San Francisco... What a Wonderful Place!

 The team (excluding Dr. Jim) and some of Thomas'

family, who we're staying with for a few days before

going to our next destination for the War, went to tour

San Francisco on Monday.  I was so excited that 

I finally got to go!  I'd seen pictures 

and heard awesome things about it!

 Golden Gate Bridge

 It's awesome to have Crystal join us for the 

remaining part of this fall tour!

L to R: Rebekah, Thomas' sister, Janna,

Stephanie, and Annaleese.

Rebekah is right around the girl's ages

and they've been having lots of fun together!

 Stephanie pointed out that this could also stand

for "I Love Special Forces"... :-)

 Mom, could you imagine doing this?!

 The brick building that you can see below the

bridge in this picture, used to be a fort where

they'd watch for pirates coming in to the bay!  

I thought that was pretty cool!

 Walking across the bridge...

It was awesome!  Mom, you would've died! ;-)

Actually most didn't walk very far, but DJ, Matt,

Crystal, and I walked/ran almost the whole way :-)

We would've walked the whole way, but we heard 

there was construction at the end, so we couldn't.

 The city of San Francisco

 The city and Alcatraz on the island over to the left.

 The inside of the fort... there was even a cannon inside!

Pretty awesome! :-)

 There was an opening along the walk across

the bridge... it's a long way down!  Definitely

not a walk for someone who is terrified of heights!

 The inside of the fort from the other side

 I thought that this even looked like a pirates ship! :-)

 I thought this sign was SO funny!  Duh!

 We kept looking over the edge into the water

to watch dolphins!  It was so awesome!

There were tons of them!  They looked so small

since we were so far up!  So, since we kept looking

over the side to watch them as we walked, I felt like 

I was gonna hit into these large poles!  Matt, of course,

took the opportunity for a "picture perfect" moment! ;-)

 The hills were crazy steep to drive up and down!

 

 The famous Lombard St.

(Just in case you didn't know about it ;-))

 Crazy that someone would try and park their car here!

 These "little cars" were so cute! ;-)

As Crystal said, the perfect "honeymoon cars"! :-)

 Can you see how crooked it is?!

 Another "must see" if you ever go to San Fran... Pier 39!

 Awesome all the boats in the bay!

 And this Seagull was real :-)

 Janna thought that these bricks looked like dog bones :-)

 Pier 39 is filled with lots of awesome little shops!

Definitely a "tourist trap"... and it worked! :-)

 Visiting an Alcatraz gift shop!

Of course, we had to play around with

all these awesome little trinkets! :-)

 Guess I don't look too sad to be in prison...

actually, the shirt says that I "escaped from Alcatraz"

so I guess that's why I was so happy! ;-)

 Watching a documentary on an escape from Alcatraz

 Of course had to get a pic of this!

She's so famous, they even have a shop for her, I guess! ;-)

 We had a bit of fun in the Krazy Hatz store! :-)

 Have you ever seen fire in the middle of a table like this?!

 Alcatraz

 Sea Lions

 Happy 21st anniversary, Sea Lions!  How.. dumb :-)

 Pretty awesome bushes!  I guess it made up for

not seeing "the bush man" in action! :-)

 There was a store that had tons of magnets...

almost anything you could think of, including food!

Crystal thought these cheeseburgers looked good, I guess! :-)

 I thought these little sayings were so funny! :-D

 A Coca-Cola stool for you, Anna :-)

 Had to get a pic of the Blue & Gold Fleet!

Even San Fran knows what state is the best! ;-)

Crystal had never been to the Rainforest Cafe!

So, we stopped in for her to take a look :-)

 

 Crystal & I "got lost" for a while looking around

shops, so we finally met up with the group

again at the Fisherman's Wharf for a bit to eat...

I even tried some Clam Chowder Soup! :-)

 Mrs. Van got a little gift for Dr. Jim since he wasn't able 

to be there with us.  Jan had fun playing around with it! :-)

 I think this look fits her... don't you think?! ;-)

 Thomas with his sister, Rebekah

 These animals were made out of bread!  So awesome!

 Thomas is so incredibly nice!  Here he is giving

a gospel tract to a "homeless" man after having

bought him two sandwiches from McDonald's!

He's so much kinder than I think I could ever

even hope to be!  I should definitely take lessons! :-)

 We went back to the Rainforest Cafe after we had eaten

so that the others could see it too... it's amazing how

many people had never been there!

 Frog for you, Dave! :-)

 And fountains for you, Jo! :-)

 I love the pink sky with the stars!

Stars definitely make me think of you, Tab! :-)

 Felt right at home when I saw this! :-)

Crystal was feeling right at home with the

Graffiti, traffic, litter, and pollution :-D

(she's from Queens, just minutes from Manhattan)

 The Segways tootling around the city!

I'm not exactly sure what they do, but they looked

like they were enjoying themselves, so that's good! :-)

 The beginning of our day was nice and then it

started to rain.  We still had a lot of fun, 

even if the sky was moody! ;-)

 We ended our tour of San Francisco with a visit to

Ghirardelli's chocolate factory!

 Oh my, Steph!  That's a lot for a little girl!

She didn't eat it all by herself, though... :-)

 Rebekah, Thomas, and Janna split this peanut butter

sundae!  Janna must really like Thomas

that she would share her food with him! ;-)

It's been good for her to have Thomas travel, I think!

 Janna & Crystal

I think these two will end up being quite the match!

 The San Francisco Bridge

 The AT&T Ball Park

These pics were taken on the way to try and find

an outlet store that we'd been looking for...

we found it!  But unfortunately it was already closed!

Guess no wedding dresses for us today... :-)

 Thomas was working with Leesie on her yarning

skills on the way back to the Ciaramitaro's.

Crystal and I ended up getting these San Francisco

hoodies!  They're so comfy and warm!

We had a great time in San Francisco!

I really enjoyed the time getting to know Crystal

better too... we had some really good chats.

I think we'll have a great time traveling together :-)