San Francisco - Day 2

We started our day with early Mass at St. Dominic's - a beautiful church we happened to drive by the day before.  It was lovely inside...but I didn't know Dominicans are very spare...no music, very few decorations, and a pretty boring service.  But still we're glad we went and got to see the beautiful building and experience something different.  (It really made me miss Katie's amazing choir!)

Then we went out for breakfast at a little place around the corner, Sweet Maple.  We saw a big line outside and figured it was good - and we were right!  This is where we got our (in)famous $5.50 tea, and this is where Chris had "Millionaire's Bacon."  We loved it so much we went back on our last day, and got tea and bacon again!

We drove around more of the city on Sunday, including:

We drove around Golden Gate Park and stopped to tour the Botanical Garden:

We love bamboo!

My first sighting of redwoods!  I was in love, even though these were babies!

Awesome succulent displays

Just a gorgeous park, and a lovely day to stroll through the gardens

Tree ferns!

I wanted a picture by these pretty flowers, but it was so bright I was squinting in all of the pictures :(

Me in my happy place!

After the garden, we drove through the huge park, and made it to the ocean for the first time (past the bay).  There was a huge Ultimate tournament going on:

 

We walked along the beach, watching people, dogs, and fishermen. The waves were so loud!

We drove back through the city, stopping for one of the ubiquitous cable cars:

Then we parked by Fisherman's Wharf to see what that area was like.  We loved it!

Ghirardelli Square is now a bunch of shops in cool old buildings.  I was hoping for a chocolate factory!

Yummy restaurant that Chad recommended, we made reservations for the following night

We walked the whole length of Fisherman's Wharf, in and out of shops and restaurants, and then were treated to a beautiful sunset:

And sea lions!  This pier is famous for them, and they were very entertaining with their barking and chasing and showing off.

We found a store for Jessica!  We got her a mug that is just for leftys...if you try to drink out of it with your right hand, you'll have a lap full of tea because there's a tiny hole on the top of the righty side!

 

We liked Fisherman's Wharf area so much that we decided to switch hotels for the rest of our trip (starting the next day)!  After a long day of walking, we drove back to our hotel in Union Square and then walked to a great Mexican restaurant that Liz recommended.  No pics, unfortunately, but it was delicious and had a great atmosphere.  Chris said it was some of the best carne asada he's ever had!