Girl's Weekend Away

Over the last 18 months or so, my best friend Erin and I have made it a point to take a weekend away for a girl's trip whenever life will let us. We take turns planning the weekends. Whoever plans the weekend is in charge. They book the rooms, plan the activities and do all the pricing. The other, doesn't get to know where we are going or what we are doing until just before we arrive at the destination or activity. It's been really fun and has allowed for us to have some time together to catch up on things since our lives get so busy!



This last trip was my turn. I decided to have us go to San Francisco and do fun touristy things and attractions. We had so much fun on this trip we are counting down the months until our next trip together (that's in October in case you were curious).





The trip started out with us leaving Fernley on Friday, June 19 at about 4 PM. Erin drove so that I could properly navigate us to our destinations without giving away the surprise. We made one stop along the way, in Sacramento, to get some Starbucks and then we pushed on to San Francisco!




So I should probably mention here that I didn't warn Erin that her driving would involve her driving us over some very scary bridges. It wasn't until it was too late and we were already on the bridge that I turned to her and said: "Oh yeah, by the way? We have to drive over some bridges. No biggie." If you look in the above picture, you will notice two things: 1. the cars are very far away from us because the fear of driving over bridges prevented us from going any faster than 40 MPH and 2. we are in the very middle lane of the bridge while driving slow because fear of driving over bridges also leads to a fear of falling off the side of the bridge! Anyhow, she did great and we made it over all three bridges on the way over and the two on the way back with no problems. I just kept her talking and telling me stories to keep her mind off it!




We made it over the bridges and through the woods to grandmother's- I mean, we made it over the bridges and past all the crazy traffic and found our hotel. It was a really nice hotel and the staff there was great. There was a menu in the room for room service from a nearby restaurant and we decided what the heck, we'll order room service. Glad we did. It didn't cost that much and it meant we didn't have to venture out to try and find anything, although it seemed like forever to get to us I think it was just because we were so hungry! After dinner despite both of us being extremely tired from the week we stayed up until 3:30 or 4 catching up!



The second day of the trip started nice and early on Saturday morning with us getting up at 7:30 to get ready and eat breakfast. Once we were ready and fed it was time to leave the room for the day. The first activity we left for was a trip to the San Francisco Zoo. But before we got there, somehow we got lost only one block away from the hotel. For whatever reason we went north on the freeway instead of south and didn't really realize our mistake until we were 7 miles into it. So, after turning around and trying again we were seeing the signs for the exits we needed. After what felt like some very round about driving we arrived at the zoo. At this point we were only 30 minutes behind schedule. Not too bad for having gotten lost.



When we arrived at the zoo it was fairly close to the time it opened for the day. It was still a little chilly with a slight breeze so we made sure we had our sweaters. We found parking with no problems. On our way out though, people were waiting for someone who was leaving so they could follow them to their parking spot and take it when they left. The parking lot was full and people were still coming in!

Throughout the zoo as we watched the animals were fun places for photo ops. We took a whole bunch of them and I have posted a couple here. The above picture is one of me on a hippo ( I feel so thin!) and the bottom is of Erin with some beautiful bird wings! There were also some we took with peacock feathers, polar bears, and antlers.

The above picture I took is of a sign we passed on our way past the zoo and onto our next activity. The sign with the blue circle with the wave on it says: Tsunami evacuation route. For whatever reason it struck me as funny.

The rest of the activities for the day took us downtown to pier 39 and fisherman's wharf. Once we finally found parking (26 dollars just in case you were curious) we went onto our next activities. We had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. We forgot to take pictures there since we were both starving and just wanted to eat but there were some neat things hanging on the walls. The food was good and by the time we left we were stuffed and ready to walk it off. Our next activity was to go through the Aquarium of the Bay. Neither of us had been here so it was really fun to go through it.

My absolute favorite display in the entire aquarium was the one with the jelly fish. They looked so neat just floating peacefully along all lit up. On the walls were sayings that said "Jellyfish just go with the flow...." I thought it was cute!

I also like anything interactive and I was able to stick my head in a bubble and "go inside" the tank with the octopus. Way neat.

Erin went in the bubble that put her in the tank with the electric eels. Creepy.

Upstairs they had petting tanks. More interactive stuff, yay! I got to pet a fish and whatever this thingy was.

There was also a tank with starfish and sea cucumbers. The starfish were much harder than I thought they would be and the sea cucumbers were really slimy!

Next it was on to the pier to see the sights and stores. We went into several but this one in particular caught my attention. It was a store dedicated to Left handed people. My sister is left handed and I thought this would be a neat place to get her a souvenir from.

Having digested our lunch a little we decided that crepes sounded like a delicious snack. We stopped at the store and put our orders in. Erin ordered a banana and nutella crepe and I ordered a milk chocolate ghirardelli crepe. Erin's crepe is on the left, it's already folded and mine is on the very top where they guy is starting to fold it.

They were so good but neither of us could finish them! After, we walked around some more around the pier enjoying the sights.



Next we walked across and down the street a little bit to the wax museum. We went through it and looked at all the figures. Some of the statues looked right on and some weren't even close. it was a lot of fun though. The picture above was in the Egyptian hall that had the recreations of King Tut.

A couple of buildings down was the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum. It housed all the interesting world records and weird facts. There were a lot of fun things to look at and play with. The picture above is from an exhibit that was meant to show how the two sides of your face aren't exactly the same. We decided to do one together just for fun.

Next it was off to Ghirardelli square. That was quite the walk! But when we got there I was able to get some more gifts and see the Ghirardelli chocolate shop. We sat down for a minute and took our pictures by the fountain in the center. As the day went on the wind started to pick up a little. It took us several tries to get a picture of the two of us.

After our long day of sight seeing and shopping, it was time to head back to the hotel. It was already 8 by the time we walked through our door! We changed, freshened up and headed down to union square to once again find more parking so we could go to dinner. We walked a couple of blocks from our parking garage to The Cheesecake Factory. It was super busy! We had about a half hour wait and were able to spend it sitting in the Macy's furniture department on some comfy couches. The restaurant is in the Macy's building. We had a great dinner and then headed back to the hotel. This would be the second time we got lost! Yes, when I planned this trip I printed directions off for every trip we would be making. However, when directions start with phrases like: "start by going east" and we have no idea what direction we are in, it makes for two girls by themselves late at night in downtown San Francisco getting very lost and driving in circles because there are so many one way streets! Eventually, and I do mean eventually, we found our way back to the freeway and back to the safety of our hotel! There are some very interesting characters in San Francisco I must say! For example, on the pier we were propositioned by two men (we off course said no and ran away) and on the way back to the car from dinner we had a man actually meow at us! Very strange! Yes, the safety of our hotel was very nice!

Needless to say, we were even more exhausted that second night than the first. We didn't stay up all night this time talking, as soon as we had gotten ready for bed and our heads hit the pillows, we were out! We slept longer than expected but not super late. We loaded up Sunday morning, June 21st, checked out and headed for home! It was just as nice a drive back, bridges included, as there and although it was great to have time away, it was nice to be back home!