San Francisco!

 I have wanted to go to San Francisco for sooo long! I guess this is one good thing that has come out of Jake working in California (except for the paychecks of course). I was able to go out and spend the weekend with Jake and tour San Francisco with him.

Jessie & I went together to visit our husbands in California for the weekend. We got in Friday afternoon when the guys got off of work. We stayed up near where they live in Vacaville Friday night because they had to work on Saturday :(

To pass our time on Saturday, we spent hours walking around a huge outlet mall. It was a terrible way to spend a Saturday afternoon :)   (I hope you can hear the sarcasm)

When they did get out of work, we headed straight to San Francisco! We stayed at the Radisson Hotel at Fisherman's Wharf. It was a fabulous place to be. That night we took the Alcatraz Cruise Night Tour. It was so awesome! I would definitely recommend it to anyone going to SF, even if you aren't too familiar with it.

Back in 1847, the US Military became interested in "The Rock" because of its location. They thought that it was a perfect place to have a "fortress". So they built one. It was complete with cannons that could sink a ship from 3 miles away. In 1934, because of high operating costs, the Military turned over their fortress to the Department of Justice. It was then made into a prison for some of the worst criminals and/or others who have already attempted escape somewhere else. Escape from Alcatraz wouldn't be as simple.

The tour was awesome. Part of it was an audio tour that took you through the prison. Some of the voices on the recording were from actual men who were either guards or inmates at Alcatraz. If they were talking about a brawl or something like that, you could hear the sound effects of it and made the empty prison come alive.

These are the cells as they would have appeared to the prisoners. FYI- Alcatraz closed in 1963

This was the open shower room for the inmates.

An empty bookshelf from the library.

The Operating Room... this was eerie! Cold metal. There was no electricity in this room, it was all lit by lanterns. That made it super creepy.

One of the most famous gangsters of all time, Al Capone, was an inmate at Alcatraz.

Robert Stroud was also there. He was a pimp and killed a bartender for not paying for the prostitute one night. Stroud then stole the bartenders wallet so he could get paid.  

Our friends, Jessie & Josh



On Sunday, Jessie & Josh went to Six-Flags, while Jake & I spent the day discovering San Francisco.
Our first stop was the Aquarium.

We had to wait for an elevator to take us to another level- this was the view we had as we waited for it.

The Jellyfish and the walk through tunnels were awesome. They had 2 tunnels. One showed you the types of fish you would see in the San Francisco Bay, and the other was more Ocean-type fish.

This little sting ray was in the pool where you could touch them. He was like a puppy. He'd swim around the pool and stick his little nose out in front of people so they would "pet" him.

After the Aquarium, we walked up Pier 39. We looked at all the cool little shops, bought sweatshirts & souvenir magnets, and had to find time to see the sea lions.

I wanted to see & do all the "classic" San Francisco things. So our next stop was the Cable Cars! I didn't realize that Ghirardelli Square was so close!

We rode the Cable Cars all the way to the end of the Route in downtown. We walked around and shopped a little more. We walked through Union Square, where this cool piece of artwork was. I LOVE SF! 

After leaving Union Square, we walked and found a yummy sushi place for lunch and then headed into China Town! That place had alot of cool little shops. If we lived closer and had a truck, I think we might have come home with a new dining room table!  

After our time in China Town, we hopped back on the Cable Car. That was an awesome experience in itself! It was exactly like you would have seen on the Rice-A-Roni commercials back in the day. The Cable Car took you right past Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world! We finally got back to Fisherman's Wharf, where Jake was scoping out the tourist fishing and looking for a guy to take him out in the ocean to get a shark... classic Jake :)

I have to say, even though my trips to see Jake are short, they have been a couple of the best vacations we've taken. Thanks Jake for all your hard work that make things like this possible. We love you very much!