Honeymoon With My Honey – Part 4

Thursday – Last full day in San Francisco: We awoke on our last full day in San Fran:

1. Invigorated and ready to take on the day refreshed and renewed.
2. Still exhausted, and really wanting to just stay curled up in bed.

But we soldiered on, fortified by a little cold pizza. (Some pizza holds up well the next day, this did not.) Off we went back over to Fisherman's Warf for our bay tour.

Those of you unfamiliar with San Francisco may have some kind of "fun in the sun" / sunny California images in your brain. WRONG! The place was cold. I knew that going in, and brought long sleeved shirts, expecting upper 60°s to low 70°s. BEEP! Think again. 50°s. And wet. And breezy. On our first day, I bought the black sweatshirt you see me in in a lot of the pictures. I could have gone to one of those souvenir shops and gotten one with cable cars and the Golden Gate Bridge on it and stuff, paid a ton, and have it shrink to "Cora Size" on the first washing, which would be okay, because I hate wearing stuff with writing, and I would never wear it again. Or, I could just go into Macy's and hit the men's wear department for a $14.99 thick, well made, black Champion sweatshirt that I will wear regularly. Easy decision.

We roll around to Fisherman's Warf fairly early to get our bay cruise in. (It was part of the 'City Pass' tickets.) We get a seat (I am a daily mass transit rider. I can out maneuver an Iowa farmer for a seat for the Mrs. before he even knows what hit him.)

Now, I don't know if you are familiar with Fisherman's Warf or not, so let me explain it to you. In most big cities, there's a tourist attraction / tourist trap that is famous for being famous, and doesn't really serve it's original purpose too much any more, but just enough to show the out-of-towners. And it is filled with all the novelty and kitsch shops? In Chicago, that's Navy Pier. In San Francisco, that's Fisherman's Warf. Sure, there's some cool stuff like that statue of the sealions that Cora is looking through, but there's a ton of crap, too.

We board the boat, and climb up to the top. What can be nicer than a pleasant day out cruising the bay on July 8th. Does this look like July 8th to you?

But the cruise didn't disappoint. While it was cold and gray, it was still well worth it.

The cruise is an hour long, and takes you out and under the Golden Gate Bridge,

and past Alcatraz. "The Rock". You get pretty close, and you can see from this video.

After the cruise, and while we enjoyed it, trust me, we were both ready to get off that boat, we hiked a good distance to catch a bus for the California Academy of Science. It's in Gold Gate Park, out on the other side of the peninsula, toward the Pacific. In route, we got some better views of the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Presidio. From the drop off point, we hiked to the museum, and we were both already starting to run out of gas. We were cold, tired, and hungry. We fixed the cold and hungry part inside, but then went up to see the famous "green roof" that didn't look so green to me. Anyway, that brought the cold back, and then as we walked slowly through the "Extreme Mammals" exhibit, our legs gave out, and we were done. We plotted our route home. I know I've used the word 'cold' a lot today. I think it may have been 50° out there. We saw people waiting for the bus with us wearing winter gloves. And you didn't look at them like they were idiots, you thought "Hey…. Where do I get those?"

Anyway, a couple transfers and a healthy exposure to the "diversity of culture" that is public transportation at about 3:00 pm on a Thursday, we made it back to the hotel. Wiped-out and a little sad that the honeymoon was waning, we started packing up. But we had one last dinner, and we decided to make the last dinner of our honeymoon the first dinner of our courtship: Cheesecake Factory!

We were both craving salt. Cora had the teriyaki chicken (which started a string of 3 out of 4 meals, counting breakfast, that she had teriyaki chicken), and I had a margarita. Dinner as good as always. I snapped this night time view of the hotel, and then we went back and crashed like the dead.

Friday – Sadly, Friday came. I can promise you a certain wife of mine would have been happy to stay off in vacation land, but the real world was calling. We made the most of our morning, though. The hotel was running a deal that if you opt out of made service, you get a $10 voucher good for one of their restaurants. We opted out 2 nights, so we had $20 worth of vouchers, and spent $25 (with tip) on breakfast! It was then down to the Embarcadero for a little more photo shooting.

But, one last cable car ride, and it was time to take the BART back to Oakland for our short hop to Seattle. We had lunch in the Subway restaurant at the airport.

Cora had the teriyaki chicken.

On the flight back, we watched the first half of 'Wall-E'. When we landed, my father-in-law and his wife picked us up at SEA-TAC and took us to dinner.

Cora had the teriyaki chicken.

It was so hot in Seattle, that we hauled Cora's mattress down to the basement of her house, and slept on the floor.

And that wraps up that phase of the honeymoon. But fear not, Saturday is just as eventful, as I meet my new niece, and Cora goes "Janet Jackson" in the hospital waiting room.

And here are some random shots from Thursday & Friday. Yes, the one is green screened, J.J. :-)

One of the best parts about telling this story on the blog is that it has allowed me to relive it. Day by day. And it makes the separation not hurt quite as much.

Almost.