San Francisco

Wow, I know I am getting a blog fan club when people start asking me why I haven't written in a week!

So what if those people are my mom and boyfriend... who already know every little detail of my everyday life. Let a girl live, ok?! Just let me feel as loved as Pioneer Woman for at least one day, ok?!

Ok.

I promised pictures of San Francisco awhile back, and I have been very bad about actually following up on that.. and since then and now, I have made another trip to a beachy destination, Santa Cruz. Pictures of that trip will be posted in about a year or two.

Let the picture festivities begin!!!!

Ok, these are from our day trip to San Francisco two weekends ago. We had a beautiful drive from Oakdale to Dublin where we were parking the truck to take the BART to downtown San Francisco. This is a shot of the windmills as we were driving over Altamont Pass.

 I had to supervise Texas and make sure he put in the right amount of money for the BART ride. BART is a subway-esque train that makes it easy for people to avoid the traffic when traveling from the valley to the bay area. Texas was not pleased when I informed him we would be traveling underwater, under the Bay, in order to get to San Francisco. Fortunately, we were already on the BART, and there was no turning back! Muahaha!





Over the hills, under the water, and through the traffic, we arrived safe and sound in San Francisco! I think Texas thought I was kidding when we hopped off the BART at the Embarcadero Street exit. We were basically underground in a black hole. I told him to prepare for what we were about to see as we crawled up the stairs into... the big city! Is it just me, or is "I just took a huge sigh of relief" written all over this mans face??

I think Texas was a little bit confused about this whole BART thing... how we started the BART trip in the valley, above ground... and somehow, I conned him into buying this ticket from an ATM looking machine to go underground, underwater, with a bunch of strange people... and we ended up crawling out from this underground cave thingy finding ourselves on a city street surrounded by skyscrapers. Immediately, Texas pulls out this new technology thing you may have heard of - his Iphone. He used his map application to find out where we were in relation to the Bay.

We found out that we were about 2 miles away from the water, so we started our trek!

Someone looks like they are enjoying California a bit too much...

About 30 minutes and 100 degrees later, we found water!!! 

About the temperature... I told Texas that San Francisco was usually cloudy or overcast and breezy. Well, guess what!! We had the pleasure of visiting San Fran on one of the hottest days in history! Too bad he dressed for 55 degrees, and it ended up being 75+ degrees... which is why all of our pictures look like this:

Texas was a little bit sweaty in his long sleeve shirt and black felt cowboy hat. Alas, we continued on with our adventure despite the fact that my cowboy was melting away.

We discovered that if we wanted to go to the Aquarium on the Pier, we would both get discounts!! Ha...

We decided to skip the aquarium on this trip and continue on to our first destination of interest.. BUBBA GUMPS!!! Of course, I had to take the touristy picture of Texas on Forrest's bench..

After taking approximately a zillion photos, we made it inside to get our fill of seafood and beer. 

We actually ended up only getting our fill of beer because the food there costs waaaaay too much! We split a shrimp entree, got our tall beers in our souvenir glasses and enjoyed the view out the window.

After we finished lunch, we took a walk around Pier 39, checked out the shops, and looked at Alcatraz from afar. Alcatraz is an old prison that used to house the meanest criminals in the nation. Fortunately for Texas, the prison is no longer in use and is just a tourist attraction.

Update on Texas sweating his Wrangler Butt off:

I think he was wishing he was one of these sea lions.

Ok, onward from the sweaty pictures. We hit the Krazy Kaps shop where I was disappointed to find they do not have the selection they once had. However, I did find a cute "cowboy hat" to wear, so Texas wasn't the only person in San Fran dressed like a cowboy.

But then, we found these hats. I think California has finally taken its toll on Texas. I have summoned him to watching nothing but Lonesome Dove for the next month to get his head back on straight.

Make that two months of Lonesome Dove.

Minus the fact that my Texas boyfriend turned all California on me in less than three hours, it was a beautiful day to take a trip to the ocean.

Ooo! Oooo!! Here's a really fun game. It's called, "Where's the guy from Texas?" 

Seriously, he stuck out like a sore thumb. We walked by this guy selling t-shirts of San Francisco, and Texas replied with a "no thanks" when he was solicited. The guy responded with a "HEY c'mon, you're from TEXAS!"

Called out.

After we were done at the Pier, we started to head back toward the BART station. During our walk back up one of the treacherous hills San Fran is known for, we started to notice a trend...

Signs were starting to have weird lettering on them. I think it's called... Chinese??

We were headed straight through Chinatown. Now, not only was Texas the only cowboy hat wearing individual within 50 miles, but he was also the tallest by about 3 feet.

We started to get weird looks...

...so I snapped a quick shot of Texas in Chinatown, and we got outta there in a flash!!

Quite literally, we made it out of Chinatown in a flash. Here is Texas, sweating again.

I left my heart in San Francisco.

Just kidding. It came back with me. I love San Fran and all, but I am a country girl through and through. Texas and I were soooo happy to make it back home that night to our doggies and to our little house on the prairie. Err, on the farm.