Ending on a high note

It was our last day of vacation.  Writing about all the places we went to made me realize what a great vacation this turned out to be and I'm so grateful that we had the opportunity to get away and spend time with each other.  It was such a blessing and I'm really looking forward to our next trip in October when we go to Philly for Nate and Julie's wedding.  But first, to wrap up this vacation!


The other thing I wanted to while in San Fran was visit the Exploratorium.  I'd read about it online and it seemed like a really interesting place.  So we hopped in a cab Tuesday morning to check it out!  


The Exploratorium is billed as "a museum of science, art and human perception."  It sounded really interesting and I was looking forward to our visit.  Until we arrived.  Don't get me wrong, the Exploratorium is a very cool place and I was really fascinated by all the exhibits they had and how they packed so much into one space.  But it was completely and totally overrun with children!  I should have known better - the majority of their exhibits are interactive and the lower level is like a giant Science City.  Do y'all remember those?  When I was a kid, we used to take field trips there and you got to play scientist and do experiments like touch the electrified ball that made your hair stand up and all that.  The Exploratorium was Science City on steroids and Drew and I weren't prepared.  We were both out of place among the parents with their strollers and the families with their school-age kids out on summer vacation.  Yet, we bravely made it through and actually the second level was more cerebral with museum-type exhibits so there were fewer children.  I didn't take many pictures here because I was kind of un-nerved being around that many kids.

This was an exhibit highlighting non-verbal communication.

You were supposed to 'talk' with your eyes and 

the other person tries to figure out what you're saying.

Drew is saying he wants to take me, right here, right now.

True story.

We spent several hours there and once we'd had our fill of little kids pushing and shoving and not letting you linger at exhibits, we left.  Outside the Exploratorium, there's a really pretty park with this cool dome thing that everyone was taking pictures of, so of course I had to join in.

I'm sure if I googled it, I would be able to tell you what it is, but I'm too lazy.

It was very pretty though!

It took a million tries to get this picture!

This willow spoke to me.

After that, we headed down to the Fisherman's Wharf.  I'd gone the whole vacation without getting souvenirs and I at least wanted to pick up some lapel pins for my dad.  He collects them and he gets very whiny if he knows you're going somewhere and don't get any pins for him.

The wharf was so cool!  I was expecting one tiny pier with a couple of shops but it's a full-on tourist destination.  For me, that kind of took away from the atmosphere with the countless shops selling every conceivable thing that had 'San Francisco' plastered on it - mugs, sweatshirts, back scratchers, caps, coasters, shot glasses, but no lapel pins.  Drew assured me that there would be plenty of shops so we headed in.

Just as we entered, there was a long line of fresh seafood for sale.  It reminded me of a smaller version of Pike Place Market in Seattle.  I even got to hold a live crab!

Poor guy - he was going to be someone's dinner soon

I was nervous that he was going to snap at me.

Do I look like the crab?

And yes, Drew bought a dish of fresh crab meat and I ate some it and it was delicious!!  I don't feel bad about it in the slightest.  I don't eat steaks and such because I don't like the texture but I am most definitely a meat-a-saurus.  I dabbled with being a vegetarian for about five minutes once.  It won't ever happen again.

We headed further down the wharf and ended up finding the seals on Pier 39.  They are 100% wild seals that just ended up making Pier 39 their hang-out spot something like 30 years ago and they just keep coming back.  It was so cool to see them up close, sun-bathing and barking and flopping all over each other.  The baby seals were the cutest!  Baby animals I adore - baby kids make me nervous.

Drew's Blue Steel #2

Just hanging out

I wish I could have gotten closer because you can't really see how big they were.

They were massive and their barks were surprisingly loud!

I did end up finding some lapel pins for my dad but they got lost in the mail!  He was like 'No big, just go back and get me some more.'  I was really bummed because they were little badges and handcuffs saying 'guest of Alcatraz resort.'  They were really cute!  Speaking of Alcatraz...

 Welcome to the Rock!

We were too late to take a tour and I was getting hungry by that point, but at least I got to lay eyes on it!

Real live submarine!

That's a real live battleship behind it!

I snapped this right before Drew snatched me back from the edge of the water.

Aww, we made a heart with our hands.

Feel free to vomit at any time.

Sidenote:  Why do I look so huge??

By the time we headed further down the wharf for dinner, it was after five and all the normal people were off work and were out running along the wharf.  I mean, tons of people running, some of them even with no shirts on!  Didn't they know it was freezing out?  Drew told me he used to run up and down the wharf all the time with no shirt on.  Slut.

Just before I thought we would never get to our destination, we finally arrived at The Slanted Door.  It was another of Drew's favorite restaurants and we wanted to do it big on our final night of vacation.  Apparently, so did everyone else.  The place was super packed and we didn't have reservations.  They told us that the wait for a table would be two hours at the least but the bar seating was first-come, first-served.  I don't mind eating at bars so we agreed to that.  There was a couple at the end of the bar that was just finishing up and we marveled at our luck.  Without wanting to hover, we inched closer.  Just as they gathered their coats, this guy smooth stepped in front of us with his pre-teen daughter and informed us that they were there first.  I was like, we're pretty sure you weren't because you just came up out of nowhere.  He said he was waiting over on the couches that were like twenty feet away!  We got into a discussion and I was thisclose to asking him what kind of example he was setting for his daughter and that he should be ashamed of acting that way in front of her when some other seats opened up further down the bar.  We both shook our heads and just headed down to the open seats.  I hoped he choked on his water - not nice, but I was floored at his blatant rudeness!

Anyway, safely seated at the other end of the bar we prepared to feast.  And feast we did!  We started with a bottle of wine (surprise surprise) and more of the best oysters in the world.  I would eat oysters every weekend if I could.  Every day would just be silly.  

Last vacation dinner

Again, I didn't get a ton of pictures because I was too busy stuffing my face.  I would never make it as a food blogger - too often, my pictures are of empty plates.  This is no exception, but the food was divine!  We had the raw oysters, yellowtail, pork spareribs, scallops, grilled oysters, clams,  and I had the cellophane noodles as my entree.  I can't remember what Drew had - probably because I had my face in my food and was slurping it up, trough-style.  For dessert, we couldn't decide between the strawberry bread pudding and the banana tapioca with avocado ice cream and lemon meringue straws so our server graciously brought us both!  

 Avocado ice cream is surprisingly good!

And that bread pudding was just sinful!!

It was a fabulous dinner and we had a wonderful time.  There was only one sad point -  when I tried to pick something up and it fell off my fork onto the floor.  I nearly cried because all the food was so good but I immediately laughed because no sooner had my piece hit the floor, Drew picked up a bite from his plate and dropped it on the floor too!  He's so cute!

Bay Bridge with the night setting on my camera.

The night setting makes everything cool and blurry.

But on purpose.

We walked part of the way back to the hotel, and took a cab the rest of the way.  We sat next to each other, holding hands while the lights of the night sky lit up the city.  I really enjoyed the vineyards but I loooove cities at night.  To me, it's romantic and mysterious and I always wonder about allll the people that live in all those random buildings on those random corners.  Who are they?  What do they love?  What do they fear?  I usually only think about things like this when I'm in a big city at night.  There's just something magical about it.


And with that, our vacation came to a close.  The next morning we packed our bags, checked out, made arrangements to ship the wine home and once we arrived at the airport we prepared to go our separate ways.  He was flying to Minneapolis on business and I was heading home.


He got me checked in and we kissed and hugged before he got back in the cab to take him to the other side of the airport.  It was a rough start, no doubt, but we rallied and came through and ended up having a wonderful vacation, one I'm sure we'll remember for long time to come.  It was just right.