I Left My Heart in San Fransisco

Here's a whirlwind picture tour of my visit to the "city by the Bay." Our first stop was Fisherman's Wharf/Pier 39, a must-see for anyone visiting San Francisco, where we walked past a guy swallowing fire. That was interesting to say the least. Of course, on our way over to see the Sea Lions we had to stop and point out Alcatraz. After a rather awkward incident trying to get a guy to take a picture of Meagan and I and having him totally ignore us, we were off to the main attraction. Yep, the Sea Lions.

Ella was thoroughly engrossed and didn't want to leave. Although she seemed a little confused as to why she kept hearing dogs barking and couldn't see anything other than those strange water creatures.

As we walked down the street we had the option to have our pictures taken with a guy dressed up as a dog and his dogs dressed up as guys... we opted to keep walking. We also watched a baker at Boudin's create incredible works of "bread art" including crabs, turtles, bears, and 6 ft long alligators!

After fighting off Seagulls as we ate clam chowder bread bowls for dinner, we headed off to Ghirardelli's for hot fudge sundaes.

Sie schmecken (they tasted great) and as you can see, Benj and Ella thoroughly enjoyed theirs. I must say though, European chocolate is still eleventy-billion times better. :) But, I guess you have to take what you can get.

I also had an opportunity to go with Meagan and visit the Oakland Temple. It was beautiful! Throughout the grounds there are small speakers playing hymns. It was amazing how peaceful it was, especially right in the middle of such a big city.

We took a drive across the Golden Gate Bridge
- what trip to San Francisco would be complete without doing that? As we started out we were reminded by flashing signs to 'drive with extreme caution' because of the 'heavy fog.' Heavy fog was right! You could barely see the bridge while driving across it. However, as we got over to the other side we came out of the fog and everything was so pretty! It was pretty cool to see the bridge disappear into the fog from the other side as well.

On the way home, Ella and I stopped and played at a little park. She had a blast on the swings and enjoyed making music on the garbage can lid, but quickly lost interest when some older boys brought their dogs to the park.

I've never seen a child so excited to see a dog! Most of the
time if a dog comes up and gets in their face they start crying...

Ella just squealed with delight!


I decided that I needed a little more cultural diversity so I took a trip to China.

Chinatown that is. We all went to lunch at the House of Nanking. Although the idea was kind of fun - to tell the chef what kinds of Chinese foods you like and dislike and then have him go make you something - I wasn't terribly impressed with the food. It seems that most people either love it or hate it. It wasn't bad, but it definitely wasn't my favorite either. After 'ordering' though, I was able to go for a walk through the streets of Chinatown. I wish I'd had more time to spend doing that. It was so cool! :) Luckily for me though, I left my purse with Meagan when I left.

This wouldn't be complete without a couple pictures of the darling girls who stole my heart in San Francisco.

Tony Bennett was right - I left my heart in San Francisco.