My short, but really sweet trip to San Francisco

Big Rec Ball Park, Golden Gate Park

I love having the chance to go home, even if it's just for a short time. This time, I went with my best friend, Amanda and we were there for about eight hours. It was a beautiful day and we found parking everywhere we decided to go. We did a lot of walking and I took a lot of mental notes of where I'd like to run next time I'm in the city. (Honestly, I have no idea what is wrong with me. I've never liked running and in the last few months I've had the desire to run from point A to point B and back. I'm slightly scared of myself. Oh the things a half marathon will do to your mind!)

Anyway, our first stop was right in the thick of my old neighborhood. We went to Gordo Taqueria for lunch and ate at Big Rec. Usually there is some kind of baseball game happening but yesterday, we watched a ton of people flying kites. I'm really jealous because in all my attempts, I've never been a successful kite flyer.

Yo-Yo Competition... what?!

From there we walked to the Music Concourse. This is the area between the Academy of Sciences and the De Young Museum. I haven't been to either of those places since they reopened but the outsides of the buildings are pretty amazing. I was really surprised because we got to witness a legitimate yo-yo competition. These kids were pretty serious competitors and found that I was really jealous AGAIN because I've never been able to yo-yo either! I wanted to snap some pictures of these kids but I didn't want to seem like a creeper. On the way out of the concourse, we stopped in the Japanese Tea Garden for some photo ops. We watched a proposal in the middle of the Tea Garden and it was so amazingly cute.

Rustic Bridge (to Huntington Falls and Strawberry Hill)

Next stop was Stow Lake, one of my all time favorite places in Golden Gate Park. I roller bladed here as a kid with my friend Kristi, we would stop at the boat house and buy ice cream, and we would get in trouble for roller blading on the side walks. It would always end with a lot of laughing and silliness. A lot of places in the park have changed but I found that Stow Lake stayed the same. The rustic bridge is my favorite bridge and I've always wanted to get a good picture of it. We went across the bridge, went through the Chinese Pavilion, and climbed the stairs to the top of Huntington Falls (a waterfall that has been there since 1891ish). We didn't go all the way to the top of the hill but the views are still cool from the top of the falls.

Before we went back to the car, we stopped at the Children's Playground because I was hoping to catch a ride down the cement slides. There were too many people, it didn't seem right for an adult without a kid to run to the top of the slide and wait in line for a turn. *sad face*

Sutro Bath Ruins

We drove down to the beach and caught an unexpected glimpse of the USS Iowa leaving the bay for the last time. It was amazing but I didn't get any pictures. We did walk to the Windmill then we drove up to the Cliff House. We went down the hill to the Sutro Bath Ruins but were really hoping to get some Land's End photos of the Golden Gate Bridge. When that didn't work, we hiked it back to the car and drove down to the other side of Land's End. And score, we got great pictures of the bridge.

Happy 75th Anniversary to the Golden Gate Bridge!

After we got the pictures we wanted, we went to my Grandma's House to converse and visit. Then we repeated the process at my Aunt's house. I love stopping to visit my family and I need to do it more often! All in all, it was an amazing jaunt through SF.

I'm really glad to be home tonight though because my husband is making Ribs on the BBQ. Diet? What diet?

Had to stop at Fuddrucker's on the way home for a Buffalo Burger.... don't you judge me!