This Day in History v.38

Waaaaaay back in 2006, I studied abroad in England and met Teresa.  It was a magical summer. We studied at University of West England an spent 6 magical weeks in Bristol, Bruges & Brussels Belgium.  Megan was studying abroad that summer in Oxford, England. Hannah was studying abroad in Paris.  Are you keeping up here?  Yeah, I know, my friends are awesome....

Sami decided to fly over for a week and we took the the bus to Oxford to visit Megan. That's a post for another time, but we also flew to Paris to meet up with Hannah!  It was Bastille Day when we flew in, we experienced our first street party and pretended like we were Parisian princesses. Ok, not really, we pretended like we were poor college students. No, we really didn't pretend...that was our reality!

We had an AMAZING few days.  I can't remember all the details, but I remember it was a blast! I had been to Paris many many many times as a child, and then once with my parents as an adult, but this is the first time I was let loose with my friends! DANGER!!!!

Turns out we loved Paris so much, we returned the next year for NYE in Paris!

Exactly what you do in Paris, wine, cheese, croissants and baguettes!

Moulin Rouge! This was super close to our hostel that we stayed in.

Walking around Paris is just beau!

Crazy clouds!

Notre Dame

THE.BEST.GELATO.EVERRRRRRR....

And Le Tower Eiffel!

Just look how amazing this sculpture is!

 

 Peepin up its crotch....sorry, that was tasteless. Ha.

So beautiful!

Look how baby tiny we were! No idea who the chick is on the left anymore, but that's me, Hannah and Sami circa 2006!

Full body shot! Holy cow, I was kind of tan!

Sacre Coeur.
We walked all the way to the TOP! Don't accept anything from anyone handing out things there, they just want your money and get really mad when you don't want to give them money. I didn't do that, but we definitely saw it happen.

Cheers to wine and cheese as your meal!

These were all 2 euro bottles!!! Look how COLORFUL!  C'est magnifque!  This was an AMAZING time and I will remember it forever!

Here are the past blogs I have written:

This Day in History v.1: Oxford Street Christmas Lights

This Day in History v.2: Beginning of This Day in History

This Day in History v.3: Paris, France

This Day in History v.4: Chinese New Year

This Day in History v.5: Pancake Day

This Day in History v.6: Berlin, Germany

This Day in History v.7: Ireland

This Day in History v.8: Platform 9 3/4

This Day in History v.9: Croatia

This Day in History v.10: Rome, Italy

This Day in History v.11: Scotland

This Day in History v.12: Stockholm, Sweden

This Day in History v.13: Cinque Terre, Italy

This Day in History v.14: A Look Back at the Beginning

This Day in History v.15: Notting Hill Carnival

This Day in History v.16: The Breakfast Club

This Day in History v.17: Australia Day

This Day in History v.18: Trafalgar Square

This Day in History v.19: Red Telephone Box

This Day in History v.20: Primrose Hill

This Day in History v.21: Look Both Ways

This Day in History v.22: Kings Head Theater

This Day in History v.23: Tower of London

This Day in History v.24: Cambridge, England

This Day in History v.25: Mountbatten

This Day in History v.26: Dorset, England

This Day in History v.27: Canada Gates

This Day in History v.28: Piccadilly Circus

This Day in History v.29: Stonehenge

This Day in History v.30: Guy Fawkes Day

This Day in History v.31: Cultural Sunday
This Day in History v.32: Bath, England
This Day in History v.33: Greenich, England
This Day in History v.34 Portbobello Market
This Day in History v.35: Big Ben
This Day in History v.36: Bristol, England
This Day in History v.37: Cinque Terre

FIVE HUNDRED...SAY WHAT?!?!?!

HOLY COW!!! 500 posts! I've written FIVE HUNDRED BLOG POSTS....saaaayy WHHHAAATTT?!?!?!?

This blog has been through a lot, from moving home from London, trials and tribulations of living in a small(er) town again, moving to D.C. and finally resting in my current city of San Francisco.  I don't do it for money or fame, its just fun to write everything down and see where my travels have taken me over the years!  I talk about my sorority, Junior League, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, volunteering, vacations and everything in between.

Hope you enjoy my travels as much as I do!

BBQ, Waves and Faction Beer

Last weekend, I joined a birthday party in a quest for a good time! We took the ferry to Alameda to spend the day boozing away. Let me tell you how awesome taking the ferry is!  Its a real casual, fun easy, good time. You can even purchase alcohol on the ferry!  In just 30 minutes we were across the bay and ready to take on the day. For just $5 each way, it was a pretty cheap mode of transportation and you got to be on the water!

We picked up the ferry at you guessed it....the Ferry Building. We took it to the first stop and got picked up by our friend's parents..love adult drinking!!! We could have walked, but it was pretty hot out that day.  Our first stop was Faction Brewery. Tomorrow is the one year anniversary!

 

  They had so many different beers on tap!  We did several tasters like the one above for the table.

I wish that they offered brewery tours and the such, but sadly they do not. You cannot actually walk around where they store the beer, unless you're a female and need to walk across the hanger to the ladies room. So weird.

 Jamie, me and Lori

The great thing about this place, is that it is right next door to a winery and a distillery!!  Rock Wall Winery is next door and St. George's Distillery is on the other side!  Sadly, we were on a time crunch and needed to get back to start the BBQ, so we didn't get the chance to go anywhere else but the brewery....but I'll be back!

We got back on the ferry and went back to the city.  Those things in the picture above inspired George Lucas to create the walker things of Star Wars. George lives in Marin County, which is just past the Golden Gate Bridge.

Just another beautiful day in California!

 

So this Russian Billionaire had a very large yacht that we got to pass in the ferry!

Just LOOK AT THAT THING. Oh its only $323 million dollars....no biggie.  Apparently it has a crew of 42..... really ridiculous!

The view of the city as we came back on the ferry!

And then in the Uber to their house we saw this oldie but goodie being towed away. Guess it couldn't get up the massive hills of San Francisco any more!

Molly's in Town

My sorority sister Molly came to San Francisco last week! She was in town for a Stitch Fix event. How cool is that?!?!  Molly is my third visitor I've hosted so far, woohoo! She is a blogger and was in my Phi Mu Lambda Epsilon chapter in college! I love that Phi Mu connects sisters, even if its been years since you've actually seen each other. #notjustfouryears

I had a Junior League meeting that afternoon but met up with Molly after that was finished. I introduced her to Uber and we went to my favorite location, Jamber. I mean seriously, this place should just promote me to #VIP since I bring everyone here.  We hung out and then headed home since she's still on East Coast time.

The next morning I took her to my favorite brunch spot, The Butler & the Chef, for seriously the best.lunch.ever.

 

Just look at that YUMMY Croque Monsieur 

My mouth is watering RIGHT NOW

She bought this really good French lemonade. It was bubbly and fresh to death. We left with our bellys full and walked around the area, visiting the Giants ball park, 21st Amendment, the marina, the Ferry Building and I have to bring all Phi Mus to the Mozilla HQ.

 

Because they have this AMAZING quatrafoil door!

 

So of course we had to throw what we know!

 

Day Around the Bay #2: Fisherman's Wharf

So as my second foray into running around my new city, I took on Fisherman's Wharf. It was a particularly chilly day and most tourists were wrapped in coats and scarves, I was running in my shorts and tank top. Whoops. You can tell who are tourists and who aren't.

I do love that I work from home now and can set my own schedule. I typically work from 6:30am-3:30pm and I absolutely love getting off work so early!!! Its awesome to be able to go for a run whenever I choose. I don't mean to rub it in, but its pretty sweet!

On a random Friday, when I had nothing to do, I decided to take myself on a run.  Down to Fisherman's Wharf and back. Probably a total of 5 miles round trip.  Fisherman's Wharf encompasses the norther waterfront area of San Francisco, from Ghiradelli Square east to Kearny Street.

It started with a run down the Embarcadero and down to Fisherman's Wharf.  First stop was Boudin Bakery. MAN, this place smells DEVINE! Don't run past this place if you're hungry....its just bad news bears.

There's this HUGE window where you can see the bakers kneading the dough and making loaves.

And then there's THESE bread loaves!!! The one above is an alligator.

And here is a bear and some turtles! Um...apparently you can order these shapes! Whoa!

Oh so touristy....so many tourists EVERYWHERE.

And of course, there's In and Out Burger, the West Coast thing to do. 

Just a little downtown touristy action

Checked off another National Park on my list at the Hyde Street Pier.

There are eight historic vessels to view at the pier.

Hello there beautiful Golden Gate Bridge

Ghiradelli Square 

Reminds me of all the ships in Virginia!!

Straight up Hyde street!

And one last view from up Hyde Street!

Other Day Around the Bays:
#1 North Beach and Coit Tower