samantilles_at_lj

I'm still getting over coming home on Sunday... mehness... but I did have some opportunity to really go through my photos and select out a few, (yup, actually just a few--I have an itchy trigger finger when it comes to a camera...) to share. We left off my narrative on Thursday night from the previous post, How I spent my birthday, or Damn Woolsey and the City Cloak, where I went to Fisherman's Wharf and San Jose. Well, friday, I had the opportunity to sleep in. Did I? of course not!! I was up at the crack of dawn. The friend I was staying with though was only working a half day, so I laid low rather than start something I might have to backtrack for later. So I relaxed, wrote up a post, and most of all, went grocery shopping. It was strange to see the exact same supermarket chain I go to set up so differently, let alone the different types of produce we just don't have out here on the east coast. It was interesting to have to guess what my housemate might like, as I didn't get a shopping list from her to begin with--I only knew what she already had in her place.
Anyways, by the time it was all set and done, we didn't even get out of the house till about three thirty. So, we nixed plans to shop around and went straight to the beach. I only had three goals in San Francsico:
1. Drive the Golden Gate Bridge Completed Thursday!!
2. See the sunset over the Pacific Ocean Check.
3. See ancient giant Sequoias (or Redwoods).

So we took a nice long windy road through the hilly peninsula to Half Moon Bay. We spent just shy of two hours out on the beach while it got progressively colder (and I of course forgot to bring a sweater or anything!) watching the sunset.

( Onto the Beach we go!! )

(oh, hey, the story isn't done yet!! I forgot!! So, it got dark, we nearly killed ourselves on windy hilly roads (though not nearly to the extent we did on Saturday) and made our way to Hwy 101, which is according to Phantom Planet and its song "California" (Think the O.C. Main theme people) its one of the biggest highways on the coastline (and we sooo totally listened to that song on single repeat the entire time) and made our way to downtown San Francisco. We did Chinatown by night and dined at the oldest Chinese restaurant in San Francisco, the Four Seas. Then we stopped in one of the cheesiest discount Chinese store in the area and had a blast looking around. It was very difficult for me not to walk home with Han Solo, Greedo, and Princess Leia bobbleheads (not to mention they did have Boba Fett!!) If they had Luke, Obi Wan, or Wedge Antilles, I wouldn't have been able to resist. I ended up with a cute over the shoulder teal purse thingie (half messenger bag, half purse) and a whole bunch of coin purses that fit respectively my iPhone, my camera, credit cards and a thick wad of cash (which thankfully, for all those of you who might think of coming and mugging me, is safely back in the bank, even if it was only singles...) We came back to the apartment and crashed within minutes, getting ready for our trip to Yosemite on Saturday (those pictures will be in another post in a couple of days!)

So, what was supposed to be a six hour trip to San Francisco became over ten hours when our plane was delayed approximately four hours while sitting in line to de-ice the plane.  Apparently the plane in front of us just wouldn't de-ice for anything.  The runways were clear, but they were severely short of de-icing crews for United.  It was not pretty...  I should have arrived in San Francisco approximately 11ish in the morning, but it was 4pm before I left the airport with my rental car and on the way.  But, between naps when I could grab them, I did take a few pics out the window of the plane to some really pretty mountains--I assume they are respectively the Rockies and the Sierra Nevadas, although I really avoided knowing what time everything was on the plane, and couldn't tell you which ones they were!  The bottom is a picture of the de-icer as she sprayed steaming hot pinkish goo to de-ice the plane...

( The pictures!! )