San Francisco: The Golden Gate Bridge

We woke up Wednesday morning and after getting dressed and getting some coffee, we made our way down to the concierge desk to ask about our plans for the day. The night before Amanda had picked up several brochures and one of them mentioned a tour for Muir Woods National Monument and Sausalito. We were all excited about the possibility of getting to see so much of San Francisco and we wanted to make sure we picked the best option for us. Well, Dan, our concierge, was AMAZING and gave us the best advice. He told us to rent a car and drive across the Golden Gate Bridge to Muir Woods, Sausalito, and into wine country. He said we'd be able to stay for as long as we'd like at each place and not have to worry about anyone else's timetable except our own. Shannon, my principal, said she was very comfortable with driving in San Francisco so we all agreed that sounded like the best plan. I was so excited!! 

It was going to take about an hour for the rental car to arrive so while we waited for the car we decided to walk to the convention center to print out our registration cards and pick up our registration packets. The conferences were going to start in the morning and we wanted to be prepared! There were so many conferences we all wanted to attend so we were glad to get our registration booklets so we could start reading about the topics that would be discussed at each conference and select the best ones for us. While we were walking to the convention center, we had to pass through the city park in the middle of downtown. Once again, their flower displays did not disappoint! What a beautiful place to have lunch and enjoy the scenery.

Once the rental car arrived we all loaded up and set off on our San Francisco mini-adventure. First up was crossing the Golden Gate Bridge! Seeing it in the distance, I got really excited. It was such a thrill to experience crossing the Golden Gate Bridge because I never imagined I'd ever get to see it in real life. It was so much larger than I expected and I felt so small while we were crossing it. 

I always wonder when I visit other places with such iconic landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge if the people who live there ever grow accustomed to seeing these amazing places. I'm sure they do but it's hard to imagine ever growing accustomed to crossing this monstrosity every single day. 

After we crossed the bridge, our first stop was to Mill Valley. They had some darling little shops in their town square and we really enjoyed walking around to all of them. Shannon was on the hunt for a jacket because the weather was slightly cooler than she had thought it would be so she hoped to find one here. Luckily, she did and after she purchased her jacket we loaded up and continued our journey. 

We started our ascent into the mountains headed to Muir Woods National Monument. Isn't the view breathtaking? I thought so too and asked Shannon to pull over on the side of the road so I could photograph it. Little did I know just how amazing the views in Muir Woods would be! We were almost there and I couldn't wait!

San Francisco: Riding the Cable Car

After the long day that we'd had-flying to San Francisco, traveling to our hotel, walking 150 miles (felt like it at least) to Lombard Street, walking around Fishermans Wharf and much more-riding the cable car back to our hotel late that night sounded quite delightful! We made our way to the cable car station to buy our cable car ticket for the ride back. Fun fact: The San Francisco cable car line is the last working system of its kind in the entire world! 

While the conductor collected the fare for all the passengers and explained the rules of riding the cable car, we took turns taking pictures of each other. 

Jessica and Amanda

My principal, Shannon, and me.

We arrived at the cable car station at the perfect time and I was able to catch the sunset as it was going down behind the Golden Gate Bridge. What an amazing view!

Riding the cable car back to our hotel was so much fun, except for the picture crazy couple you'll read about in a few! Our conductor instructed us to yell as we passed the other cable cars on the way back to make our ride more fun. He was a blast and he thought our southern accents were hilarious! (I guess it was the multiple "y'alls" I used when I was talking that gave it away!) We started our ride back and had lots of fun yelling at all the other cable cars as they passed us going the opposite way up and down the hills of San Francisco. And the views were INCREDIBLE! When we got to the top of Lombard Street and looked out across the city and the bay it was beautiful. What an amazing city to visit!

Now for the crazy picture couple story...We had this young couple that jumped on board halfway back and they completely stressed all of us out because they kept leaning out holding onto the rails and taking selfies together hugging, kissing, and being all lovey-dovey. I get it, you want to document your trip to the city. I'm a photo loving person too, so I understood where they were coming from. Two or three pictures is understandable, but y'all I'm talking 25 plus pictures for a 5 minute ride! Plus, they nearly died more than once because while they were leaned out trying to "capture their love" they almost got their heads taken off by the cable car coming from the opposite direction. We had to keep shouting for them to lean back in so they wouldn't die! Talk about a stressful ride! I finally asked if I could take a picture of them together just so they would stop with the selfie taking. Mr. Wilson would not have tolerated me for one second with all that picture taking...haha!

We made it back to the end of the line and I asked our conductor to take a picture of the four of us on the cable car. He turned one picture into a 20 picture photo shoot (at least the cable car wasn't moving and we weren't in imminent danger!) and kept moving us around the cable car asking us to wave, lean out, hold onto the rails, and more. He told us that he made sure to get the cable car's number in the pictures because if we ever saw Cable Car 16 on a movie we could say we rode that exact cable car! He was fun and we had a great time!

Our trip to San Francisco was off to a great start! We had one more day to explore the city before our math conference started and we intended to cram as much into one day as we possibly could! I was giddy just thinking about all the places we'd be able to see tomorrow!

San Francisco: Fishermans Wharf

The cable car ride from the top of Lombard Street down to Fishermans Wharf was not long at all but because it was our first ride on a cable car we were all very excited. We had to take a couple of pictures to document our first ride.

Jessica, me, and Amanda

We walked down to Fishermans Wharf and started to look around for a restaurant where we could grab a little snack and unwind.  

I spotted Alcatraz while we were walking around and used my zoom lens to get a picture of this famous prison. I hated that we weren't going to have time to do the Alcatraz tour but that'll be something I can do when I come back!

I loved the old timey look of these streetcars they had down there as well. Oh, and just so you know I had to google the difference between trolley, cable car, and streetcar about a thousand times while I was in San Francisco. I kept calling the cable cars streetcars and I called the streetcars cable cars. 

The landscaping in all the raised flower beds was so beautiful! I loved all the different types of vegetation they used to create such colorful displays!

We made our way down to Pier 39 to have some pizza in a restaurant that overlooked one of San Francisco's most famous inhabitants...the sea lions. I was so excited to see them!

We ate some delicious pizza and then walked downstairs to see the sea lions. They were loud and stinky, but it was fun watching them for a few minutes. The majority of them were snoozing but every now and then one would wake up, go for a quick swim, and then jump back up on the floating dock. 

At this point I was starting to feel like this sea lion looked! Haha! A full day of traveling plus a two hour time change was starting to get to me. We said good-bye to the famous Pier 39 sea lions, found some Ben and Jerry's ice cream, and made our way to the cable car station. It was time for us to go back to the hotel for the night and this time no walking was going to be involved!

San Francisco-Lombard Street

Before we left for the beach over Spring Break, my principal asked me if I would be interested in going to a national math conference in San Francisco, California. Ummm, YES! She didn't know if it would get approved but she needed to get all the paperwork filled out and turned in before we left for Spring Break just in case. Well, it just so happened that it DID get approved so on our way back from the beach I spent the majority of our travel time on my phone booking my flight to San Francisco and registering for the NCTM conference. I couldn't wait! San Francisco has always been on my list of places I wanted to visit and I couldn't believe that I was actually going there. Two other teacher friends, Jessica and Amanda, from the middle and high school were going as well, so the week before we left we met and worked out all the travel details. All of us were very excited about the trip! 

The math conference started on Thursday, but we landed in San Francisco late Tuesday afternoon so that gave us about 36 hours to explore the city, minus the hours we needed for sleeping. My principal had been to San Francisco before so she was our official tour guide. I was thankful to have someone with us who knew the city and knew where to go to see all the fun touristy attractions. We landed in San Francisco around 3 o'clock, caught a 30 minute cab ride to our hotel, checked in, dropped off our suitcases, and spruced up a little bit. By 4 o'clock,  we were in the lobby of our hotel all ready to see this fabulous city. 

Our first stop was to ride an authentic San Francisco cable car all the way to Lombard Street and Fishermans Wharf. The beginning of the line was not far from our hotel so we walked there only to find out the cable car was down and not running. No worries though! My principal said that we could walk up to the next stop and we could catch the cable car there. 

Walking to the next stop didn't sound bad at all until we all remembered that we were in San Francisco...a city known for its steep hills. At that point it was either wait who knows how long for the cable car to start running again or start walking. We all agreed walking was better than waiting so off we went! 

I can now say I have walked the San Francisco hills and lived to tell about it :) It was a lot of walking, but we were able to really see the city. Plus, the weather was amazing for this Louisiana girl! In fact, we were walking around in short sleeves and my friends Amanda and Jessica were wearing sleeveless shirts! People looked at us like we were crazy, but walking up those hills was an intense cardio workout! 

We made it to the next cable car stop only to find out it wasn't running either. That meant more walking for us! We ended up walking all the way to historic Lombard Street. I have never been more happy to see a street sign in my life than I was to see this one. Unfortunately, this street sign was at the bottom of Lombard Street and we wanted to go to the top...that meant more hills. 

We finally made it to Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world! Woo hoo! We took some pictures at the very bottom of the curvy part of the street and then walked up the stairs (more torture) to get to the top to watch the cars drive down.

The view at the top was AMAZING! You could see so much of the city and the bay. It was beautiful!

Not long after we arrived at the top of Lombard Street, a cable car came by and we jumped on board and rode it for the last couple of blocks to Fishermans Wharf. All that walking had made us very hungry so the plan was to eat a light supper at one of the restaurants near the bay. Our San Francisco trip was off to a great start!