San Francisco balloon statues?

I barely remembered in time that I took these two pictures on our trip to San Francisco last June. Although they looked like balloons, they were made of plaster.


And here is picture of son DC and his wife AA in San Francisco:

They are not visiting this weekend, but will come in two more weeks. It's nice to know that DC looks at my blog; he emailed me this picture after seeing the original post.

San Francisco Photos

View of Union Square from our hotel room

Our only San Francisco picture of both of us.
This was taken behind the Ferry Terminal
with the Oakland Bay Bridge in the background

The following pictures are from our long walk along Broadway from Van Ness and eventually to Clement Street

Jan in front of Thidwick Books, which has wonderful cards.

Green Apple Books

Trees along Broadway in SF

I took these pictures of trees and twisted trunks while CB and I walked along Broadway on Friday in San Francisco. I love trees.

LINKS to where we went on our San Francisco trip!

We got home this afternoon from our whirlwind and very busy three days and nights in San Francisco. Although I've downloaded my pictures, I have to rename each one and don't have the time to pick and choose to post any right now. That will be tomorrow.

So I decided to put some of the highlights here:

Getting $11 day passes to ride public transit in San Francisco was one of the best ideas we had. Both Thursday and Friday, we rode cable cars, street cars, and city buses to get to all the places we wanted to visit.

On Thursday morning we ate at the Crepevine Restaurant, which was one of our best meals of all. There are about about four of these restaurants in the SF area, and they are well worth a visit.

Mission Dolores is the oldest intact building in the City of San Francisco and the only intact Mission Chapel in the chain of 21 established under the direction of Father Serra. We walked there from the Crepevine Restaurant and were blessed and amazed by the mission. Its painted interior and ceiling reminded me of the Painted Churches around Schulenberg, TX.
We had lunch at the Ferry Building Marketplace and saw views of the bay and the Oakland Bay Bridge and then took a cable car back to Chinatown, where we had had our first dinner on Wednesday night. In a wonderful tea shop (Red Blossom Tea Company), I bought two different kinds of white tea: Silver Needle and Silver Peony. I am very excited about getting this tea and that I can order from the company online.
First Crush Restaurant was the restaurant we went to on Thursday night, which was a popular place for young people. It was conveniently located to our hotel, as it was only three blocks away. The food was excellent, especially the scallops, and the entire meal was a gourmet feast.

Friday we ate near the hotel again (and I had pumpkin crepes) and then took a cable car up, up the hills to Broadway and walked to Van Ness to start a long walk that ended up next to the edge of The Presidio and Park and the Richmond area. At each intersection along the way, we saw gorgeous views of the bay and glimpses of the Golden Gate Bridge in the fog out there.

I found wonderful cards at a little book store on Clement Street called Thidwick Books, where the talkative owner recommended someplace for lunch and the location of Green Apple Books, which I'd read about on the internet. I'm a "cardophile," if such a thing exists, and bought over 20 cards at that quaint shop. I'd go back if I could frequently for the cards I love to send people.

I had too little time and also was tired from our long walk and so saw very little of Green Apple Books, which winds up and around with books galore. It reminded me of Powell's Books of Portland on a somewhat smaller scale. It is a wonderful place with new and used books. Lots of recommendations and referrals with signs and funny sayings. What a place!
We finally got back to the hotel at 3 o'clock in the afternoon and collapsed on our beds for awhile. But this being our last day in San Francisco, we ventured out to find Gumps because my mother loved this store and ordered gifts for us for our various anniversaries through the ages. (I tried on a pair of jade earrings there and the sales associate commented on how lovely they were with my "blonde" hair--in a less elegant store, I'd have been acknowledged to have "white" hair.) And then we took a cable car to Ghirardelli Square, just to ride a cable car for the last time.

Took a bus back downtown but had to walk and walk again to get to Tadich Grill in the financial district. We'd gone there on Christmas Eve day on our honeymoon. I had a dungeness crab cocktail and broiled halibut, some of my favorite fish. What a great meal to end our SF trip.

Mystery Trip!

As I pondered our May 27 Anniversary Surprise, I wondered and hoped that we might be going to San Francisco, where we went on our honeymoon. AND WE ARE!!

Yesterday CB presented me with two travel books about San Francisco to alert me to our trip's destination. He had kept it a secret for months, and our children also did not tell. We are going on a whirlwind trip there, much like our quick honeymoon before Christmas 1971.

We are even staying in the same hotel--the Saint Francis, which my mother had told me about from her days as a Marine in WWII.
We are leaving early this morning and will be returning on Saturday.

(And please remember to keep Dennis in your prayers.)