And to finish it up:

Because of the way Blogger works it's much easier to split this up into two posts. This is the second of the two to finish up our SF trip.

This is the typical view we had of the Golden Gate bridge. Although very pretty in it's own way, we never really got a chance to appreciate the entire bridge at once. A little disappointing, but still impressive. I once saw a documentary of how this bridge was made, and it's quite the feat of engineering.

The Ferry Building.
A landmark built in the location of what was a ferry port. This building is full of 'foodie' shops; expensive food, kitchen utensil shops and the like. We bought expensive but delicious dark chocolate (Green and Blacks organic ginger-yum! I'm enjoying some with a cup of tea at the moment.) The plaza outside is the location of a massive weekly farmer's market that probably would have been fun to see.

Breaking the law by hanging out of the cable car. SF has 5 different public transit systems, one of which is these classic cable cars.

Katrina and I on the same cable cars.

Not a great picture, but a view of one of the typical hills in SF. A very hilly place-think Duluth hill multiplied many times. You can also see two of the cable cars we were riding on here, although only an end view. Aren't they cute?

They grow massive seagulls there. And they're louder than ours are.

Sunday morning we came upon Andy's car and this was the greeting we got. And it was raining. Arg.
Thankfully, they got a total of about $4 or so.

Katrina with the city in the background.

Being a full blooded country girl-whose son and hubby love tractors-I had to grab this pic.

The Six Sisters. Beautiful houses with the city skyline in the background (I didn't get the best view of it all) made famous by the opening scene in some TV shows and movies.

The twistyest street in SF. If you look closely, you can see the many, many switchbacks here. Just down the block are streets that are only stairs. There are actually addresses on those streets, mail delivery and all.

A few other interesting things we saw include:

• San Fran's only independently owned pirate shop (great for many laughs),
• A unicorn.
• Alcatraz prison-although we didn't have time to tour it,
• Nob hill-a very-as in millions of dollars-expensive location,
• Chinatown-which had some of the most terrifying(heehee) markets I've been in (think whole dried fish in a bag, dried shark fin, dried unidentifiable everything!),
• Wonderful burritos, made with fresh, handmade tortillas-yum!
  
• And a bonafied, true blue, you-think-you'll-never-see-one-in-America, sweatshop. Ladies at sewing machines, less than code working conditions, jabbering away in other languages, with piles of clothing around them. This was a shocker we happened upon when checking out an empty space a nonprofit Andy is involved in might rent. Huh, they do exist. Sad.
  

And last of all, my welcome home committee!

All in all, a wonderful trip. If you ever find yourself in the area, take the time to check out the city!