Trip to San Francisco

Last weekend (the one weekend between Nate's two big trips) Nate and I took a little trip up to San Francisco for our friends Jen and Mike's wedding. We thought it would be a great little way to have one last trip before Baby B is here. AnneMarie called it our "Baby Moon," I guess the more formal term for such a trip. The nice thing about this trip was we've been to San Francisco before so we didn't feel it necessary to try and pack in a lot of tourist attractions. We enjoyed just kind of going with the flow and doin' what we liked.

We arrived early Friday with our traveling companions for the trip, Adam and AnneMarie. We went to our separate hotels to unload and then met back up for an early lunch. We decided that a we should walk the coast, which we ended up doing from our hotel in the financial district all the way to Pier 39 and beyond (a pretty good trek for a 7 month preggers, such as myself). It was a little chilly, but it was perfect for the stroll.

We stopped off at Pier 39 and picked up some delicious salt water taffy, seen here:

Like I said, Friday was a bit chilly, but it made for a nice and cool walk. Here is Nate and I at the end of the pier:

From Pier 39 we walked down to Pier 45 at Fisherman's Wharf and found this awesome antique arcade called the "Musee Mechanique." It had such a cool collection of old carnival games, I personally partook in a little pinball and mini bowling. AnneMarie and Adam found an old school boxing game, healthy for any marriage, I think:

Nate tried his strength against the arm wrestling game. The game warned you to start at the lowest "Fly" level, first. Nate listened luckily, because he was no match for the game's "super-human strength." It was obvious why there was a huge disclaimer above it, saying that any injury attained during play was your own fault:

We, of course, helped ourselves to a treat at Ghiradelli Square. Nate and I shared the Cable Car sundae and I MEANT to take a picture before we indulged, but alas, once it came out thoughts of picture-taking left my mind and the chocolate, marshmallowy-goodness took over. So here is what used to be a Cable Car sundae :)

Friday night we had a delicious dinner at Franchino's in Little Italy. We were glancing at the menu outside when we were won over by the owner of the family-owned restaurant. It was very Italian Mafia-esque to have the man first ask me if I was having a boy or a girl and then, upon hearing it's a boy, ask if it was our first child. You could tell he very much approved from his congrats :)

Saturday, Nate and I walked to Mel's diner for a little breakfast (Butlers, this is where we all went while in SF). After a little meandering around the Apple store, we headed back to the hotel to watch the World Cup game.

We beautified and headed out to Alameda, where the wedding was being held. I'd say we clean up pretty nicely:


The wedding was great and the bride, Jen, was all smiles throughout the ceremony. It was fun to see our very outdoorsy friend all dressed up.

After the ceremony there was a special Chinese Lion ceremony said to give the couple wealth and prosperity. It was definitely cool to see and something I've never seen at a wedding before. I love the personalized touches each wedding brings. Here are some pics from the presentation:


As with all vacations, our "Baby Moon" just went too fast. It's come and gone, and Nate has already left on his second work trip to Tokyo, Taiwan, and Sydney. Let's hope these next two weeks go even quicker than his last trip!