I Left Most Of My Wallet In San Francisco

Hello, everyone! I'm back and here's what I've been up to...

Since Russ is getting ready to deploy, he got to take some leave time and we drove down to Sacramento to visit with his family. While we were there we also hopped on over to San Francisco for a day because I hadn't been there before. 

It looked like this for nearly 10 hours of our drive through Washington and Oregon:

I took these pictures on the way home through the Mt. Shasta area. It was too rainy and yucky on our way down and it was beautiful on the way home (except when we got to Washington and it was completely icky for the last three hours). 

The first thing we did upon getting to San Francisco (besides paying a $4 toll...) was drive to Pier 39 where all the tourists hang out. There's restaurants, shopping, and ferries to catch and it was highly recommended by Russ' grandpa so we navigated the confusing, crazy streets of San Francisco (which nearly left me in tears because they terrified me so) and parked in a garage near the pier. 

You can barely see the Golden Gate Bridge through the fog there in the back. It was very foggy and difficult to see the bridge. 

This picture shows a little how the buildings are stacked on these crazy, hilled streets. 

We took this little boat out to tour the bridge and head out around Alcatraz. 

The Golden Gate Bridge in all it's foggy glory! It's a beautiful marvel but at the same time the bridge and being near it gave me the creeps. Between the tragedies surrounding the bridge and Alcatraz within sight, it really was eerie out on that water. 

Next time I visit I'd love to tour Alcatraz. It was extremely creepy being near it and I can't imagine being stuck there. It would be absolutely miserable... which, I guess is the point right?

Look how the fog climbs the rock just to conceal the prison... so so weird. 

When the cruise was over we had dinner at Chowder's on the pier and had some amazingly fresh clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl and some delicious fish and chips. 

After paying an exorbitant $32 (!!!!) for parking the Jeep for four hours, we headed to our hotel to relax. 

I found Hotel Carlton last minute after the original hotel I wanted to book had a minimum of a 3 night stay! (WHAT?)

Source

The lobby was decorated in a multicultural and worldly aesthetic which I thought was really interesting and neat.

The rooms weren't standard hotel fare either... way different from a Holiday Inn. I loved the bathroom and thought it was decorated adorably with orange, teal and white. Cute, right? 

I did have fun going somewhere new but the pain of navigating and finding a place to park (which the latter is usually my problem in Seattle though MUCH easier there), did disrupt my visit and my opinion of San Francisco. I would like to go back and hopefully get to stay for longer (we ultimately ended up only being there for about 24 hours due to our time constraints) and get to experience more. 

Offbeat Post: Places I've Been

Every once and a while I like to look back and think about the places I've visited in my life and how lucky I am to have experienced them. 

Since being with Russ I've visited Chicago, Pensacola, Florida, Washington D.C., Virginia Beach, Virginia, Charleston, South Carolina, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia. And now, I live minutes from Seattle! I've also gotten to live in four different states and visit both Mexico and Canada. I feel so lucky to have gotten to visit those places when a lot of people have never even stepped outside the state they were born in. 

When I visited Chicago, I was so excited to see Russ graduate from boot camp and get to spend time with him in one of the biggest and most interesting cities in the country. We went to the Navy Pier and the Sears (now Willis) Tower and got to experience The Most Awesome Pizza I Will Ever Eat at Gino's. 

When we moved to Virginia I got to visit the Old South in Georgia and feel the history of D.C. I got to watch the sun rise over the Atlantic Ocean.

And now, I've been to the famous Pike Place Market and the Space Needle more times than I can count. 

It always makes me feel happy and content to reflect on all the places I've been and things I've done, like I'm moving forward rather than just staying stationary. It's like I'm getting new stamps in my passport of life. 

I've got a ton more exploring to do: San Francisco, Portland, Vancouver, and maybe a cruise somewhere are next on my list. What better way to spend life than exploring different places? 

Experiencing Film & Music at the EMP

I've been to the Experience Music Project (EMP) Museum once before and wanted to go again because of a new exhibit they've got: Fantasy Worlds of Myth and Magic. 

The EMP is nestled right next to the Space Needle and is probably the weirdest looking building around. They host a variety of exhibits as well as concerts by big name bands and artists. 

The two exhibits we checked out were the Fantasy Worlds exhibit and the Women Who Rock exhibit. 

 I remember seeing Lucy Lawless kick butt in this outfit on Xena: Warrior Princess. 

There were costumes from the Wizard of Oz there as well. 

Here's one of my two favorite things about this exhibit: costumes from The Princess Bride. Here we have Inigo Montoya's clothes, Princess Buttercup's wedding gown, and the Dread Pirate Roberts' getup. 

And of course the six-fingered glove!

And then there was David Bowie's costume from Labyrinth! There were also two masks worn during the masquerade scene that was one of my favorites in the film. 

Then we stopped by the Women Who Rock exhibit, which was really interesting. One of the coolest things, and I didn't get a picture, was a fur stole worn by Billie Holiday. 

Great picture of Joan Jett to open the exhibit. 

Here's Lady Gaga's childhood piano on exhibit, which I thought was pretty cool even though I'm not a fan of hers. To me, she's still strong and inspiring even though I don't listen to her music. 

Here's two dresses worn by Seattle natives Ann and Nancy Wilson from Heart. The dress on the right was worn on the cover of RollingStone, also featured. 

On the left, Cherie Currie's jumpsuit and on the right clothing worn by Joan Jett on the cover of I Love Rock n Roll, pretty awesome!

Something interesting to note: Joan Jett's jacket had a bunch of pins about women's rights on it and I couldn't help thinking that, how sad is it that nearly three decades later we are still having this discussion on women's rights? 

Anyways.

Pat Benatar's tiny tiny dress! 

Siouxsie Sioux's fur coat... 

Chrissie Hynde...

Gwen Stefani... 

It was pretty interesting to see these bits of history on display! Though... I feel like the absence of Shirley Manson of Garbage and Alanis Morrisette was a huge gaping hole in the exhibit. Weird. 

P.S. 

TOMORROW I will be able to announce the logo we have chosen for our bakery truck venture, Bake My Day. SOOOOO excited!!