Fourth of July!

For the Fourth of July this year, Eriks and I decided to have it be just the two of us.  It was really nice to have some time for just the two of us because we haven't had a lot of it lately.  In the morning, we decided to go to the Palo Alto Annual Chili Cook Off.  It was a lot smaller than we thought it was, but it was cute.  We ended up just getting some snow cones before leaving to go to the city.

Me after getting ready for a day of festivities

My patriotic toes!

Us and our red tongues from our snow cones.  I had watermelon and Eriks had Cherry.

At 2:30 Eriks and I took the train into the city

The train ride took about 40 minutes but it was a fun ride.  I am always so excited to see this sight as we come into the city.  I love San Francisco!

As per our usual,  we stopped at Safeway for a snack before we began our 3 mile walk to Pier 39.  This time, we decided on Skittles.  It is fun when we get Skittles because we fight like children over the red and purple ones :)

It was kind of weird because the city was unusually quiet.  You wouldn't have believed it was the weekend or a holiday because it was so quiet.  We did get this really cool pic though.  The two of us were the only ones on the street.  If you notice, there wasn't even anyone driving, all of those cars are parked.

When we got to the bay, there was this really cool guy drumming on pots and pans.  He sounded great!  He also had this sign (I wish I would have taken a picture of it) that talked about him and his work.  It also talked about how he doesn't panhandle or do drugs or drink.  The sign also talked about how he believes people should handle themselves.  It was really neat.  I gave him our last dollar (in cash) mainly because of his sign.  When I put the dollar in, unexpectedly he burst into a thank you song.  I had so much fun standing there and listening to him!

Once we got to the piers we decided to take a breather.  We always stop at the same spot.  It has kind of become our usual stop sot.

I love him <3

I don't know why, but I absolutely love these things!  They are what the boats/ships get tied up to when they are docked.  They always make me feel so tiny.

After resting for a while, we made our way down to Pier 39.  One of my favorite things to do when we are in San Francisco is to go to this candy shop and get fresh salt water taffy.  Mmmmmm so so good!  After that, we went to go look at Alcatraz.  The water was so choppy that the waves were coming up and splashing people on the docks!  It was crazy!  I have never seen it do that before.

Now, before we left home, Eriks told me that I should bring a coat cuz it would probably get cold because of the fog.  My response was:  "It is so hot, I am not gonna need a jacket.  Besides I don't want to lug around a coat all day.  I'll be fine"  Well... It got cold and I had to buy a sweatshirt. (which we got on sale for $22 and it was pink, zipped up and super cute so it turned out okay!).  So we stopped in this store that had this giant crab out in front.  It was too cute not to take a picture of.

After our shopping fun, we decided to head down to Fisherman's Wharf.  As we were walking, we passed this place:

It was a museum of antique arcade games.  These weren't from the 80's, these were from the turn of the century to the 40's.  They were so cool.  Eriks and I had so much fun walking around and looking at all of the fun machines!

After having some old fashioned fun, Eriks and I went to go look at a WWII submarine and ship. These particular ones were built buy Rosie the Riveter (well the women she represented)  They were giving tours of the inside for only $10 but Eriks and I decided to come back in a couple of weeks to do the tour.  It will be fun!

The Submarine

Me as Rosie : )

The War Ship

It actually had a picture of a naked lady on the front of it that Eriks and I thought was funny and took a picture of, but I thought that it might be just a little inappropriate to post on my blog.

One of the huge anchors (and me with my new sweatshirt.  I told you it was cute)

After a short history lesson, we decided to have some dinner.  We went to this small place down the street from Fisherman's Wharf.  The food was really good. (Too bad it gave me food poisoning)

For desert we went to Ghirardelli Square!  I was so flippin' excited!  This was my first time there.  Boy was it fun.  Eriks was such a trooper he bought me a $4.50 candy bar and waited patiently with me for 30 minutes for our hot chocolate.

While we were waiting in line

I was just a little excited about my candy bar to say the least...

Me with my candy bar and hot chocolate

By this time, it was starting to get dark so we thought it would be good to walk back to Pier 39 to watch the fireworks.  We got there an hour ahead of time and got a good spot. 

We ended up sitting next to some people from Minnesota.  We had a lot of fun chatting with them while waiting for the fireworks.  Well... 9:15 came and we started to hear some booms!  But... we saw nothing!  The fog was so thick we couldn't see the fireworks!  It was a little disappointing but we had such a fun day that it didn't bother us too much.  We still had 3 miles to walk back to the train station so we decided just to start walking back.  It was kind of funny because there was undoubtedly thousands of people walking toward the fireworks while we were going against the grain.  We were in awe because of the amount of people. 

While walking to the train station, I saw this.  I will let you guess why I took a picture of it

By the time we got back to the train I was exhausted, and fell asleep.  Eriks took a picture of me.

It was such a fun day!  Eriks and I had a great time!  Happy Birthday America!