1 July 2011

As I mentioned last week, E and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary on the 23rd.  For our 5 year anniversary, I planned a surprise trip to New York City.  By surprise I mean that though E knew we were going, he didn't know WHERE we were going.  We decided it was so fun that we would repeat on our 10th anniversary only this time I didn't know where we were going.  After a long 5 months of me begging E not to give it away, I found out at the ticket counter when the lady said "Where are you headed today?" and E replied "San Francisco!"  So here are the five days of our vacation!

1.  Day One:  Twins Game and Anniversary Dinner

For my 30th birthday, one of E's goals for my 30 in my 30s "assignment" was to visit 5 away stadiums to see a Twins game.  I mentioned to him back in January that if they were playing somewhere cool this summer we should probably try to combine seeing a game with our anniversary trip, even if it wasn't exactly on our anniversary.  He checked the Twins schedule and screamed "I know where we are going and we can go ON our anniversary!"   So I spent the next 6 months avoiding a Twins schedule and the last month even avoiding the sports segment on the news.

We decided to walk the mile from our hotel to the stadium and on the way we found my favorite street...so what if they spelled it wrong?!  Nothing one shoe couldn't take care of!

The game was really fun even though we didn't win.  We had plenty of friendly banter going with all the Giants friends around us.  The stadium was nice...we still like Target Field better except that there is no view of the OCEAN like there was there!  So cool to be right on the bay.

That evening we went out for a nice dinner down by the Bay Bridge.  Great food, great service, great company.

2.  Day Two:  Fisherman's Wharf and Alcatraz

Friday we rode the cable cars down to Fisherman's Wharf and spent the day walking around.

It was fun seeing all the sights on Pier 39 and there was great people watching throughout the day.

At night we took a tour of Alcatraz.  This doesn't SOUND that fun, but it was sooooo interesting.  We both loved it.

3.  Day Three:  Biking the Bridge

This was by far our favorite day of the trip.  We rented bikes on Fisherman's Wharf and biked over the Golden Gate.

We kept biking past the bridge to a cute yuppity little town called Sausalito where we stopped for ice cream.

Then we had to decide whether to bike back or keep going and ride the ferry back over the bay.  We decided to keep going and ended up riding 18 miles total...not too shabby when you factor in the hills and that we were on vacation!  This next pic was taken towards the end of our ride. We had to stop and point to the Golden Gate that we had rode over at the beginning of the afternoon...

Such a fun day.

4.  Day 4:  Muir Woods and Wine Tour

Sunday we had booked a wine tour in Sonoma...AFTER we learned that it was Pride Weekend in San Francisco.  We might have tried to take in the parade just for the experience had we known, but there was plenty of leftover sights to see before and after the parade anyway.  It was cool to see all the downtown stores transform their windows into rainbows using their products.  Anyway, back to the day's events.

Our tour first stopped in Muir Woods to see the giant redwood trees.  I mean GI.ANT.

The biggest redwoods are in Redwood National Forest, but these were mighty big.

Then we were on to wine country.  We went to two actual wineries and then went to the plaza in Sonoma where we could walk around and sample more and eat lunch.  Eric did most of the sampling for the day since I think I am allergic to wine, but I loved seeing the scenery.

We had such a fun group that we were touring with. Our favorites were the most fun couple from Australia who were in their NINTH week of PAID vacation and were returning the next day. I officially want to move to Australia.

5.  Day 5:  I WANT TO SEE MY KIDS.

You know how you wake up on the last day, no matter how long or short of time you've been gone, and just want to be home?  That's what this day was pretty much about.  We didn't even have to leave for the airport until 2 o'clock.  My knee was feeling pretty awful, so I wasn't up for much of a walking tour.  Our cable car passes had run out the day before.  I just wanted to see the kids.  Then we remembered we hadn't really gotten them anything yet, so we went on a search for the thing we'd been looking for.

On every corner there were little stands of beanies being handmade and most were animals.  We thought the kids would love them except they seemed a bit juvenile for Tate.  After lots of searching, we found a Spiderman one for him that we knew he'd love.  After a long day of travel, we finally arrived to Shakopee at about midnight.

The kids were at Rach's and we had intended on picking them up in the morning, but we couldn't wait to see them so we picked them up that night.  I love seeing my kids faces after not seeing them for a few days.  There really is nothing better.  The next morning we gave them their hats and they were more than happy to model for me.

It was such a fun 5 days.  Thank you so much to Grandpa Rog & Grandma Becky, Rach & Brad, and Kara for all the adventures the kids had while we were gone.  You're the best!