I cannot believe it has been over a week since I have returned from San Francisco already! Where does time go? Well, anyways I am finally able to sit and write about my fun little weekend.

The only way I can explain San Francisco is picturesque. It just somehow felt like you were peeking into a postcard here with all the pastel coloured homes perched on hills with cute little doors and porches. I've seen the pictures and movies with the Golden Gate Bridge, looking so vividly red against the ocean and always wondered how much photoshop was added. The funny thing was, thats not the case. The Golden Gate bridge was brilliant. It was so massive and it did truly "pop" against the ocean just like I had seen in pictures. During my breif 3 day visit, it seemed like everywhere I looked, the cities colours were endulging my eyes.

We first adventured to the Coit tower on Telegraph hill. The hike up the hill I'll admit gets your heart rate going a bit, but the view and the walk itself is well worth the effort. From here, you can see the Bay Bridge and Alcatraz. You can actually go up the Coit Tower for $10, but as we are travellers on a budget, we stood up on a high post and snapped pictures instead.

After the Coit Tower, we walked down to Fisherman's warf which only took about 20 minutes or so. I enjoyed walking around the wharfs and exploring the less touristy end. The so called "must see" Pier 39 was, I will say....unpleasant. I believe we spent all of 20 minutes there before escaping from the crowds. Pier 39 consisted of tacky tourist shops with "authentic" goods (Somehow I doubt this), and massive crowds all standing aimlessly around.

Further down from Pier 39, the crowds die down a bit and you can stop and look at a massive submarine they have on a display along with a fun museum filled with antique wartime arcade games (FREE). We asked a local where he would eat some chowder and he suggested a place called Boudin's. It was a basic concession style restaurant with pretty good chowder (not chunky enough for me), served in a fresh sourdough bowl for around $8.

After filling up, we walked to Lombard street (as pictured above). My first thought was, "Who in their right mind would even think to build a street like this?" The way it zig zagged vertically down the hill made me cringe as I watched cars slowly make their way down. It is definitly a sight to see when in San Francisco. On our way back to the hotel, we caught a trolly! It was so fun to hang off the side with no buckles orrestraints, and the crsip air felt wonderful as we flew up and down the rolling streets.

Later that night we went to Alcatraz and got to explore the cells and grounds of the world known prison. It was amazing! The audio tour which I was hesitant at first about, turned out to be fantastic and the actual guides we had for the Escapes portion of the tour were great too. We got to see the cells, the kitchen, library, showers, the Hole, and where families actually lived on the island. For $60, the tour was well worth the money and was the highlight of my trip.

The following day we rented bikes from Bike and Roll for a easy price of $28 for the day. We rode to the Golden Gate Bridge and back, stopping for amazing crab on the way home. The Golden Gate Bridge was amazing (and windy), and the sights below of the ocean and coastline were beautiful. You could actually continue on up the hill and explore Bonita Point or to Muir Woods, but we looked at the massive climb and distance to get there and thought it was not a good venture for the day.

On our last day, we visited The California Academy of Science centre. It was also very fun and educational and the displays were fantastic. They had tons of marine animals, a gigantic rainforest you could walk through, a planatarium, and the living roof. For a little over $20 it was a fun way to spend 3 hours or so in San Francisco.

Overall, my experience in San Francisco was great. The people were kind, the sites beautiful, and the food was tasty. I would definitly recommend spending a weekend here if you get the chance to.