San Francisco - Day 3

San Francisco - Day 3

Daisy began our day by telling us about "no more monkeys jumping on the bed"...

David had read about a place called Mama's that served great breakfast. We strapped both girls in carriers and walked about a mile and a half, only to find the line out the door and around the block.



With toddlers, you learn that lines aren't a good thing. So we left and began walking back to another little cafe we had passed along the route. We quickly grabbed a picture of us with Coit Tower in the background.



We ended up eating a place called Pat's Cafe. It was tasty and the atmosphere was quiet and lovely.



Daisy enjoyed a snack while waiting for the food to come.



David and I both got omelets that were very good. Mine had avocado, tomatoes, and chicken apple sausage. David's had italian sausage and peppers (I think). Daisy ate my fresh fruit cup. She LOVES fruit. The omelets were served with fresh sourdough toast which was delicious.



Outside of Pat's Cafe




After checking out of hotel, David picked up a rental car and we made a few sightseeing stops. First was Coit Tower in person. The line to park was long so we jumped out and took a quick picture before driving away.



We then went to the top of Lombard Street, known as the "crookedest street in America."

The view from the bottom



We then headed out to lunch, and found a place called Patxi's Pizza, which served deep dish Chicago style pizza. We had to try this out since we love real Chicago pizza. This place didn't disappoint.

After lunch, we drove by the place we stayed on our honeymoon 10 years ago. The place looks the same and we have very fond memories of staying there.

I decided I wanted to run across the Golden Gate Bridge, which was something we were not able to do in 2001. Because September 11 happened the Tuesday of our honeymoon, they closed the bridge to pedestrians. I had always wanted to walk on it. Now that I'm a runner, I thought it would be so cool to run across it. So David let me check something off my bucket list (he wants to do it too, but someone had to stay with the girls). It was wet and rainy, but David dropped me off at the end and he took the girls on a drive. I ran across it, and met him on the other side. I can't thank him enough for keeping the girls (Rose was having a crying fit because she was hungry) while I was able to run the 1.7 miles across.

 Finished and back with the fam...

We then kept driving up Hwy 101 to Windsor, where our friends Dom and Hilary are visiting from France. Hilary's family lives here and they are in town for the holidays.

Dom holding Daisy... don't worry, she warmed up to him after about 5 minutes.

Eating some appetizers and enjoying the relaxing night.

More to come soon...

San Fran - Day 2

So to answer a few questions, we are vacationing in SF for a few reasons. Many of you know that sometime each fall we go to a different city for an NFL game (tradition we started on our honeymoon). This year, being our 10th, we decided to revisit he place it all began. Our first game was in San Fran, so this year we made our game Oakland. We're spending a few days going places we went 10 yrs ago. We also are visiting some friends near Santa Rosa who live in France but are spending the holidays with family in the US.

Now on to some more of our adventures from today:

Day 2

We got up and walked a few miles to the Ferry Building near Pier 1 and ate some fresh croissants. We then jumped on a ferry and rode across the Bay to Sausalito.


We grabbed some yummy breakfast at a little place called the Lighthouse. Daisy enjoyed her Mickey Mouse pancake.




After heading back on the ferry, we ran a few errands and took a nap. We then headed out to Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39.


We ate dinner at Bubba Gump's, which is one of the places we ate on our honeymoon.







After dinner, Daisy rode the carousel. She chose the panda to ride on!

We then grabbed some mini-donuts for dessert.

Baltimore...

Each year, David and I travel to a different city for our "anniversary" NFL tradition. It started on our honeymoon when David suprised me with tickets to see the Falcons play the 49ers in San Francisco. It was my first NFL game and we had a great time. (In fact, the whole trip to San Fran was a surprise because I let him plan the honeymoon and had no idea where we were going until the 2nd leg of the plane trip!!! What fun!)

Anyway, the next year, for our first anniversary, I surprised David with tickets to Atlanta to see Chicago, our favorite team. We then realized we had a cool tradition going, and decided to keep it. So each fall we travel to the away team from the year before and catch another game and explore another city.

So far, we've been to:

Atlanta Falcons v. San Francisco 49ers (honeymoon)
Chicago Bears v. Atlanta Falcons (1st ann.)
Washington Redskins v. Chicago Bears (2nd ann.)
Cincinnati Bengals v. Washington Redskins (3rd ann.)
Indianapolis Colts v. Cincinnati Bengals (4th ann.)
Miami Dolphins v. Indianapolis Colts (5th ann.)
Baltimore Ravens v. Miami Dolphins (6th ann.)
Philadelphia Eagles v. Baltimore Ravens (7th ann.)

This means next year we'll travel to Philly to catch a new game and choose our new city based upon who the Eagles play.

But for now, here are a few pics from our weekend in Baltimore...


David drove us to Baltimore and as we got in the city, this is what we saw...


Yes, there was the Baltimore CHRISTMAS parade happening (and blocking the road) on November 22. So we waited in standstill traffic for about a half hour.

When we got to our hotel and went to our room, there was someone in the room assigned to us watching TV. It turned out to be the hotel manager, who was checked in to stay the night to help with a wedding at the hotel. Because of the mistake, he booked us in a corner room and sent us some goodies later.


After we got settled in the hotel room, we went out and grabbed some lunch at Pizzeria Uno's (Chicago Deep Dish!!!) and then walked around the Inner Harbor and up on Federal Hill. We had both seen Federal Hill park a bunch but never climbed up the hill to actually explore it. It was very windy and cold but we had fun walking around and chasing squirrels.










Saturday night we went to ESPNZone to watch VT play Duke on TV. We also ate dinner in the big recliners and played some games...






Sunday we went to the game... we had great lower level endzone seats (answered prayer on getting those tickets at face value 10 minutes before the game!). We saw a Philly kickoff return for touchdown and a Ravens' 108-yard INT return for touchdown (longest in NFL history).






After the game, we headed home after a great weekend in Baltimore. Next year, we'll blog about PHILLY!