Anniversary Trip - San Fran

To celebrate one year, (well, really b/c anything should be an excuse to travel...) Tyler and I went to SF for a long weekend.

HIGHLIGHTS

- Within hours of getting there, we were outside Boudin and a dude was throwing baguettes into the street and I CAUGHT one! I never catch anything!! Especially under pressure. But then again, it's never been free food...

- PERFECT sunset on the Golden Gate Bridge. Sure it was preceded by me forcing Tyler to run across one way and promising we'd take the bus back. But alas, no bus in sight on the other side of the bridge so as fate would have it, we had to walk back. Turned out to be my very favorite moment and the whole way back I was just thinking of the reasons I was glad to be married to Tyler Pond. Even if he was cursing my name. ;)

- 5-story record shop we found for Tyler. He was in heaven. And I did a little indulging myself, investing in my fav Amy Grant Christmas album for a mere dollar! And other goodies like a collection of fab 1997 radio songs. Tyler found lots too. We've already watched Iron Maiden: The Early Years since being back. Pic below is view from the third floor:

- The Sheraton we stayed at the first 3 nights. Got it through Hotwire so it was a good price. They had about 1,000 pillows on the bed and the decor Tyler kept saying was straight out of "That Thing You Do." He was totally diggin it. Oh, and perfect shot of the NY's Eve fireworks from our room. Sweet!

- Buster's Philly Cheesesteaks. Tyler said it was the best he'd tasted outside Philly, plus it was a welcomed relief from all the little trendy/$ restaurants we kept running into. Just down-home and greasy!

- The last night there we downloaded a baby name app and started going through boy names. (Mostly cause Tyler gets more excited about the boy ones). Had a few good laughs over the "unisex" names listed like Isabella.

Isabella Michael Pond??


LOWLIGHTS

- Broke my flip flop while out on the town. Yes, this is the second time now (at least) while traveling in a big, dirty city that I have irreparably damaged my footwear to the point of having to forge ahead half-barefoot through the dirty streets and public transit. Yum. Didn't probably help my image since Tyler was already telling me the whole trip that I looked homeless. But hey, less likely to get mugged, right?

- Our "splurge" anniversary night at a steak place. WARNING: Always read the Yelp reviews, no matter how fancy the place sounds on paper. Esp if it's half-empty at 7pm on New Year's Eve. We had a less than mediocre meal for more than we'd ever care to pay. However, it was so bad that at least we got a few laughs out of the deal and later got to wash it down with a Ghirardelli brownie sundae. Oh, and the manager gave us a whopping $2.50 off our meal. Thanks, buddy.

- Did I mention Alcatraz was sold out for the weekend? And did I mention that was one of the main purposes of our trip??

- Getting sucked into a candy shop in Sausilito called Munchies. It looked so quaint! Came out 4 mins, $10, and about 5 small pieces of candy later. Hmph.

- In attempts to get to our last hotel "close" to the airport, we ended up having to walk through almost a mile of total hood from the nearest bus stop. Yes, with all our bags. Although let's be honest, a long tough walk and risking getting killed to save the price of a taxi - this may have secretly been a highlight for one of us.

Are those pillows or chicklets? (To put this to scale, that's on a double bed).

- We both got sick. :( Spent our whole post-vacation week sneezing and snotting and watching reruns of Wonder Years.

All in all, awesome time!

And a special thanks to Hannah Pond for providing Tyler with the iPhone camera lenses that contributed to 90% of our pics on the trip.