We are going where?!?!

Kevin came up with a pretty amazing birthday present this year. I guess all my (not so) subtle hinting that his 30th comes after mine and I have a pretty decent memory worked in my favor. He told me we were going on a vacation, but all he would tell me were the dates we were going to be gone and a general idea of the weather (which could have been 60% of the US). I wasn't even supposed to know if we were driving, flying, taking a train, walking, riding a horse, hitchhiking....you get the idea. I say I wasn't supposed to know, because I did find out the day of because of the reminder emails from airlines to check-in to your flight, but had enough restraint to not dig any deeper. I guess getting old really does mature you because up until now, I have never been known to not ruin a surprise before I was supposed to (ha ha, stop laughing Mom). I didn't know until we got to the gate that we were headed to San Francisco! On the flight, I found out our trip included a bike tour, Napa Valley, Alcatraz, a Giants game, along with a few other sightseeing stops along the way.

 

When we got to San Fran, we took a group shuttle to our hotel. Even though it was a long day and we were not on California time yet, we decided to walk around and check out the local scenery. We ended up at a local bar, which happened to be a Bengals hangout on Sundays. Small world, huh. We didn't stay too long since we had a packed day ahead of us.

After first admiring the gorgeous view from our hotel balcony, we started the day off bright and early with a Starbucks latte in hand for a nice stroll along the bay. As tired as we were, I am so happy we did this. There were no tourists in sight and we were able to enjoy the scenery without anyone else around (as well as take some Pinterest inspired shadow pictures).

Next up was a bike tour through the streets of San Francisco, over the Golden Gate Bridge and into Sausalito. We took a million pictures along the way (some even while peddling, you could say I am quite the dare devil), but I will spare you and only show some of the best shots. I would highly recommend touring the bridge this way. We got to see it from far away, and watch as we got closer and closer and it just got more beautiful and magnificent the more we peddled. It's weird to think that a bridge could be so beautiful, but I was just in awe the whole time.

That is, until we got onto it and had to dodge all types of tourists! There is a bike path and a pedestrian path, but clearly the pedestrians didn't seem to think they needed to stay in their lane. Luckily we had a fun little bell on our bikes, and I sure got my money out of mine. Sadly, it was kind of empowering and fun to ride up onto these tourists, standing around with no clue that they are in my way, and start ringing my bell and watching them jump to the side just in time. :-) I know, I know, I need to get out more....

 

 

 Once we got over the bridge, we stopped to take in the view from the other side before heading down to Sausalito. And I mean that literally. I guess I didn't realize the altitude we were currently at because next thing I know, we were expected to fly down these crazy steep hills, continuously turning every which way, all while staring death in the face. I definitely tested out those brakes the whole way down wondering if this was how it was all going to end. OK, maybe I am being a little dramatic, but I think that is exactly what Kevin was thinking. I just wish I could have gotten a picture of his face right after. When we finally got into town and I turned around to see him, he was slowly coming around the last turn (a little more cautiously than I took it) and looked as while as a ghost! Once in town, we secured our bikes and made our way to lunch (and a much needed drink).

After walking around town a bit, we grabbed the bikes, jumped on the ferry back to San Fran, and headed off to the next adventure...