San Francisco Day 4/5

So here's a recap of the rest of our trip. Photos are on flickr and facebook, if you haven't seen them yet.

Day 4

Today was cultural day. First stop was California Academy of Sciences. It was really cool. It had an aquarium with sharks, eels, different fishys and Philippine Coral Reef. Also, had a Rainforest Replica in a dome. It had all the different layers of the Rainforest along with wildlife. Pretty neat.



It also had penguins, of course. Not the ones we have here, but these were little and cute.



Another interesting part, was the living roof. It was 2 acres of plantlife on the roof of the building, with all different varieties of California's wildlife.




Next stop was the De Young Museum. It was ok. Had mostly modern art and sculptures. The fun part was the observatory they had. It had an excellent view of the city, without climbing several stories (there was an elevator).



Mikey, being the baseball fan he is, we made a stop to At&t park to watch the Giants/Dodgers game. The park was really nice. It had good view of the bay, too bad we didn't get to see a splash hit. The best part is the food selections they have. Everything you could possibly think of, they had. If they didn't, you could bring it in. Yes, you could bring food into the park. Some couple was eating sushi from outside. It was great. Problem was it was too cold, so we didnt' stay through the entire game...plus it wasn't the Tigers. haha.




Day 5

Chinatown and Union Square

Chinatown is huge. If you've ever been to Chicago's chinatown, this one was twice as big. They say it is the largest one in the country, so that makes sense. So many stores, restaurants, everything. Cool thing was the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory. It's the only place where they make fortune cookies by hand. Haha, I had to pay 50 cents for this picture:




Union Square is the shopping district of the area. Every store (cheap and expensive) that you could think of, was here. From Tiffany & Co. to Old Navy, it's a shoppers dream...and Mikey's nightmare. Haha. Did a little bit of shopping and did one last cable car ride just for fun (since we could). Then off to Michigan.

San Francisco Day 1-3

Day 1

Arrived to San Fran on Saturday morning. Flight was good, long, but good. It seems as though it always takes a long time when you're getting somewhere rather than going home. Flight was really only 4 1/2 hours, but we were both just antsy the entire trip.

Checked into our hotel, then got our City Passes, which practically pays for itself. It includes the MUNI pass which offers unlimited transportation within the city. Considering the cable cars are like 5 bucks/person/one way, it is definitely worth it.

Off to Aquarium of the Bay, which was small and neat in its own way. Geared more for kids, of course. I'm sure little Riley (aka Tyrone) would enjoy it someday.

Next stop, Ghiradelli Square. Yummy. Store of chocolate, always great in my book. Especially when its Ghiradelli.

Spent most of the evening in Fisherman's Wharf, and since we were still working on Eastern Standard Time, we decided to call it a night. Had an interesting dinner experience though.

Lefty O'Douls. We walk into what we thought was a sports bar with bar fare. Instead, we find a cafeteria style carve meats buffet of food. It had beer and the bar atmosphere, but was just strange the choices of food and style it was. But they definitely give you a good amount of food for the price.


Day 2

Off to Golden Gate Park, originally to go to the California Academy of Sciences. But being a Sunday, the line was several blocks long. So we decided to put it off till Tuesday.

We walked through the San Francisco Botanical Garden, which was huge and beautiful. Mikey got to do a little birding. We saw a weird looking ground squirrel (pictures to come soon).

After the park, we had some time to kill before going on our Alcatraz tour. So we made a stop to the famous Alamo Square. You all know it, Full house. It's where Michelle, Uncle Jesse, Danny, Uncle Joey, Stephanie and DJ all lived. haha. Good times.

Then off to Alcatraz. It is a definite must see, if ever in San Francisco. Very historical, good stories, and just an interesting site to see. Boat ride was not too bad either.

And of course, it wouldn't be a Puppan vacation, if we didn't trek it up a huge hill to some tower or view. This time, it was Coit Tower and the famous parrots of Telegraph hill. They were red masked parakeets, and there were a bunch of them. Very neat to see wild parrots. It wasn't that bad of a hike up, and it was definitely worth it.

Day 3

Rented a car and made our way to Muir Woods, just north of San Francisco. Beforehand, we stopped on Lombard Street, the crookedest street ever. And of course, we drove down it (video to come). It was neat.

Off to Muir Woods. @Where we got to see the Giant Redwoods, and boy were they giant. Beautiful. Smelled like cedar. haha. It was great. Another definite must visit.

Since we had the car for a day, we decided to make a trip out to Sonoma, the real wine country. So many wineries, so little time. We were toasty after the first wine. They samples are good size samples, haha. Wifey, you would like it. We did end up hitting 4 wineries, one of them being the oldest premium winery in California: Roshambo, Sebastinini, Ravenswood, and Buena Vista. Google them if you want more info on them :)

Now we're sitting and planning what to do for the rest of the night. So far, loving it.