Top of the Mark

I knew when the BF came home for a weekend in August, I had to scratch something off my to-do list. That would be visiting the Top of the Mark finally! Its located on the top floor in the Intercontinental Mark Hopkins Hotel and is located in Nob Hill.  Its the tallest building downtown and has amazing views of the city. Its known for its extensive (over 100!) list of martinis and its spectacular views. It was opened in 1939 and has seen many people come through its doors to admire its 360 degree view of San Francisco. According to Wikipedia, During World War II, when San Francisco was a major transit point for soldiers traveling to the Pacific, this was a popular site for soldiers to have a farewell drink before shipping out.

It was cloudy the day we went, but this is from another sunny day in the Bay.

Its a historical landmark!

Beautiful columns

The bf goofing off

Grace Cathedral from above

The bay

Just another cloudy August day in the Bay.

The Butler and the Chef

I have a brunch secret in San Francisco. I don't really want to tell you. I want to keep it a secret so I can actually get in. Okay, okay, twist my arm, I'll let you in on the secret.

It's called The Butler and the Chef. It's located in South Park (yes, it is the same funny name as the cartoon show.) But its way better.  It's an amazing little French brunch spot. It's only open Tues-Saturday from 8-3pm and from 10-3 on Sundays. Its AH-MAZING!!!!  The food is great. I think I've been 3 times now.  I recommend getting there before it opens or well after 1pm because you WILL wait in line.  However, I will say their quiche is only offered after 11am, so you will lose out on that if you go early.  Sadly, sometimes it feels as if the wait staff wants you to feel LUCKY that you're there, not as if you're a customer.

But its SO WORTH IT. 

Cute little Parisian feel to the place

This my dear, is my Croque Monsieur.....AHHHHHH MAZING TASTE!!!! I ate the WHOLE THING and the salad, it was great! Not too cheesy or over done, it was perfect.

The boyfriend got the salmon benedict. Both of us left pleasantly plump and happy! Tiny, intimate location. We got there by 9:50am for a 10am opening, and we were already 7th in line!  The line never did die while we were there, so get there early or expect to wait in a LONG line!

AND we got chocolate truffles when we paid the bill, what more can you want?!?!?!

San Diego, CA

Unconditional Surrender statue

During the BF's 5 month tour, he spent the first month docked in San Diego while their boat did some testing or whatever and the staff (soliders? coasties? whatever they're called) had to do some drills and training. So I decided to fly down for the weekend and check out San Diego since I've never been. All in all, I had a great time!  Though I don't think it was any better than San Francisco. Honestly, I'd rather hang out at home than visit SD, but since the BF was there, I GUESS I could stick it out.  So, I took a Friday off and flew down.  We stayed downtown in the Gaslamp Quarter of San Diego. Looking for things to do? We visited several really cool places!

They have a pretty good public transportation system. We didn't use any of it, but I'm sure it worked well :)

I of course had a few hours to spare. I left really early and got into SD pretty early, to only have the BF tell me it would be hours before he got off. Thankfully the airport was pretty close to down town, so I took a cab over and took myself for a little tour of the area. I found a Starbucks and enjoyed a latte and read a bit of my book. I felt like like I needed to do something else, so I decided to go down to the water and found this MASSIVE BOAT! The U.S. Midway museum is one the longest-serving air craft carrier. I didn't go in, but they have 60 exhibits and 29 restored aircraft on the carrier.

This thing was SO HUGE!!!

Beautiful panoramic of the port

This bad boy is large

I guess Zach and I are bad asses and only wear our sunglasses at night at Whiskey Girl. Too many drinks later and I finally told the bf I needed to go home.

Saturday:

We went to Pacific Beach on Saturday. It was over cast and slightly cold. The bf was all like "oh the clouds will wear off and it will be really warm". LIES, LIES I TELL YOU. I'm super glad that I brought a sweater because it was FREEZING and it started to rain while we were outside drinking our beers at Lahaina Beach House! Brrrr.  We closed up shop and went back downtown. First stop was at the Field Irish Pub and had a few cocktails and then we headed to Tipsy Crow (crowd favorite) next and then some place with a bull to ride was where we chose to finalize the night. Of course a few more cocktails too many and we went home.

Sunday was RECOVERY MODE. Well, only for a little bit. We started off with mimosas at the Blind Burro to help with my stomach, ha. Hair of the dog, right?  Once we had our fill of breakfast, we met the group at Barleymash, a pretty cool open concept restaurant with a great local artist playing a guitar and singing.  And before I had to head to the airport, we hit up Wet Willies, a FROZEN DAIQUIRI BAR!!! 

We both had the Call a Cab version:

The name says it all. The grain house specialty. Made with Grain Alcohol* ( 153° or 190° ) and Bacardi® rum. Try with Shock Treatment or Attitude Improvement and Sex on the Beach ( Triple Play ). Very Strong. 

GAH. Cue in super drunk Amber. Great, right before going to the airport! Good thing I was able to take a nap at the airport while I waited :)

And of course I found the pink container!

And that my friends, is a WRAP.

2014 Pride Parade

Ok, so I'm 2 months late posting about Pride Parade. So sue me, better yet, just read on! Of COURSE I had to experience my first pride parade in San Francisco. It was truly epic and a great display of pride and acceptance in the city!  I had a blast, but I will tell you there were so.many.people.everywhere! At one point we got stuck in a bottleneck on the sidewalk and people were pushing and yelling. It was ridic!!  But all in all I've never seen so many assless chaps and boobies everywhere!

It was another #beautifuldayinCA with perfect weather and not a cloud in the sky!  The parade itself was a blast, but the after party area near City Hall was AMAZING!!! 

Groups that were walking in the parade were queued up and getting ready!

Some of the sweet rides of the parade

An old fashioned trolley blaring music

 Reppin my American Flag scarf!

One of the floats

Assless chaps #1 of 5,478,936,890,372,062

I'm not sure how awesome leather outfits would be in the heat, but carry on dude.

Buster reppin his Maryland "Pride" shorts

Party at City Hall!

CRAZYYYY but OH SO FUN!!!!

Alcatraz Night Tour

I took a trip out to Alcatraz with my favorite work group for a night tour...well, we never saw the night! I guess in the summer it gets dark so late and we didn't want to wait for the very last ferry back so we never saw night. It was pretty cold on the island, so if you go bring warm clothes! Did you know that Alcatraz is a registered U.S. National Park? Well, it is!  If you want to visit, I recommend purchasing tickets in advance because they frequently sell out quite a bit in advance, several weeks in advance during the summer!

I met my favorite boys at Pier 33 to visit "The Rock" as Alcatraz is called. Before it shut down in it was a Federal Penitentiary (1933-1963) and before that it was a military garrison. Its also the home of the oldest functioning light house on the West Coast. We took the ferry out to the island, it was FREEZING on the water!

Looking back at the city

Our up and close sighting!

It looks so majestic

Native Americans occupied the island to protest the federal policies related to American Indians for almost two full years!

 You can see some of the graffiti they painted. Many of the buildings were destroyed or damaged during their occupation.

 Below is their showers...yeah, no thanks to showering in the open like that!

Tiny cells

 

A lot of the cells were kept in the dark. These in the middle at least had skylights

Some of the office

I did a panorama of the island! Beautiful!

 Looking back at the city.

And ending with an amazing shot of the lighthouse!  Who would have thought an iPhone would take as pretty of a picture!

Overall I had a pretty good time! Definitely worth seeing once...and only once. Ha!