Day 279

Blurb: Trying to get back into a routine.

Backstory: I have done very little today because it's the day after my vacation. This is universally known as the least productive day in any adults life's. The highlight of my day was taking Sadie to Schiller Park for the first time. It's a little bit of a longer walk from the house but it's a beautiful path that let her get a little pent up energy out. I let her off the leash and she did her normal chase bigger dogs thing, which meant she had to get back on the leash.

Day 278

Blurb: Goodbye West Coast.

Backstory: This is the last picture I took before leaving California. It's the view of the Golden Gate Bridge from my friend Taylor's bedroom window. Almost all the windows in her apartment have a great view of the Golden Gate and I can't express how sad I'm going to be not waking up and having a cup of coffee with one of the world's most famous bridges. While the views from my yard aren't that bad, they're never going to be this good.
Today was extremely uneventful, I spent the entire day traveling. The best thing I can tell you is that I actually ran somewhere today, breaking one of my personal rules. I normally don't run unless there's a fire or I'm being chased, but today I made the decision to run to catch a flight. There was no way my ass was going to be stuck in Cleveland at 9 o'clock at night. Something about being stuck in the Cleveland airport is worse than anything else because it's just two hours from home and I could drive that. But the running worked and I made my flight, now I'm sitting at home remember my awesome trip to California.

Day 277

Blurb: It's alright, I'm ok.

Backstory: This picture might look like I'm in trouble, but I'm actually just goofing off. Yes, I did ride a cable car and yes it was fun. Our journey on the cable car took a long time. We started out waiting at the departure point for about an hour, then it was our turn to get on but we weren't far enough up to get a good seat. That meant we were stuck on the inside for the first part of the ride. Luckily the cable stopped working and most of the people got off. Thank goodness Kerri and I made the decision to stay on because we got to ride at the very front of the car and hold onto the rail as the car went up and down the streets.
It's a lot like riding a very slow, very old roller coaster. You can hear the cable and the car crank from below as you go up the steep hills, then as it crests over the hill you think you're going to speed down but instead you just chug down like a little steam engine. This is still extremely fun when you're holding onto the side because you have this little voice inside of you that keeps saying "I don't think this is safe. How can this be legal?"
As we got into the downtown portion of San Francisco things did start to get a bit more dangerous because there were more cable cars and more cars. You would get so close to the other people dangling off the cable cars that you could hi five as they passed. By the way, that's a bad idea and you shouldn't do that. There are signs posted everywhere that say don't do that and it's true, you'll probably get your arm ripped off.
Riding on the outside of the car was one of my favorite things in the city. If you go, wait in line and stand on the outside. It's one of the most tourist things you can do in the city but it's so much fun. You get to go through some of the most historic parts of town, plus there's always that nice sense of fear in the back of your mind.

Day 276

Blurb: After the weekend we had I probably deserved to be here.

Backstory: It's Monday and Taylor's off to work so Kerri and I have been left to do more tourist things, mainly Alcatraz. After two beautiful, picture perfect California days it's started raining. Our day started out in Chinatown with a tea tasting. Kerri did not have fun because the guy said we hadn't spent much time abroad and she said no I just don't like certain flavors of tea(that's the short version of the story). We saw a lot of weird stuff and fun Asian candy. After spending the morning in Chinatown it was off to Alcatraz.
The hardest part about San Francisco, for me, is the excessive amount of hills and the motion sickness that follows those hills. Well, this time the motion-sickness was taken out of the water and the ferry that got us to the amazing island prison. The waters were really choppy because of the bad weather and we stood outside for the 15 minute ride so I could get some fresh air. The first thing you seen when you dock at the island is a pretty common thing in this area: a big hill. The prison really does sit on top of a big rock in the middle of the bay. According to the National Park's brochure, walking to the top of the hill is the equivalent of walking 13 stories.
Luckily you don't do a lot of steps at Alcatraz, most of it is just inclined roads but you can see the steps people used to use and they're very creepy. Let's just say I'm glad I didn't have to climb them. The most surprising things about the island is it's not that creepy, and I'm saying this after visiting the place in the rain. Everything just seems very sterile and, with the exception of the main prison building, most of the building are very run down or undergoing restoration.
It wasn't my favorite historical tour of all time, but it was very close. The visit got high marks for the audio tour of the prison and the breath taking views of the city. It got negative marks for the lack of professionally guided tours by actual people and the lack of finished restoration. After another day of walking I'm ready for a margarita and some tacos (which I just had).

Day 275

Blurb: Funniest game at the vintage game museum.

Backstory: It's our second full day in San Francisco and we dedicated this day to being tourists. We started out with a delightful breakfast followed by trying on every hat at Goorin Brothers, then we made our way up to Fisherman's Wharf and Ghiradelli Square. These are major tourist traps, and let's just say I love me some tourist traps. I love junky stores and little restaurants that are set up to lure in tourists.
One place that was a little touristy but not too much was the Game Museum. It's filled will old fashioned games that you can play for a dime or a quarter. My favorite game was the arm wrestling machine where you played against a Mexican wrestler. I was actually able to beat it when I set it on the lowest level and used both my hands. The game you see above is one of the corny "sexy" games that filled the arcade. After visiting the museum I have to say our ancestors were kind of dirty. There were games like "What every woman must know before getting married," "Watch naughty Margareta" and the classic Love-O-Meter. I mean seriously old time Americans, you're really going to like being liberated.
It was an extremely long day and the three of us could barely think after we'd gotten back to Taylor's. While we were waiting for our take out I could barely talk. All in all we'd walked a few miles, many of them up hill. But it was a great time and I give San Francisco's tourist areas high marks.

Day 274

Blurb: Happy Oktoberfest San Francisco!

Backstory: It's our first full day in San Francisco, and it's beautiful. California really is a stunning place; it also helps that Taylor lives in a really nice neighborhood right by the Bay. Today our big event was Oktoberfest by the bay, you can see all our pretty faces up there in the picture. We spent four solid hour drinking huge steins of beer and looking at people in crazy German costumes.
Just like yesterday I got the urge to take a few souvenirs. All those big mugs you see(with the exception of Taylor's) were taken. I took them.
People were just leaving them all around the venue unattended and I knew the four of us could give them great new homes. I don't know what the other ladies plan on using theirs for, but I'm going to use mine as a flower vase. After our hours of drinking we went outside and ran around the outside of Giants' Stadium. I would love to put more than one picture up for today, but this was clearly the best one. After this they all go down hill and involve cartwheels or laying in grass.

Day 273

Blurb: This is the infamous pitcher from Tacolicious.

Backstory: It's my first day in California and let's just say I'm ready to bring the heat. The best thing about flying to the west coast is that you get three hours back to do whatever you want. We all decided to go to my friend Taylor's favorite place, Tacolicious. Because it was a Friday night in Marina we waited for an hour to get a table which lead to the drinking of margaritas.
We were all very excited to see each other, which also lead to the drinking of alcohol. When all the dust settled and we had eaten our food and downed a couple pitches, but we had half a pitcher left, that's what you see above. I was drunk enough to think it was an amazing idea to take the half a pitcher from the restaurant to Taylor's house. So once we paid our tab and were leaving I took the pitcher and walked back. Now Taylor has some frozen margaritas in her freezer and we all have a funny story to bring back from vacation.