March 28, 2017 - Tanya's Annual Trip to Park City - Day 9 - San Francisco

Elisa's Daily Scoop
NEXT TRIP DEPARTS IN: 15 DAYS
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Fun Facts about The City by the Bay

Hey!  

​So, can I tell you how I feel like Florence Nightingale - I've got both kids home - each for their own reasons -- Kelsey came down with a helluva a cold on Sunday and it really blossomed yesterday.  WTH - she is always sick this year.

And Gianna did something to injure her back on Saturday and had a horrible back ache all day Sunday and yesterday, with awful spasms.  

Between getting Kelsey food, tylenol, nasal spray, an unending supply of water and tissues, I was giving Gianna back rubs, ice packs, anti-imflammatories and of course food!

So, although I have a bunch of things to do today, I'm still nursing these girlies back to health!

Well, as Tanya's mother-daughter trip to Park City, Utah is coming to its end, her last destination before heading back to SoCal is San Francisco.

Have I mentioned that the City by The Bay - SAN FRANCISCO - is one of my absolute FAVORITE cities?

​From my first visit in 1993 and then another visit in 1995 and again in 2000, I would have to say, hands-down, next to New York, this is a city I feel the most at home in.

Why?  Well, it's actually a great deal like New York only it's a smaller, cleaner and "Hilly-er" version of The Big Apple, in my humble opinion.

With lots of ethnic pockets, great food, financial district, water views for miles, I felt right at home from the moment I arrived.

It's known for its year-round fog, iconic Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars and colorful Victorian houses. The Financial District's Transamerica Pyramid is its most distinctive skyscraper.

In the bay sits Alcatraz Island, site of the notorious former prison. I totally enjoyed my visit to Alcatraz - as a tourist, not a prisoner lol - during my trip in 1993.
 
A View Into Life on "The Rock" in San Francisco

ALCATRAZ ISLAND (credit: alcatrazcruises.com)

How much do you know about San Francisco?  
Let's take a look...

17 Fun Facts About San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO'S GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE (c) travelincousins.com

1. San Francisco is  Spanish for Saint Francis was founded on June 29, 1776, when colonists from Spain established Presidio of San Francisco at the Golden Gate and Mission San Francisco de Asís named for St. Francis of Assisi a few miles away.

2. San Francisco is the most densely settled large city (population greater than 200,000) in California and the second-most densely populated major city in the United States after New York City.

3. San Francisco was part of Mexico until the Mexican-American War in 1848.

4. Before it was renamed to San Francisco, this small city by the bay was called Yerba Buena. Yerba Buena means, "Good herb" in Spanish. It was founded in 1776, but renamed in 1846. 

5. SF has the second largest Chinatown outside of Asia. It's also the oldest in North America. It is around one mile long by one and a half miles wide. More than 100,000 people live in Chinatown. It's the most densely populated neighborhood in the city.

6. Although Lombard Street is the "crookedest" street and gets all the attention, Filbert Street between Hyde and Leavenworth Streets is the steepest at 31.5 degrees!
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(credit: mentalfloss.com)

Did You Know...
7. The Chinese fortune cookie was invented by a Japanese resident
of San Francisco named Makoto Hagiwara .

8. The Asian Art Museum has pieces of art from around 221 BC., found in the China exhibit.

9. The United Nations Charter was drafted and ratified in San Francisco in 1945.

10. It took only four years to build the Golden Gate Bridge (1933 - 1937). The recent rebuilding of the Oakland side of the Bay Bridge took 11 years (2002 - 2013).

11. When Al Capone was held at Alcatraz, he gave regular Sunday concerts with the inmate band, the Rock Islanders. He played the banjo.

12. ​The bear on California’s state flag is modeled after a California grizzly named Monarch, who was held at Golden Gate Park.

(credit: mentalfloss)

​13. The city’s cable cars are the only National Historical Monument that can move.

14. The neighborhoods of Marina, Mission Bay, and Hunters Point are all built atop a landfill.

15. The city is home to more than 50 film festivals each year, including a Greek Film Festival, a Jewish Film Festival and The American Indian Film Festival.

16. It wasn't the earthquake that did most of the damage in 1906. The fires that started after the earthquake caused about 90% of the damage to the city.

​17. Very interesting - the color of the Golden Gate Bridge is called "International Orange." It wasn't a color from the original list of options. It was actually the primer used to protect the steel for the bridge during transit! But the architect loved it more than the other options, so he selected it as the official color.
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I want to give you an update on my two upcoming trips:

Gianna's 13th Birthday Trip to London with the Cousins

I won't lie - I'm in a bit of disbelief that this trip is two weeks away!!!

I have been planning it now for well over a year and to think we will be walking the streets of London in 15 days feels a bit surreal!

Bookings are just about finalized with one last reservation to be made for Afternoon Tea on our last and final day in London.

Necessity wise, we are in amazing shape -- I even purchased electrical adapters for charging our electronic devices and using our hair dryer.

Our suitcases are out and the packing is just about complete!

Cheerio!!!

Cousins Chicago Road Trip 
The end of June will be here before we know it and thankfully, Tanya are in great shape for our road trip from New York to Pennsylvania, through Ohio to Indiana and finally to Chicago.

This trip is really just about complete with all the bookings that are necessary.
Tanya and I booked our hotel for the two nights that we will be in Chicago of our trip.

All that is left for me to do is to book my hotel in Cleveland on the return drive back after Tanya and I say our goodbyes in Chicago as she heads to Miami and the All-Star Game.

Getting so excited!!


Well, I'm meeting my girlfriend for lunch today, so I'm going to head out now!

Have a wonderful one!!

-E
xoxo

Tanya's Daily Scoop
CURRENTLY TRAVELING IN:
SAN FRANCISCO

What a lovely drive..

​Well hello out there! 

GREETINGS FROM SAN FRANCISCO!

We've been coming up to this city by the bay for years and years and years...since my little Cosette was a wee little baby of only 5 months old. 

And I've been coming for years even before that with my first visit on a California vacation that we took with my Ma, Skip, Jet, and baby brother Michael (well perhaps not so much baby - but he was a toddler).

1989 trip to SF (c) travelincousins.com

Since my fam bam doesn't do much traveling (to say the least) this was definitely a trip that stood out for me and it was also only a couple of weeks before the BIG OAKLAND EARTHQUAKE of 1989 - remember that one?

The one that caused: A 1.25-mile segment of the two-level Interstate 880, just south of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, to collapse during the quake, resulting in 42 fatalities when the upper level of the road crashed onto the cars on the lower level.    It was awful and scary to think that we had just crossed this very same spot of weeks prior!

credit: huffingtonpost.com

Well apparently that wasn't enough to stop me from all my future visits.  In fact when the kiddos were younger we use to come up about one a year (or more) and stay an average of a week - where nowadays we only stay a few days at most.
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My sweeties circa 2003 (c)travelincousins.com

Our 2015 visit (c)travelincousins.com

We have lots of in our plans for the day:

• Twin Peaks
• Lombard Street
• Golden Gate Bridge
• Palace of Fine Arts
• and maybe Alamo Square

So be sure to tune back in tomorrow to check out how our day goes and to see all of the pictures that you know I'll be taking!

For now let me give you a quick summary from our day in Kirkwood yesterday and our drive over to San Francisco...

It was a beautiful day and we left South Lake Tahoe for the Kirkwood Ski Resort.. 

Since we are renting skis for Cosette this season, our first stop was the rental office and then off we were to hit the slopes...

The only problem was that Cosette absolutely HATED her skis and would not stop complaining about them!!!

Here are some of her comments:

"It's like going from a sports car to a golf cart and not a nice golf cart like the ones on Catalina."

"You don't give somebody pearls for two days and then give them plastic!"

"Dominic might be a great skier."
Then I replied: "Dominic is already a GREAT skier and has never complained about his skis"
and Cosette said "He has never tasted those..."

All referring to Twin Tip Skis and the skis she had rented from Ski Butler's that I think we can say she is officially in love with!!!

And yet after all of the complaining we both survived. And after the last lift of the season and everything had closed, we were back on the road and on our way to San Fran.

Taking highway 88 for most of the way was really one of the most lovely and scenic drives that I have ever taken in California - I was truly amazed and in awe.  

With the vineyards, lush green rolling hills and free to roam grazing cows, horses and sheep - I honestly felt as though I was driving through parts of Europe!

It was so beautiful. Why hadn't I ever been on this road before??

Then arriving into the bay, we settled in, and made our way to dinner.

After years of being curious about the Santuary Bistro, we finally made it and it was delicious (but I've already uploaded soooo many pics that I'll skip of the food shots for now and show you them later on).

And now the time has come for us to head on outta here and do some exploring!

Ciao 4 now,
​-T