Another wonderful SF weekend

Since I returned from Germany a week and a half ago, I’ve been insanely busy. I was a little bummed leaving my family again and pretty much going straight back to work, but the fact that I was looking forward to another great weekend with friends (from Germany) made the farewell much more bearable.

We took the train to SF on Friday, because there was no way that we would drive into SF a) on a Friday afternoon and b) because of the horrendous parking fees. Besides, a train ride is so much fun!
We made it to the hotel at Fisherman’s Wharf in the afternoon and finally knocked on my friend Sanni’s and her husband’s hotel room door. It was awesome and surreal at the same time to see them here in California, when we had only seen each other in Germany so far.
It was a nice and sunny day and we started with a late lunch at “In & Out” – one of the fast food chains we had heavily recommended to both of them. You’ve got to have one “Double Double Animal Style” at least once in your life! (Where are all the “In & Out” supporters out there?)
For the rest of the afternoon, we decided to start of with a ride on the Cable Car. While we were standing in line (there are ALWAYS lines if you want to ride the Cable Car), J realized that his cell phone was gone. Oh no!
We tried to track back our last steps and came to the conclusion that it only could have fell off the table at “In & Out” – so I made my way back there and, sure enough, the cell phone still lay under the table where we had sat earlier. Thank goodness!
I got back to the Cable Car waiting line just in time to get on the next ride.

Up and down we went the streets of San Francisco. We rode all the way down to Powell/Market Street, then strolled around a little bit and stopped at Union Square. From there we walked through Chinatown

Chinatown

and North Beach to Washington Square

St. Peter and Paul

and then walked all the way up to Coit Tower

Coit Tower black/white

where we enjoyed a wonderful view.

Golden Gate Bridge in the fog

It was just a great afternoon!

We made it back to the Hotel at 5 p.m., freshened up and then tried to decide what we felt like for dinner. We ended up strolling around at Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39 and had dinner at “North Beach Pizza“.

Saturday morning, we met for (the complimentary) breakfast  in the Hotel Lobby and then got the car to start our “drive around tour” of San Francisco.

We stopped at the Marina and walked along the water line and to the Exploratorium.

Exploratorium

Then we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge, took some photos from the Vista Point and spent some time in Sausalito.

Golden Gate Bridge

Sausalito

SF

Then we made our way back to Golden Gate Park, enjoyed a beautiful view from Twin Peaks and of course stopped to see the Painted Ladies.

Twin Peaks

Painted Ladies

We went back to the hotel around 4 p.m., got dressed and then took them on a little tour through Rockridge and Berkeley on the other side of the Bay.

At 7 p.m. we had dinner at “Skates on the Bay”. We had a table right at the window with a beautiful view of the sunset.

Sunset over the Bay

It was a wonderful weekend with friends and I just wish we could do that much more often!