Monday, January 16, 2012

I’m now in Oakland, California.  I’m staying with my cousin, Suzy.  Saturday, we drove into San Francisco and had clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls down at Fisherman’s Wharf.  That’s kind of the thing to do whenever you go to San Francisco, in my opinion.   It’s certainly colder here than in Hawaii, but it was a sunny day and it was fun to just sit outside at the wharf and eat/visit.

                          Where we bought our clam chowder at the Wharf.

                Suzy and me with our bread bowls full of yummy clam chowder.
     
                       
After lunch, I did a little shopping and browsing at Ghirardelli Square, The Cannery, dropped by Hyde Park Pier; then we drove over to Fort Point, which is under the Golden Gate Bridge, by Coit Tower, and down Lombard Street.  I’ve been to San Francisco several times, and it never loses its charm or ambience.  I was sad to learn, though, that the sea lions that have always frequented Pier 39 near the Wharf all left in 2009 after being there for twenty years.  Apparently, they have recently returned, but there weren’t any there when we were there.  They are always so fun to watch.





The Wharf near Pier 39 where the sea lions have been for 20 years.

   Ghirardelli Square where there are some fun shops and LOTS of Ghirardelli chocolate!

                           Hyde Park Pier.

Fort Point is the brick structure just under the arch at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge.  This was used to protect the city.

 I just had to throw this one in... It reminded me of Kenya.  Can you read the sign for the name of the cafe?  It's called the Tuk Tuk Thai Cafe, and there's a little picture of a tuktuk just like I rode many times in Kenya.  Ah, memories surfacing already...

 Lombard Street at night.  It's very steep and zigzags back and forth from the top to the bottom.

I really wanted crab or at least some seafood here.  (You just can't be by the ocean and not eat some good seafood!)  Suzy and I ended up cooking crab-stuffed salmon and shrimp cocktail for dinner.  It turned out great and was as good as anything we could have gotten in a nice restaurant (if I do say so myself – LOL).

Later in the day on Sunday, after church and the weather improved, we drove back into San Francisco.  We drove up to the Marin Headlands just over the Golden Gate Bridge and north of San Fran up along the coastline.  Wow!  What a view!  My pictures don’t do it justice, but I hope you can get a little feel of how gorgeous it was.  We also tried Lombard Street again because it was really too dark to see it well on Sat. night.

 Lombard Street in the daylight.  Each turn is only a couple of car-lengths long.  It's really a funky little road.

                             On the Golden Gate Bridge.

 Suzy and me on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge.  It was very windy and very cold.

On our way to the Marin Headlands.  What a view!!!

 If you watched the "Bachelor" on TV tonight, this is exactly the view they panned in on.  It was rather fun to be right here where they filmed tonight's episode.

 Coming down the backside of the mountain toward the ocean.  It's a gorgeous view, but the sun was getting low and it was still a little hazy.  Nonetheless, it was breathtaking and beautiful.  This road is much steeper than it looks.

 They had some pretty good-sized waves at the beach once we reached the bottom, but they were nothing compared to Hawaii's.

 There's no reason to put this one in other than that I thought it was a very funny sign... I'm not sure if they are more concerned with the pedestrians or the frogs... Hmmm...

 If you've never been to San Francisco before, I thought you'd be interested in these photos.  All their houses are connected like this.  They have very little footage in front, they are usually about 3 stories high, and they are EXTREMELY expensive - like at least $1,000,000!!!  I'm not kidding!

Chuck, Suzy’s dear friend, cooked us chicken and dumplings – Kentucky style and round bread.  He worked really hard, and dinner was wonderful.

I haven’t seen Suzy for well over ten years, so it has been so much fun just to visit with her again!  I’m grateful to have been able to be here with her and Chuck.  They have been so gracious and accommodating.

Tomorrow, I’m going to the Oakland Temple in the morning, and getting ready to head home after all these months.  It’s been an amazing experience.  I will probably do one more blog entry after I get home, so check in one more time.  I’ve got a lot to say about this whole life-changing event that I’d like to share with you.  Hope to see you again.

On our way to dinner tonight, we stopped by the Oakland Temple.  As all of our temples seem to be at night, it was beautiful.

Well, after 34 different airport arrivals and departures, I'll be on my last plane ride tomorrow for a few more months.  I certainly WON'T miss the airport experiences!!!!!

Talk to you soon,

Kadi