Full House Hommage

San Francisco.

 

The famous quote by Mark Twain, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco" isn't a lie. We made the less than two hour car ride over into the bay last weekend and it was freezing. While Sacramento and other northern California towns have been experiencing 95+ degree days, San Fran was a balmy 62 degrees when we arrived. I think it reached it's high at 71 but the bay breeze never made it feel hot in any way. We started our day by traveling up to the vista point to see the Golden Gate Bridge in all it's glory.

This bench coincidently was the same one my husband I did engagement photos on

I just love looking at the Golden Gate. I mean yeah, most days it's half emerged in the fog but when you get a glimpse of the entire bridge it just makes you appreciate it a little more. I could spend an hour telling you about why I love seeing the bridge but I won't. Instead, I'll just give you the cliff notes. When I was kid growing up in West Virginia we didn't take big trips to the west coast. My parents were working folks. They had jobs to go to and bills to pay. We were on a budget. I secretly blame my father. I think he just didn't want to get on a plane or go anywhere that he couldn't threaten to drive home from. When we did go on vacation we went to east coast places like Florida for Disney and North/South Carolina for the beach. We toured monuments in Washington D.C. and kept going to our staple location, Pigeon Forge. We didn't get on fancy planes. Some of my best memories were eating cheeto balls from the can in the back seat asking how much longer till we are there?!

This was my best friend's first time seeing the bridge up close and personal. She's a West Virginia girl too so she gets it...

So imagine my wondering eyes when a show called Full House pops on TGIFriday and captivates my young self? 

You probably guessed it! I was awestruck. I was like that's the life! DJ had her cool lips phone, Uncle Jesse was always having famous rockers drop in and her dad was a television host. What could be any cooler?! At the opening of the show the Golden Gate would be there in all it's glory secretly screaming to me, "Come visit me! Come live this amazing life that DJ and the rest of the Tanners are!" I mean granted it probably wasn't but I thought what a cool place in my grade school mind. Queue to the fall of 2012 and I'm living out here. I'm literally less than 2 hours from the place that my kid self had thought was super cool and rad.

 

It was really hard to wrap my mind around it. It's crazy how life can lead you places. Anyways, I digress. After we visited with the Golden Gate we headed to the other Full House hotspot... The Painted Ladies.

These famous row houses are a National Landmark and real people live in them. Ok, fine their very rich people but their still real people. The yellow and red house fondly known as the Full House home is by far the most popular but the other fabulous houses shouldn't be ignored. The colors are spectacular!

So for two small town girls, being in the city and seeing these landmarks in person is really special. Now I'm working on my friend to get her to move to the west coast. If it was up to me all of my friends and family would live within a 2 hour driving distance. Clearly so we can go do all these fun things together.

30 Before 30 Progress

1. Walk across the Golden Gate Bridge.

On Friday, February 21st I headed over to San Fransisco, home of the Golden Gate Bridge. I've been there numerous times and crossed it by car but I had never walked it. I had always wanted to but each time I had been there I never had enough time. This time I made a special trip just to walk the bridge. Here's some photos from the day and a beautiful one it was.

Walking it!

A view from the bridge!

Love the color of the bridge and it was such a clear day. No fog! I loved it!

 

 

So there you have it! I crossed another thing off my list and had a great time doing it!

Birthday Recap Part 1

This past week I went on a four day, Birthday weekend adventure! I was lucky enough to be able to have my mom come in and help me celebrate. 

To start the trip off right we hit the group running once her plane landed and headed over to San Francisco. We hit the Haight area and visited one of my favorite DVD depots.... Ameoba. We also did a little vintage shopping and grabbed some food at Burger Urge. I can't believe how big the burgers were! The meat alone is 1/2 pound. If you're a meat/burger lover then Burger Urge is for you. 

Once I got my dvd fix and my belly full. We decided to see a few tourist sites. Every time I've been to San Francisco, I've visited Baker Beach. It's such a calm, fun place with a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge. I originally heard about Baker Beach a few years ago from fellow blogger, Claire. Since she's a SF girl she knew about this great spot and had blogged about it. I'm so glad she did! It's one of my favorite spots in SF.

My mom had never been to Baker so I was excited to share it with her. I'm pretty for sure she liked it. I love how much darker the sand is there. Plus the black rocks are pretty cool when you can find them. After we left Baker beach, we headed closer over to the Golden Gate to get a few closer photos. I had originally wanted to walk the bridge but it was starting to get later in the evening and we wouldn't have made it across and back before they close it off to foot traffic. I figure I'll go back over to SF in the next few weeks and walk it. 

You can't really tell in this photo but the bridge is really close to us. We were actually on the access point to where you can talk the walking path up onto the bridge. With the sun going down and only a few more minutes of sunlight left we hit up one other famous landmark... the Painted Ladies. The famous row houses which have been featured in many television shows (the famous Full House home) and movies. 

Since it was almost dark and my mom had travelled all day long we left San Francisco and made the drive down to San Jose. We knew that the next day was going to be another long one filled with tons of adventures. 

San Francisco Bay

A few days after moving into the house... 4 days to be exact, Shayne and I decided to head over to San Francisco for the day. Luckily, SF is only about 2 hours away and is an easy drive from Sacramento. The first few nights in the house we had been watching the Dirty Harry movies. If you've seen the films then you know that their set in San Francisco. Soooo.... of course we found a few of the filming locations and visited them!

First up was the street where Clint Eastwood is seen watching Hot Mary. 

Next up we stopped by the Condor Club. This would be the strip club/bar where Clint goes inside.

We went more PG after the Condor club and saw the Church where the priest refuses to back down with a hit on his life. 

It was really fun to see a few of the locations that was used in filming Dirty Harry. I had never seen the movies till that week so they were all really fresh in my mind. After walking around a bit we started to get hungry so we hopped into a little pizza shop. I wish I would have got the name but I didn't. It's over by City Light Books if you ever want to go to it. As you can see... the slices were HUGE!

We also stopped over and saw the famous Painted Ladies...

and of course we could see Alcatraz when we were over by the Golden Gate Bridge...

I was freezing if you can't tell from this photo. It was pretty chilly with the wind. While we were in the city we also visited City Light Books, the home where Jefferson Airplane lived and Ameoba. I always love Ameoba's dvd section! All in all I thought it was a pretty nice day. If you've never been to San Francisco it should definitely be on your must see list.