San Francisco Saturday

Saturday October 2, 2010

We woke up on Saturday rested and ready to see more of this great city!  We were hungry from skipping dinner the night before.  We were going to go to this cafe across the street from our hotel.  Here's a picture of me crossing the street.

So, I walked over to check out their menu.  I discovered it was going to be like $15 each for breakfast.  We decided to keep walking till we found something else.

This is the gate to Chinatown.  You might also see that our hotel is just there to the left.  The name, "Hotel Astoria" is on the wall. 

While walking to find something to eat, we came across this bear.  Brian wanted to shake his hand. Sic' em, Bears!  :)

We found a bagel shop which sounded good and quick.  We had big plans for the day so we really didn't want to wait in any lines.  It's called the Posh Bagel.

I had a yummy chocolate chip bagel with cream cheese.

Brian had an egg sandwich.

We walked down to the trolley pickup again.  There are several other places that you can get on and off, but it proved to be the fastest to just go to the start of the route.  While waiting in line we were entertained by this street performer and his snake.  There were a good number of performers all over the city.

We headed back to Fisherman's Wharf, but for a different reason.  We stopped at a place and walked out with these bad boys!

Brian and I thought it would be really cool to rent bikes and bike the Golden Gate bridge!  I was a little nervous because I hadn't been on a bike in quite some time.  I'm used to the stationary bikes at the gym.  But we thought it would be an incredible experience so we had to try it.

There are a lot of shots from the ride, so I'll just let you enjoy!

Here's a video too.  It was really windy so it's hard to hear!

The Presido.  We actually didn't visit this area on our visit.

As you can see in this picture, it was a foggy day!

Getting on the bridge!  It's 1.7 miles to the other side!

It sure was windy.  I was a little freaked out by the wind, but it made for a cooler (temp wise) ride.

There's my back!  Brian was behind me at the beginning.

Another windy video.

Check out the tower!

Brian moved in front of me and then started taking pictures of me behind him.  Isn't he funny?  I'm just glad he didn't fall or drop the camera.

Phew!  We made it to the other side!  We had two options from here.  We could either bike back to where we started or to continue on to a town called Sausalito where we could take a ferry back to San Fran.  We decided to go to Sausalito to check it out.  A co-worker of mine had told me that it was a cute town.

Isn't he cute!  Oh, the town is too!

We happened upon an ice cream shop and had to try.  We rarely pass up on an ice cream place we've never been to.

We had worked up an appetite and got some yummy stuff.

Brian had Hana Road (which is like Rocky Road) and we can't remember the name of the other but it was a berry (Raspberry?) ice cream with chunks of brownies. It was a different flavor, but it worked! 

I had Butter Pecan, and a Cinnamon crunch.  I think.  Ha ha.  I really wished we could remember the names.  I tried to search online and found they have a location in Poway, so the next time I go home I'll have to go check it out.

We decided to go sit on the water while we enjoyed the goodness!

And another windy video.  :)

We really didn't spend too much time in Sausalito cause we were anxious to go see some other sights.  We took the next ferry back.  The ferry company allows you to put your bikes on board for the trip.  It was a little tricky to remember which was yours cause there were so many.

We dropped the bikes back off where we had gotten them.  We really enjoyed our 10 mile ride!  My legs were super sore now!  But we wanted to go to Lombard Street to see the twisted road.  Here's pics and videos from that.

I have no clue how to rotate this video.  Sorry!

We walked up on the stairs they have to the sides.  Car's can go down the street.

We then walked back down!

We were going to take the trolley back to the hotel, but there was a huge line and we had a feeling we'd have to wait forever so we decided to take a bus.  Boy was that an adventure.  It was full so we stood the whole time (which was so hard cause my legs were shaking from riding and walking).  There was also a lot of rude people on the bus.  We heard lots of interesting conversations. 

We finally made it back to the hotel where we needed to rest a bit.  Brian really wanted to dine in Chinatown so we tried to look at our books to see if there were any good deals or places recommended.  Brian thought it would be fun to have some Dim Sum.  I hadn't ever had Dim Sum before so I needed some convincing.  We finally decided to just start walking through Chinatown so we could look at the menus.  It took some time, but we chose, Chinatown Restaurant.  Ha ha.

I gave in and decided to try Dim Sum.  The restaurant had a huge selection of items.  You get 4 pieces of most items (some only had 2 of each).  This is what we ordered:

Chicken Pot Stickers

Veggie Spring Rolls

Shrimp Tempura

BBQ Beef Skewers

Chicken Skewers

Bacon wrapped Shrimp (Brian only ate)

Pork Dumplings (Brian only ate)

Shrimp Dumplings

Chicken Dumplings

Sesame Seed Rice Balls

Custard Buns

Green Tea Ice Cream  (I think Brian sampled his, but I was too full)

Fortune Cookies

It was a lot of food, but I thought it was good.  Better than I expected!

Saturday was such a fun day!  Riding across the bridge was my favorite part of the trip!  So cool!