San Francisco Day 5

On Friday morning, we had a leisurely breakfast at Betsy's house, and then we headed back for Golden Gate Park. We wanted to see some of the museums there that we only passed by on the Segways. We purchased CityPasses for this trip, which bought us public transportation passes, Alcatraz tickets, and tickets to several museums and an aquarium. It was really a great deal....the bus passes were the most convenient part. Two of the museums in our booklet were in Golden Gate Park.

First, we went to see a great Picasso exhibit at The de Young. We listened to an audiotour, which really helped us get more out of it.


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Then we went back over to 9th and Irving and had sushi for lunch.


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There is so much to see and do in Golden Gate Park! It is bigger than NYC's Central Park.


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We went back to get a closer look at The Shakespear Garden, which we had seen on our Segway Tour.


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Then we went to the CA Academy of Sciences. This wasn't on the top of my list, but since we had tickets and it was right there....I figured we might as well go in.

I figured out pretty quickly that we were in the WRONG place for our week away from the kids. Kids everywhere....pretty much your basic science museum. I have been to science museums in Lubbock, Dallas, and Shreveport this summer. We were out of here pretty quickly.


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White Alligator - just like at the Dallas Zoo. Eek! Run, Holly, run!!!


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Moss on a tree in a museum. This made me laugh. I love it when they try to make things look like a bayou. They have this same set up at the Dallas and FW Zoos. They must all go to the same "museum" school. Louisiana Bayou scene with moss - CHECK!


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Then we took....you guessed it....a bus to the Golden Gate Bridge. We saw it and walked out on it just a bit. It was crowded, and we pretty quickly tired of people on bikes. They have one side of the pedestrian walkway closed, so that makes it even more crowded. But it was definitely a beautiful view!


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We planned to go to Off the Grid at Fort Mason on this night, but I had heard that it has been really crowded lately....so once again we decided to have a lovely night in. Once we got back to Betsy's, we WALKED (at 6 pm on on July 29) in jeans and a jacket (aaaaaaah, so nice) down to Safeway and got some tonic water and limes.....we saw this sign along the way...Todd loved their work ethic.


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Then we WALKED back to Giovanni's right by Betsy's place and ordered a take-out pizza. The Organic Green - pesto, spinach, broccoli, black olives, feta, artichokes, and fresh garlic. SOOOOO yummy! When we got back to the house, we watched the new True Grit. Hm. It was well made, but too much violence for me. Kinda slow.


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San Francisco Day 4

On Thursday, we slept in a little bit. Thursday-Saturday nights we would be staying at Betsy's new place b/c she was going to Louisiana for her little brother's wedding. So we had an easy morning, and then we rode the BART to Betsy's place.

We had a late brunch at a place called Olivia's in Betsy's neighborhood...


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Then we took the bus to a neighborhood called Potrero Hill. We instantly liked the look of Potrero Hill. Then as we walked up the street, I could tell Todd's ears were perking up....the people taking smoke breaks or walking to lunch around us were speaking his native tongue. Software people everywhere! We saw offices for Zynga and Twitter, and apparently there are many other software people around there.

We had to make a quick stop for a drink b/c I had a bathroom emergency. A little vacation reality there! :)


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At 1pm, we had an appointment to take a tour of The Anchor Brewery in Potrero Hill. Anchor Steam Beer is one of Todd's absolute favorites, so this was a "must do" on our trip. This was actually the first thing I booked for the trip - it books up months in advance! The first part of the tour involved the brewery itself. They brew and bottle every bottle of Anchor beer here! Pretty neat.


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Big flat tubs of beer where it gives off steam? Something like that. I missed the details here. But something about this part is how it gets its name.


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Hops. Sorry, bad phone picture.

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We were excited to hear that they used to make spirits, and that they will soon be making and distributing them again!


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The second part of the tour was a tasting where we got to sample six of their beers on tap. Our favorites were the Porter and the Brandywine Ale.


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We wandered about in Potrero Hill for a bit and looked at the neighborhood. We stopped in a Whole Foods and had some salted caramel gelato. Yum.


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We had planned to go to the CA Academy of Sciences Nightlife that night (translation: a science museum opens up at night for adults only and has beer and wine, live music, etc), but we decided we didn't want to go all the way across town....and we were ready for a night in in Betsy's cute house. So we bought some yummy stuff at Whole Foods to take home for the evening.


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This was my new beer discovery on this trip. We had it on tap at the Boudin Bakery on the wharf, and I loved it instantly! I'm not a huge beer drinker, but this IPA was delicious!


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And another vacation reality moment....when we went to get back on the bus in Potrero Hill, I couldn't find any of the bus stops that my phone was telling me should be there. All of the bus stops we had been at on previous days had had shelters or huge signs marking their locations. We would get to the intersections my app told me to go to...and there would be nothing. It took us about 30 minutes to figure out that the stops were marked with a yellow band of paint on a lightpole or street sign pole. By that point I was pretty flustered and just ready to be home! Once we figured that out, we were on a bus and on the way home, and I was a happy camper again....but so glad for a night in.