Shortly thereafter, we bundled up because we heard San Francisco is cold, and hit the road. The first funny thing we saw that day was this Granny Goose truck:

And then this scary sign!

Since it was Bean's turn to drive, I took a few pictures of the scenery:
It occurred to me that nobody but the two of us will really enjoy looking at the pictures of scenery. There's a difference in looking at a pretty picture and really being in the moment, feeling the breeze, smelling the air, feeling the sun on your face, enjoying the music, and also looking at pretty scenery. Several times I decided not to take a picture and just enjoy the moment, which is a hard thing for me to do most of the time. Before the trip I worried that it was going to be stressful, that we wouldn't have enough time in the day to relax. The relaxing part was being in the car and watching the road go by.

It helped that we had so many days planned and we were able to take it slow (but not too slow). It was really nice to sleep until we woke up, drive and see what happens, and then show up in town a couple of hours before dinner and continue the relaxation from there.

We started getting closer to San Francisco, and TomTom directed us straight over the Golden Gate Bridge. It was trying to get us to our hotel, but the exit was closed and we were forced to go over it. Needless to say, we were excited!

And here's one actually going over the bridge:And a peaceful view from the other side:

What you can't see are hundreds of tourists, buses, and no parking. I took a couple of shots and Bean was going to loop around and pick me up, but he found a parking spot instead. Here's Alcatraz:And there's us trying to get a shot of ourselves in front of the bridge -we couldn't find anyone to take one for us....(that's sarcastic)

When we finished up there, we went back and took TomTom's directions. The streets were practically vertical in some places. At one point, we were on Lombard street and I was getting really freaked out at the angle we were going up. Plus we were at a stop sign behind several people, so we had to sit there for awhile, and gun it to prevent ourselves from sliding into the car behind us. Soon, we realized why. After said stop sign was the section of Lombard street that's famous because it's the 'crookedest street in San Francisco'. It was on our to-do list!

We saw a streetcar, but everytime we went over to get a ticket to ride it, the line was over an hour long. I guess that's what we get for trying to do tourist things on a Saturday.

We got done with all of that, checked into our hotel around 2pm and realized we were REALLY hungry but didn't know where to eat. We asked for a suggestion from the front desk, but all she said was, 'Just go one block back that way, there's anything you could ask for'. Thanks for nothing lady! I wanted to go to Chinatown and have some dim sum but we didn't know how the transportation worked and didn't want to drive.
So we went over to the Ghiradelli factory and had icecream sundaes for lunch. Bean's had cookies and mine had brownies in it. Delicious.We started walking around, getting familiar with the streets. We learned next time to not stay in Fisherman's Wharf, it's the tourist area, and of course it was really really busy on a Saturday. But it was cool to see it, and say that we've been there. There was also a very large noodle. We found this after we walked to the pier that tours to Alcatraz leave from to try and get tickets. They were all booked and were selling tickets for Monday; the latest we could go was Sunday morning.

So we went back and changed clothes- I was sweating in those jeans! And decided to pay quite a bit more and book an Alcatraz/Angel Island tour, knowing we would skip the Angel Island portion. We went ahead and paid for those online and then decided we could walk around some more. The funny thing is, for not wanting to hang out in tourist areas, we both love to go to Ripley's Believe It or Not. So that's just what we did!
That guy is at every Ripley's. I think this guy is too:And here's a toilet paper wedding dress...much better than the ones we made at Brittney's shower! It doesn't even look like TP. The best part was the mirror maze at the end. We got to wear these cool gloves, and we could go through it as many times as we wanted. We figured out the trick though, there were spinning sections with mirrors on all sides that made it hard to figure out where you were. While walking through the streets, we came upon a bride with her parents. She was just about to walk down the aisle! I begged Bean to let me watch as she went down the aisle, and I took a picture. But in the end, we refrained from standing around staring.

We aren't sure why, but we got back into the car and started driving around town. Notice how steep the hills are. At one point, we turned right onto a street and it was practically vertical right into the sun! We screamed and then hoped and prayed that there wasn't anyone coming.
We found the outskirts of Chinatown. Traffic was not good at all and Bean was stressing out. I felt really bad for him. He did a good job though, much better than I would have done.

Then we tried to find the Full House house. Not sure if we saw it, but here's my favorite 'painted lady', a name they have for beautifully painted victorian houses.

And here's the most famous row of houses, it's right across from a park, and it has the San Francisco skyline in the background. We couldn't find parking, so I couldn't tell if it is the row of houses from the show. We went back to the hotel to destress, shower, and get ready for dinner. I thought we'd go to some great San Francisco restaurant for my birthday (since it was Saturday and my bday was on Sunday), so I was stressing out. We found a place that was said to have great water views and made reservations. I hot-rolled my hair, wore my jean leggings and awesome gold shoes and we walked over to it. We should have known since it was in the same area as our tourist hotel!

I would like to forget this dinner, because the drinks were weak, and all I can taste when I think about it were the wide, bland butter noodles, and the fact that the only flavor was in the scallops, which also taste like butter. Bean made a good selection; something with steak and sundried tomatoes. We thought it was funny that the dinner was not that great, but figured we'd find something better on my actual birthday.

After that, Bean suggested we pick up a cigar from this shop:

Which reminds me of some place in New Orleans, and we walked down to some pub to see if they had any Miller Lite. They didn't, so we had a drink and went back to the hotel.

This dinner was absolute last on the list for me, the hotel was one of the last (probably tied with the one in LA). We would love to go back to San Francisco, just not stay in the area we did, and actually figure out the public transportation and see more of the city.

We fell asleep looking forward to our morning at Alcatraz. And I was looking forward to my birthday, the best day of the year!