i didn't take a ton of pictures because i was in between cameras. these are all taken with my sister's iPod touch. the camera is actually pretty decent.
we ended up driving down to the bay area this year to visit family. one of my sisters flew in from utah but my other sister stayed in hawaii. there were only three of us girls in the car so the drive was easy and quick.
it was so nice to stay at my aunt and uncle's house and not have to worry about hotels and meals. my aunt even made vegetarian chili and lasagna! i felt so welcome and it was fun to see everyone.
i was so excited to be able to sight-see in san francisco. i made a list of things to see, including the painted ladies (houses on full house), alcatraz, the golden gate bridge, coit tower, union square, and ghirardelli square. we didn't end up going to alcatraz because it was really expensive and super cold. definitely our first stop next time, though.
the painted ladies were beautiful, but shorter and wider than i had remembered from full house. the years have been tough on them. just kidding, they were great.
nearly all of my pictures are of the buildings. everything was so whimsical and painted lots of colors. love it.
these were mosaics on some random street. they were amazing.
this mural was a block long and divided into different sections. we were driving so i didn't get great pictures, but you get the idea.
i went to the foremost expert on san francisco, jordan ferney of oh happy day! to find some restaurant recommendations. we ended up going to tartine bakery where we had delicious croissants, something called a gougere [gruyere cheese and pepper] and
hot chocolate. since it was really busy and they only had three tables, we walked down the street to another recommended restaurant, pizzeria delfina. we had to wait forever but the food was amazing. my mom especially loved her beet salad while i enjoyed the pizza with tomatoes, cream, and basil. our table was on the sidewalk so we did a little people watching while we ate.
we did a little exploring while we were waiting for lunch and stumbled across this gem of a store, the apartment. it was something of an antiques store, with furniture, records, vintage children's toys, and magazines from the 50s and 60s. the coolest part was their collection of used postcards. we browsed through boxes and boxes of postcards, reading the little messages on the back. my sister found ones from the 1910s! some of the postcards were funny, some were romantic, and some were poignant and heartbreaking. it was so fun to imagine what these people were like and made me want to write little notes like that more often.
this was a bookcase full of old encyclopedia brittanicas.
close up of the encyclopedias. [encyclopaedias, to be exact.]
vintage typewriter.
even older typewriter. this one was huge!
closeup of the keys.
we passed this art store on the way back that had one of those models sticking out of the side. i wanted to climb up and move it into fun positions. definitely need to get one of those for my desk.
we also went to britex fabrics, recommended by diana. what an amazing store! four floors of fabrics, ribbons, buttons, and more! i didn't take any pictures, but if you click on diana's link, you'll get an idea of just how much stuff there was. i loved how everything was arranged by color. it was fun to see what everyone was buying in the store and thinking that there were probably past and future project runway people there!
we drove to ghirardelli square and bought chocolate bars and really really good hot chocolate. that was probably my favorite place we went because it was dark by that time and everything was all lit up and so pretty. you could look across the bay and see alcatraz and the bridges. i loved it. and of course i didn't get any pictures.
i loved san francisco and can't wait to go back.
