Time is flying by so fast!

Wow I can't believe that it is already July 19th! Time has flown by so fast this summer and we will soon be heading back to Idaho. Since the last post we have packed up all our stuff and are visiting family in Washington for a few weeks. Last week Chris had gone up to Ferndale to train the intern and is currently in Minneapolis at the intern conference. So far he is having a great time and dying in the heat. I guess someone from Georgia said the weather was hotter in Minneapolis than it is in Georgia, I thought that was pretty crazy!
While being at home I have been able to spend a lot of time with family and helped my dad build a horse fence. It has been nice to be in Washington for a bit, but I would have to say that when we first got here I was very cold from after being in California in 78 degree (with AC on, it was WAY to hot to be outside) weather all the time to raining all the time. This is quite a weird summer, but enjoyable. So I have gotten a little behind, I still need to do a post on the trip from Cali to Snohomish, Washington... as of now I haven't even looked at the pictures at all, just been relaxing with family. So when I get in the mood to do so I will do a post on that. We had a great trip going up 101 on the coast of California and saw some beautiful country.
We will then be leaving to move back to Idaho some time next week to get things moved back into our apartment and back on track to the normal way of life rather than living out of suitcases. I am definitely looking forward to getting the apartment all set up again and having our fish, Mr. Clean, Titian, and Apollo, (their has been a few deaths, but that is okay). It is also crazy to think that on July 31st we will be having our 2 year anniversary. This year has gone by SO fast! But it has been a wonderful year with many adventures that will be placed in our memory, and we have yet many more memories to make.

Downtown San Francisco

The 4th of July weekend was our last weekend in California. We had spent the weekend house sitting and taking care of two huskies and a GIANT Labrador retriever. They were very good dogs to watch and we really enjoyed staying there. On July 2nd we made our journey to downtown San Francisco. We drove to Pleasanton and then took the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transport). It was a nice train ride, and even nicer over the fact that we didn't have to deal with traffic and could just enjoy the ride. Some areas I have to admit were a little nerving just because we are going to unknown territory where I don't always feel comfortable. I was very out of my elimate in downtown San Fran. Definitely a different experience, but it was a lot of fun!

When we got off the BART in downtown we walked up the stairs and lo and behold, their was downtown! The BART has a tunnel that goes under the bay and then under the downtown area. It was a little nerve racking going under the bay just knowing that you are under water right now, our ears were sure popping. Once getting into the downtown area we walked around for a little bit to figure out what direction we needed to head in order to get to the piers. Starbucks was also not in short supply. It was on every corner just like Seattle. Once figuring out where we were we then got on a cable car to take us to the piers. The first cable car that came was PACKED full, so we decided to wait for the next cable car. The next one was full, however at least their was room to stand. Once we got closer to the piers that soon changed, and it was just as packed as the one that we had passed up. Everyone was packed tightly together, and it was a get to know your neighbor experience. However, once we got past Pier 39 we were able to sit down, at least for a couple of stops until we got off.

We then got off the cable car at Pier 43, the Fisherman's Wharf where we were to get on our cruise around the bay. We had tried to get tickets to tour Alcatraz, however with 4th of July weekend tickets were sold out for two weeks. We then got tickets for a cruise that would go past Alcatraz, under the Golden Gate Bridge and then past the other side of Alcatraz.
View of Alcatraz from Pier 43

We had a lot of fun on our cruise around the bay. It was also nice because they had a recorded tour that we listened to while cruising around. We were able to learn quite a bit about San Francisco that we didn't know. It also pointed out things to see and the background behind it. One that I really liked, was when looking at some really steep roads it said that some roads are so steep that their are stairs for the sidewalks. I thought that was pretty neat! I can't imagine driving on that road though.

Cruising up to the Golden Gate Bridge, and of course it is in the fog.
Here we had just gone under the Golden Gate Bridge and then are turning around to go under the bridge again. It was really cool to go on this cruise and have a different perspective. We also seen the nets where the painters are painting right now. Looking back at the Golden Gate Bridge, which is a mile long suspension bridge.

Cruising towards Alcatraz, you can also see the Bay Bridge and San Francisco

Alcatraz

Cruising past Alcatraz. We were kind of grateful that the tickets for the Alcatraz tour were all sold out. It was creepy enough just cruising past it. It was interesting to learn that the cells were so small that inmates were not able to stretch out, and a lot of them didn't look out the window because they would look out and see the lights of San Fran. Only a couple of inmates escaped, however they were never found. I think that they drowned because the water is always in the 50's and I can't remember how many miles it was to land. Now each year swimmers get together to compete in a swim to Alcatraz.

View from Alcatraz looking at San Fran and the Bay Bridge. We also learned on the cruise that a part of the Bay Bridge collapsed during an earthquake at rush hour time. Luckily not as many people were involved that could have been. The day of the earthquake was the world series game between Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants. So everyone left work early to go to the game or watch it on TV so not very many people were on the road.

The Bay Bridge opened 6 months before the Golden Gate Bridge.

After the cruise we then walked over to Pier 39.
It was so busy at Pier 39 and a lot of little shops. We walked around for a bit and seen some sea lions enjoying the sun. At the end of the pier we had a great view of Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge and the bay in general. It was a great view! Here we are on the side of the pier looking at the bay bridge.
After walking around the pier we decided to hop back on the cable cars to start heading back to Stockton. Heading back we took the cable car to the end of the loop that it did where we had to hop on the cable car in the front of the line to start heading back to the downtown area to get on the BART. Here is a view inside the cable car. This is a view of a more comfortable ride, just imagine the isle being packed with people, and that will be what we experienced earlier.

Look at all the cables! In the downtown area looking towards the bay where we will get on the BART.
We had a great time going to downtown San Francisco. Our favorite part was going on the cruise around the bay, it so worth it and a lot of fun. The whole time during the cruise their were crew members walking around taking people's pictures for them. We highly recommend doing a cruise around the bay! It was also interesting to walk through downtown, the buildings were enormous and the BART ride was fun, especially not being able to deal with traffic, parking in downtown and tolls.

San Francisco California

June 25th we made a trip to San Francisco. I am not big about going into cities type of person, but is is San Fran! We had a great time and were sure tired after we got home from our journey. We ended up driving taking the normal route down through Livermore to get there. It was a nice drive and then got a little hectic once entering SF. We also thought it was crazy that they charge a $5 toll fee, when looking around as to how many cars were there they are making BANK! But anyway, we drove to the ocean so we were able to have free parking. We went and walked along the beach, which was rather cold that day. We found out that SF usually has opposite weather compared to the valley. I was hoping to go in the water but it was sweatshirt weather, so that was a no. It was nice to walk along the beach for a little bit.

We then got on a shuttle to go to the Golden Gate Park. This park is HUGE! It is bigger than Central Park in New York and has so much to do. I swear that is also the only area where their is grass. When driving through SF to get to the park I have never in my life seen so many apartments, it was crazy. We got off the shuttle at the very end of the park and started our walk through the park. Their was a lot to see but all the things usually cost money. We did end up going to the Japanese Tea Gardens. This was an absolutely beautiful garden that we very much enjoyed walking through.

After going through the gardens we continued our walk through the park to go to Stow Lake. This was a neat little lake in the middle of the park that had an island in the middle of it. On the way there we saw this really cool tree!

Once at Stow Lake we walked around for a little bit and decided to get a paddle boat to go around the lake in. Thought this would change things up and give us a break from walking around. Chris was leaning more so towards getting a row boat, but I wanted to paddle around too, so we got the paddle boat. Boy we were wrong about giving us a break from walking around. Once we got started I was thinking that walking around the lake would have been much easier than doing this. Didn't realize how much energy would go towards using a paddle boat. We had a lot of fun though and got some cool pictures going around the island. Also got to see things that we probably wouldn't have seen if we were walking. We also seen a Great Blue Herons nest up in a tree. It was so cool to see the birds landing in the tree and the baby blue herons. We also had some birds catch a ride on the paddle boat with us as well.

After taking the paddle boat around we started our walk to find the shuttle. After awhile we realized that we had taken the wrong road and had to do quite a bit of walking to get to where the shuttle would pick us up to go back to the beach where our car was. The Golden Gate Park had a lot of random things, including buffalo. Thought that this was quite weird to have buffalo in the middle of San Francisco that is not their native habitat, but everyone else thought that they were totally cool. My thought is that these people need to get out more, it is just a buffalo. Their is nothing really majestic about them, they are just one giant cow basically.

Anyway... so we had finally got on a shuttle to take us to the beach so we could have lunch and then head out to see the Golden Gate Bridge. When finally getting to our car we realized that when we were having fun in the park, poor Kia was being bombed with seagull crap. This picture was taken after we had cleaned the windshield off. Their was about 5 on the windshield, a ton on the hood and then some on the side of the car. When looking around the other cars didn't have this, granite we had been parked their the longest. When looking around more we noticed that we just happened to park under a light post, so that is most likely how Kia got in this condition. If anything the car needed a good washing so this just fast forward the time a little faster to get washed.

On the way to Golden Gate Bridge we came to realize that the directions that we had printed off made absolutely no sense. After stopping many times and people looking up directions on their smart phones, or whatever they are called, we finally got to see the bridge that we come all this way to see. However in the process of doing that Chris also ran a red light, that was unknown until we were half way through it when it then turned green. I would have to say that this was somewhat because the fact that instead of putting the streetlights in the middle of the road like everyone else they are placed on the side where it is not as obvious. Even though we had false directions and didn't follow the laws of the road we were finally able to see the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a bit foggy, but we were still able to see it.

Here is a video of us going across the Golden Gate Bridge. I was pretty excited because this was my main reason for wanting to go to San Francisco.

The other side of the bridge looking at San Francisco. We were also able to see Alcatraz however we are taking a cruise around the bay tomorrow and will have a closer view of it. We had tried to get tickets to have a tour but they were all booked up so we are taking a cruise instead.

After driving a little bit around Sausalito we started our trip back to Stockton. We took the Northern route instead of having to go back to SF and we were also able to see different things as well. Here are a few pictures of things that we saw on the drive back to Stockton.

Of course we saw vineyards, that is a big thing in Cali.

Wetlands

And Windmills
We had a great time seeing San Francisco and will be going back next week to see the downtown area. You can't even put a dent in seeing San Fran in a day! It will be interesting going into downtown. At least this next time we will be taking the BART instead of driving over.