OGA- Part 3 (The San Francisco Chronicles)

These next group of pictures are of our time in the San Francisco area. We were welcomed to the area very warmly with a dose of bumper to bumper traffic. We found out that we unknowingly took the worst route to get to Derek's Grandpa's house in San Jose where we stayed for the first few days. We didn't use that freeway again for the rest of the trip.
We enjoyed our stay with Grandpa, he was a great host. He had a fabulous meal of Manicotti waiting for us, a hot shower, and a nice comfortable bed (we had been camping prior to coming to his house). He took us to a S.F. Giants game, and to the Monterey Aquarium, and to Carmel-By-the-Sea. (While at Carmel, I randomly saw one of my friends from HS, who also had come down for vacation! It was pretty crazy to see each other there).

We took alot of pictures from the aquarium, but I thought I'd just do this one of the jellyfish. they had a great variety of jellyfish display.

Us with Grandpa Bill at Carmel. Carmel was a very picturesque, and expensive looking place.

The Golden Gate Bridge. As you can see the day was foggy.
It was really windy, and my hair got all tangled and windswept

I like this picture of Derek, and how you can see me taking the picture in his sunglasses. He's starting to grow a beard, also.

All the above pictures are when we were on the waterfront around Pier 39. There was a store called the Sock Market, and was so cool. It was all variety of socks from funky nylons, to toe socks, and ankle socks with all sorts of patterns and colors. I really had curtail myself from spending too much. We saw the sea lions there at Pier 39, and it stank! But it was funny watching them all try to load up on top of each other, and the little arguments they had. And of course Ghirardelli Square where we bought a bunch of chocolate. I was disapointed because I thought it was the factory and we would be able to see the chocolate made. But that's ok, it was still cool.

Starting to get warm and sunny. We're now at the top of Hyde street (Trolley above!) and what a steep walk! We parked our car and walked everywhere we went in the city and my legs were so sore throughout our trip with all our walking. Anyway it was a georgous view. We're on the corner of Hyde and Lombard (ya know, the crookedest street in the world). I thought it was pretty cool and had fun walking down it.

Can you find me? I'm in a plum colored shirt.


I like this one because all the cars on it show just all the switchbacks on the street. There were alot of people on it.

Below are pictures of us in Chinatown. It was a very interesting place. We had such good chinese food at a little hole in the wall place that we found called House of Nanking. I think we may have been the only tourists at it. It wasn't a pretty place, but the food was dang good! One of the other things we did was walk around and window shop all the awesome (but too expensive for us!) shops. One store we did go in though is my absolutely favorite bath and cosmetics shop: Lush. I made a post about it earlier in my blog. Derek is a great guy and lets me spend a bunch of money there whenever we go to a city that has one, since we don't in Spokane. I love Lush!


Us in our cheap sunglasses we bought in chinatown.
I accidentaly stepped on my glasses a few days later. I was bummed about it.
Before we left on our way to Yosemite we ate breakfast at some more family of Derek's: His Aunt Kelly and Uncle Asghar and two sons Yama and Amir. Asghar is an amazing cook and I don't know if I've ever had a better breakfast.

During this trip I got to meet alot of Derek's extended family, some of his Aunts, Uncles, and cousins that I hadn't met yet. We had a big dinner the night before we left at his Grandpa's house which they all came to, and we had a great time. They were very fun, and welcoming, and I'm glad I got to know them better.