Saturday-Baltimore

I wasn't joking when I said we wanted to see a different a bigger harbor; so we did this past Saturday.

Wolfgang came here for an interview a couple months prior to getting his current job and loved it, and wanted to show it to me. Indeed the Baltimore harbor is much bigger than Annapolis harbor, and of course the ships/boats are bigger too, but I do have to say that Annapolis had more boats.

We took a stroll around the harbor, ate at Potbelly where Wolfgang's love for the place all began, and even went in a ridiculous candy store.

The National Aquarium is also there, and I do have plans of going back and touring it. If you know me, you know I love me some marine animals and plants (yes, plants too).  After going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, I vowed to go to any worth-while aquarium that I have the chance to.

Believe it or not, the water in Baltimore is not pixely. I used my panoramic function, and must have moved too much.

California.

The goal of this blog post is to effectively share about our visit to CA, with minimal amount of words and pictures; I'm usually not so good at this. We'll see how it goes.}

Back in around April or so, Wolfgang and I randomly decided we wanted to go to San Francisco for our wedding anniversary this year. We bought cheap flights then waited, and waited, and waited....and finally were able to go this past Thurs-Tuesday. We had a great time, and took over 400 pictures. Ridiculous, right? I'm pretty sure we can delete a slew of them though.

Here's the condensed version of our vacation:

We flew into L.A. thursday morning and headed up to Paso Robles, where my aunt and uncle live. It had been 10 years since I had last seen my uncle, and a few years short of that since I had seen my aunt. It was so great to see them and to enjoy their company, and of course for them to finally meet the husband. Unfortunately, I have no pictures to prove this event, but it did indeed happen. We stayed with them that night, and then again on our way back. I swear these two will never age. I hope to be like them. They are so fun to be around, and it was good to catch up, reminisce, and play with the pets too, of course. We even watched a 20 yr old home video of when we all were together on the lake, and it was pretty funny.

The next day we headed up to San Fran! We were there for 3 nights, and stayed at two Marriotts, obviously. There we did all the touristy stuff, like:

Had delicious fresh clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl from Boudin (it's a must),



while meeting up with one of our good friends from Hawaii, and also having ridiculous sundaes at Ghiradelli Square. We miss his presence.

We took our time heading up the coast, so that's pretty much all we had time for the first day.

The next day, we went to China Town. Wolfgang was overwhelmed {in a good way, I guess} by all the crap you could by in the stores. His most favorite find apparently was this: (enough to take a picture of it). Thank goodness he didn't actually buy it, or anything for that matter.


We ate at a restaurant there in China Town for lunch, and that was an experience in itself.

Next we headed over to the Fisherman's Wharf to check out the Sea Lions. May I add that they were hilarious? I could have watched them for hours; they were just naturally comical. The extremely passed out ones were my favorite.

The little light colored Sea Lion in this picture, can you see it? (below) He's completely passed out with his neck and head completely cocked back! Ouch. So funny.
These two were pretty funny also. The big one in the front kept having his mouth in the water, but he was so out of it that every time he would somewhat notice, he would take his head out of the water...then it would end up right back where it was. The little guy next to him is so cute too!



We finished the day off with good ol' Lombard Street. Such a beautiful street with beautiful landscapes and cute houses!



The next day was our 2 year anniversary! Time flies. We had an amazing breakfast then we met up with my wonderful first roommate in Hawaii. She was so great to live with, and is a wonderful hostess/tour guide. First time I came to San Fran I stayed with her and her wonderful family. We ate lunch at Ike's Place which was pretty dang tasty. We then went to the wonderfully beautiful area of Presidio with its huge mansions nearby, old military homes, and beautiful parks. It was also the first time I had ever seen a huge military cemetery. It was very humbling. There we took pictures of the magnificent Golden Gate Bridge.
From there we went to "The Painted Ladies," because Wolfgang insisted on seeing the "Full House" {early 90s TV show} house. Needless to say we don't know which one it was? Pretty sure it was painted since then, or its really none of the above.



Obviously there were other more important things than us when taking this picture...



Our next big event was the following day on our way out of town, when we went to Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was SO cool. I've been wanting to go to this for years, ever since I saw it on tv or something for the first time. Since in my next life I will be a marine biologist {didn't really work out in this life} and my obsessed love for the ocean and its creatures, I had a great time, and so did Wolfgang too. Sometimes I am so overwhelmed by the beauty and complexity of God's creations, that I can't help but tear up a bit and just be in a total euphoric mood. Luckily no crying at the Aquarium.

We took way too many pictures there, but here are just a few.


Someday, I WILL pet you, dearest Killer Whale.


Well, it looks like I failed on my goal for this post.

We had a great time, even if I had an obnoxious head cold the whole time {it started the day we started our vacation. So convenient, right?}. The weather was great, a little cold but it was nice to be cold rather than dying in the heat for once. We were happy and glad we had the opportunity to take this nice little trip.