San Francisco (Part 1)

This past week, Steph and I had the privilege of visiting San Francisco for our spring break. While I have been several times throughout the years, it was Steph's first visit and I was really excited for her to see the city. I was also excited because I have several good friends who live there, who I haven't seen for a long time.

We left on Saturday morning and flew into Oakland. From Oakland, we took BART into the city.


Whitney picked us up at the airport where I got to meet this guy for the first time:

Jones is just plain awesome. I really fell in love with this kid over the week -- he is really fun, and not a total chump like his dad.

After eating some great pizza at a pizza place on Noriega, Scott took Steph and I took a bus to Haight street. The Haight is the stoner section of San Francisco as evidenced by this house, which once belonged to the Grateful Dead:

Almost everything on the street smells like pot, and strange architectural features like legs hanging out windows are completely normal:


One of my favorite places on the street was this little shop, Loved to Death, that sells taxidermied animals:

I was going to buy a buck head to mount on the wall, but decided that it wouldn't fit into our carry on baggage.

The next day we went to church with Scott and Whitney. Scott's ward is chucked full of other San Francisco friends including Tim and Betsy & Steve. Sunday was one of the only nice days weather wise. Considering this, Steph and I took a walk down to the beach after church. Scott & Whitney's place is just a few blocks from the beach.


Later in the evening, we had a little Indian/Thai potluck with Tim and his brother. After Dinner, we ditched Jones with the roommates and took a drive up the coast to the Marin Headlands.

Tim was dressed appropriately for San Francisco as he looked a bit like a beat poet:


The headlands have an amazing view of the city and the Golden Gate Bridge:


The Boys:
The Girls:

At the top of the Headlands were some cool WWII bunkers. Tim decided to jump into one -- little did he know that the bunker would point out his Man Freckles.


More to come...