tuesday
june 30, 2009
day 4

after breakfast at our hotel we headed down to the piers to do check out some of the shops and the wax museum. after the wax museum we went for lunch and walked around and shopped for the rest of the afternoon. we headed to rain forest cafe for supper and then back to the hotel by bus...buuuut it was a longer trip than anticipated. the bus was really full and i darcy and i couldn't sit beside each other, i thought darcy was paying attention to street signs and he thought i was. by the time we made eye contact and asked each other when we needed to get off we were over 10 blocks from where we needed to get off! normally this wouldn't be so bad, but we had been walking all. day. long. plus now we had all our shopping bags to carry. needless to say it was nice to kick off our shoes and relax for the evening!

the royal family

michael jackson memorial

fidel castro

cleopatra VII, marie antoinette
and others who i don't know

the pope

the last supper

sermon on the mount

the electric chair, it was sort of scary
i screamed!

sports hall of fame

wednesday
july 1, 2009
day 5
HAPPY CANADA DAY!

we headed down to the piers again to do some more shopping. we stopped for coffee and lunch at a neat bakery place. we went to fisherman's wharf on pier 39. they had even more shops, restaurants, and there was lots to see and do. we went to the worst magic show ever! it was definitely lacking magic, more just entertaining for kids. thankfully it wasn't very long! after the horrible magic show we walked down to pier 33 where the ferry departed to go to alcatraz. we took the audio tour of the prison and it was awesome! there was so much to learn and a lot to see. after the tour you were free to walk around as you please. there were movies you could go watch and gift shops you could get 'prison' gear from. darcy ended up getting a really nice jacket, but i drew the line at prison cup and food tray...useless! we were on the island for about an hour and a half just walking around and exploring. this was for sure the biggest highlight of the trip. darcy has wanted to go to alcatraz since forever and his wish finally came true. we went to hard rock cafe for supper. it was so good. best fajitas i've ever had! we stopped for gelato at a place close to our hotel, and then started to pack up for our way home!

waiting for the magic show to start
the sea lions

modern day mary poppins

san francisco from the ferry

the morgue

the water tower was HUGE
'check in'

3 levels high. the bottom level here is
for the really bad prisoners, they were
put in a cell with no light for days.
some of the most famous inmates

a typical cell


the wardens house just outside the jail

the 'good' inmates could paint and
listen to the radio
the gun gallery, the guards could never
have guns or keys on the floor with them.

a break out attempt

the kitchen, every knife was outlined
to make sure they wouldn't go missing

thursday
july 2, 2009
day 6

we checked out in the morning and then went to the golden gate bridge. meh. it was nice but i don't get what all the hoopla is about. we also went to fort point (without knowing what it was at the time.) fort point, lime point, and alcatraz formed a triangle and were california's protection against invaders during the gold rush. we left san francisco and headed to sacramento to stay for a night. along the way we saw some outlet shopping so we stopped to shop and for lunch. after melting from the heat, buying shoes, some kitchen stuff, soaps from bath & body, and clothes for d we were on our way again. we found an ikea in sacramento and spent a lot of time there. i love ikea. we found a hotel and tried to find a tgi friday's. we programmed it into the gps and were on our way. it ended up taking us to a red lobster, which was fine by me but darcy dislikes seafood. a lot. but seeing as i didn't get to eat my crab on the ocean he said that he'd take me. awwww. we went back to the hotel and enjoyed the outdoor hot tub (and i enjoyed the pool too.)

some of our finds in san francisco
the rest of our finds

cables for the buses

underneath the the golden gate bridge

friday
july 3, 2009
day 7

we started on our way home today : (. we shopped for a bit at target before we got on our way. we didn't make it very far before we stopped for breakfast. we drove aaaaaall day,and saw some pre 4th of july fireworks while we were driving and then stopped to sleep at 12.30am. it was a little hick town, it was a little scary but we were both really tired.

saturday
july 4, 2009
day 8

i took a whole gravel for night. i was only planning on taking half, but decided i wanted a really good night sleep. i woke up at 5.30am and we started driving, i quickly fell back asleep and at 8 we stopped for gas and breakfast. i could hardly keep my eyes open and at 8.30 my eyes were again closed until 10am. apparently the gravel knocked me out longer than i had anticipated. but i did have a really good sleep! finally being awake enough, i could drive so darcy could sleep. we stopped a few more times along the way and in fargo stopped at kholes to find some wedding shoes and shirts for darcy. he for sure bought more clothes on this trip. how sad!? in grand forks we stopped for ice cream, fireworks and coffee. we saw a lot of fire works in all the little towns as we headed to the boarder. a few questions at the boarder and we were back in canada, and surprised by the 110km speed limit! we got back to the apartment at around 12.30am. we unpacked just a little and then headed to bed for some much needed sleep! it was wonderful to get away and not think about life, school (except for the one phone call i got from school in cali) or anything but what we wanted to do that day. it was so relaxing having no schedule to follow.