Ghirardelli Square

One of the things we did while in SF was explore Ghirardelli Square. We were expecting a tour of a grand chocolate factory, you know something along the lines of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Turns out it's a bunch of cool shops and restaurants in Ghirardelli's old buildings. Still pretty cool though. We did get to see the cool buildings, got a free chocolate sample, and got to see some of their machines for making the chocolate. Here are some Pfotos from the Ghirardelli adventure: 

San Francisco

While we were in San Francisco we had some time in between meeting with friends and different activities we had wanted to do to just drive around and take in the sites. The pictures below are some of our shots from these adventures. All over San Francisco there are some great views and cool things. Some of the things we explored were: a windmill in golden gate park, Lombard street, and some awesome views.  

The view from the top of Lombard street

Driving down Lombard street

Ghirardelli clock tower

Looking up Hyde street

View of Alcatraz

Alcatraz

Cool windmill in GG Park 

Alex taking a stab at climbing the windmill

Hiding out in the windmill 

Golden Gate Bridge

Any trip to San Francisco should include the Golden Gate Bridge; if you choose not to cross it there is no way to avoid seeing it.  Well, I suppose you could be treated to San Fran fog and get to see nothing.  I know that the Golden Gate Bridge is seen as one of California's great landmarks, but I never appreciated how iconic it was until this trip.  The bridge is the prominent feature of the area; while this post is focused on when we hiked it, other posts will include shots that feature the great red suspension bridge.  Although the bay bridge is longer, it does not compare to the Golden Gate.  It can be seen from all over the central bay - San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley.  No matter how far away we were, the Golden Gate Bridge always seemed larger than life.

We elected to hike across it- I say hike, not walk, because it is over 1.5 miles long or more than 3 to go across and back.  Hiking the bridge provided a much better pfoto taking experience as well.  We also got unbelievably lucky with the weather; the skies were blue with dotted clouds while across the bay in Berkeley/Oakland it was raining.  Below are pictures of the bridge and from the bridge.

A picture before the hike after we parked with GG in the background. 

A Bumblebee hanging out on flowers at the beginning of the bridge.

A look up on e of the main cables.

A shot of the arch support.

During the hike along the bridge, taken between the towers.

View straight up the second tower.

Elise taking in the city view.

A shot back towards where we started.

We took the tripod along the hike, I think this was the only shot we used it for
(the camera/tripod almost fell down in the wind).

Elise got a nice shot of the sun shining down on the bridge towards the end of the hike out.

San Francisco Trip

This weekend Elise and I are visiting friends in the San Francisco Bay area.  Over the next few days we will posts our different adventures around the bay.  Upon arriving in the city we drove by the civic center.  After finding parking and walking ten blocks we were able to get a few shots in the fading daylight under heavy clouds. (Minutes later it started pouring; the walk back to the car was very wet.)

Easter Treats

For Easter my sister and I made a cupcake cake for dessert. Below are some shots of our cupcake cake. It was Jessie's idea to make the frosting look like grass, we added peeps and jelly beans to make it festive with Easter treats!

They were yummy!