bay city honeymoon, part I

josh and i have dreams of all kinds of vacations in our future. the first one to check off our list is a US roadtrip - either east or west, it's still very much up in the air. we take plenty of weekend roadtrips in the summer to state parks around MN but our first trip together was our honeymoon to san francisco. we had great weather and i am so happy we took the time and money out of our limited budget to take a fun honeymoon. we rented a condo just off fillmore street in the pacific heights neighborhood of the city. this was a great idea for many reasons: 1) it allowed us to buy groceries and nixed the need of having to eat out for every meal. we also got to shop at the corner market like true san franciscans, which leads to the next pro of renting a condo 2) we got to pretend we weren't tourists, which is always fun 3) we got to see non-touristy parts of the city by renting 4) it was relaxing to have an actual apartment to live out of in our time there, rather than a hotel room.
but being young 21 year olds and inexperienced at city living led to a few things we may try differently on our next vacation. we would definitely try our hand at public transportation on our next trip. the only time we payed for transportation on our honeymoon was on our trip to and from the airport. we did not ride a single cable-car in the city know for cable-cars. sad face:(. between the first cab driver we met freaking out on us and the ride we scheduled for our return trip to the airport being a no-show, we may be more adventurous with transportation next time around.

above - the bay looks so close but as you can see from the pic below it is still far away.

we loved the city and enjoyed trekking around by foot for the 7 days of our stay. ascending the hill on fillmore street and seeing the panorama of the bay from the top was thrilling as we didn't have a map and were trying to find the way on our own. and marveling at the steep hills with vehicles which appeared to be tipping over, as above.

the many sites you see as you wander toward the bay. and our favorite coffee shop on our block - cafe muran - where we got our caramel macchiato every morning (below).

finally reaching the bay and seeing alcatraz (josh has a bachelor's in criminal justice, obviously this was his favorite part of the trip) which we had reserved our tickets for months in advance.

hanging out down at the marina was a fun. my favorite boat was a little old beater aptly named 'the intrinsic'. my only regret i took home from the trip was wishing i took more pictures. the beautiful houses with their diverse architecture across from the marina that had picture perfect views of the bay. the streets we wandered and the food we ate, i wish i had documented that a little more closely. and of course the interesting natives of the city, some that we wandered into multiple times down at fisherman's wharf and the next day at union square.

i loved this city. while we were engaged i told josh about an actual nighttime sleeping dream i had about taking a trip to san francisco, never dreaming we would actually take our honeymoon there. he made it happen and there you have it, our honeymoon was a dream come true. :)

it was also exciting to identify sites in the city from the sets of some of my favorite movies set in san francisco - yours, mine and ours with lucille ball and the princess diaries.

stay tuned for part II.