San Francisco, what's with the rain?

Warning: there are a lot of pictures below. Not only a lot of pictures, but a lot of my rambling to accompany them. Lucky you. San Francisco, you're pretty darn cool, however, I wish you had respected the items I had packed and had weather that accommodated. Instead, I got one day of sunshine and 3 days of rain, the spitting kind. So in the words of one of my favorite San Franciscans: How rude!



All in all, I had a blast. Please enjoy my amazing photography skills. And wit.



Guess where we headed first. I'll give you a hint, we had to climb Everest first:

And if that wasn't enough:

Hello "crookedest street!"

We walked up it too. My calves ached for 4 days. I'm not kidding. I totally love my stick shift auto, but should a rich and handsome man whisk me away to San Francisco to live happily ever, I'd be getting me an automatic. Holy hills!

This is the only day of sunshine. We thought it was a good sign. We were wrong.

Here comes the rain. We went to Blazing Saddles and suited up some sweet mountain bikes for a trek across the Golden Gate Bridge and through quaint cities such as Saucalito and Tiberon. These pictures were from the beginning of the ride. Before the downpour. At that point in time our fingers were frozen and we were worried about ruining our cameras to document.

I digress. Hopper's hands. I have no idea what they are, but I saw a smokin' hot runner-as in shirt off and ripped) run over and touch. Naturally I needed to follow suit.

We found some nice, if oblivious boys to take this one. At least he was thoughtful and captured the bridge. See our bikes?

Underneath. Cool huh?

You could have wrung our clothes after our ride. I am proud to say we rode all 21 miles to Tiberon (21, not the 18 that the stupid map said).

Chinatown. We didn't stop, just zoomed through. Kind of cool backdrop though.

I was tempted to open an account here. Who wouldn't want a bank that looks like this?

Ferry Building. Pier 1. Get it? Pier 1. :) Super cool shops inside. I'm still a little bummed we didn't stop and get a grilled cheese at the cheese shop inside. Next time.Bay Bridge

Public toilets! Sweet! There's a 20 minute time limit at which point the doors open. The random maintenance dude mentioned he's seen a few things inside here that were pretty odd. I can only imagine...
Lisa thought about going in, but discovered that there was no TP and it didn't smell to sanitary. Guess it's time to refill the soap.

Now for my favorite part! Alcatraz. I am FASCINATED! We were really, really TO'd that we couldn't go on the night tour. Can you imagine a night tour of "the Rock?" I'm going next time. I really think they need to give the backdrop in this picture a little more atmosphere. Where's the fog?

Cool, right?
View of the city from Alcatraz. Yes, it rained.

The showers. They used to have stalls, but to keep inmates from fighting they took them down. I seriously loved this tour!
After the shower this is where the clothes were.

A cell.

Lisa in a cell. Don't worry, I didn't make her stay there.
The rec yard. I thought it was pretty lame that we didn't get to go down into it.

What's left of the Warden's house. Apparently it was destroyed by a fire.

I LOVED this part of the trip. We got to hear about the break out attempts, about how families lived on the island, and got to see how the cells worked. It was THE COOLEST.

The next picture may not be appropriate for all readers. I would like to say, however, that the, er, gentleman who sported this ink was a chaperone for a high school group. I thought it was pretty sly of me to get a picture unnoticed. I rock.

Right? What the heck is it?

Golden Gate Park. Don't walk it, it's not really interesting (sorry GGP lovers). I'd go again only to see the museums I missed and the windmill (and tulip garden), but I'd take a bus. The walk is longer than you'd think. I took this picture while we were trying to find the Bison Paddock and to show the distance between my travel buddy and myself. She told me later that the park was a little too deserted for her taste and I think she was afraid someone was going to jump out at her. I was thinking it was pretty thoughtful (sarcasm) of her to put so much distance between us during what she had thought was an unfriendly area, she assured me that she looked back often to ensure I was okay. And it rained.

Such a relief!

At the Japanese Tea Gardens. $7 admission fee. That's all I've got.

Next stop, actually we went here first but order doesn't matter right?Never heard of it, right?

"Whatever happend to predictability..." We watched for Uncle Jesse for hours but maybe he was getting his hair gelled.

Cool shoe garden.

We also got to go to the Curran for a Broadway Show. We wore no jackets. One of us in flip flops the other in a pair of flimsy flats. It was raining. Totally worth it.

I LOVED this too! Love, love, love. And who was playing the lead? Constantine Maroulis of American Idol fame. I just wish I'd been a little lower.

Constantine
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Okay, that's pretty much all. Except for this place:

Go to San Francisco and eat there. Sooo good. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

See breakfast?