San Francisco, Day 1

We finally arrived in SanFran at 11:04 local time, which was 1:04 to us. I began my day at 2:48 AM when my darling husband woke me from the sleep I was not quite finished with to tell me to get in the shower. That's early. We flew from Dallas to Memphis, which is totally the wrong direction, then from there to California. I think the Northwest hub is in Memphis or something. Anyway, first class is wonderfulness. The seats are sooo big and comfy, there is more than enough legroom, especially for my 5'1" frame, and the breakfast they served us was divine. We had an omelette, fruit, yogurt, croissant, juice, potatoes and sausage links. I should have taken a photo of it but I was too hungry to wait.

I did however prove that I don't really belong in first class when in an attempt to show my husband that I was actually eating a piece of fruit that was stuck to the end of my fork (I typically don't eat fruit) I threw it on him instead. I followed that by opening up my yogurt and splattering it all across the front of my shirt, and in the process of cleaning that up I knocked my book off the tray. It was a comedy of errors.

When we got to the airport our driver was waiting with a sign to pick us up. That is so completely cool. His name was Carlos, and he walked us around to baggage and then went out to pick up the car, which was a solid black Lincoln-something-fancy and uber cool. I felt pretty important being driven to my hotel. We are staying at The Argonaut, which is so modern and nautically decorated...uber cool. Our room is a view of the bay, Hyde St Pier, and Alcatraz, which is pretty sweet. We used the ginormous mirror across from our bed to take a self-portrait. Nifty decor, huh?

Since our flight landed before the allotted check-in time, we had the hotel store our luggage and set off on foot through Fisherman's Wharf. It's pretty touristy and many of the sections reminded me of Pigeon Forge. Lots of souvenir shops with things like cheaply made snowglobes, magnets, coffee cups, etc...pretty much the standard fare souvenir junk you find at any major travel destination. But sprinkled in between are local eateries, shops, and things to do. I took my photo of the Fisherman's Wharf sign like a good little tourist and we bought some seafood from a street vendor because that's one of the things I wanted to do. I even fed my leftovers to the 8000 pigeons and seagulls that were stalking us. Seagulls are really big!! I can't help it- every one of them I see I have to say "Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine."

We had 3 hours to kill, sowe went ahead and did the 90 minute bay cruise that I had paid for a few weeks ago. We went our from Pier 39 to the Golden Gate Bridge, circled back around Alcaraz and then back to the Pier. It was awesome, but wow - I was not prepared for the wind! Nick and I both have wind-burn and I gave up on trying to keep the knots out of my hair. Rather than block the wind, Nick's windbreaker mostly filled up with it and he ended up looking like the Michelin man. It was awesome though, being out on the water like that. We take another boat out to Alcatraz on Wednedsay morning and I'm looking forward to it.

After resting a little bit in the hotel, we walked over to Hyde St Pier and looked at the ships there, then headed up to Ghirardelli Square to sample and smell the wonderfulness that is chocolate. I could get in serious trouble there. We ate and then walked around bit more before decided that we were both so tired we needed to call it a day. I slept like a log last night.

Today we're hitting the public transportation and seeing where all we can end up. Should be fun!

Oh, and by the way, I forgot to ppack socks for Nick. Today we're going to have to go buy him some. There's always something you forget, right?