It's a jungle out there (well actually a rainforest . . .)

Yesterday was the last day of Dad's conference! Yay!  So we got to spend the whole day doing stuff.  It was weird to actually be eating dinner at 5PM instead of at 8PM lol.  We checked out of the hotel at 11AM and then dropped one of dad's friends off at the airport.  Then we drove back to San Jose and stopped by the Tech Museum.  And . . . they wouldn't let us n because we had just renewed our membership and didn't have a recent card with us.  Then we drove the the ExplOratorium, and they wouldn't let us in either for the same reason.  here's a couple pictures of the hotel that I didn't get earlier in the week.

Oh, I thought I looked like an engineer with all of my over stuffed bags . . . so dad took a picture :)

This is the outside of the hotel--where you pull your car up to. and that's our car.

This is the hallway to the left when you first come in.

This is the sitting area to the right and there that weird Affinity fountain.

So here's a picture of me in the really cool chair!!

and this is the outside of the hotel

 And we drove under the golden gate bridge!

and under the rainbow bridge lol (ok it's the rainbow tunnel, but I think driving under rainbow bride is funnier)

I wasn't really that excited about going to Muir Woods because . . . well, I live in the woods.  So I didn't think it would be that cool.  I was soooooooooooooooooooo wrong.  We barely walked into the forest before it was time to leave because I was walking to incredibly slow!  That was the most beautiful forest EVER!  I took about 200 pictures at least (haha, I bet you're really jealous, Laura :p).  and actually I think I got some good ones too.  They're all on my mom's camera so I'll put those on the blog later.  I did get a couple with my camera though.

Here's a sideways panorama of a tree.  It was the only way to get the whole tree in the picture

Dad.

The Muir Woods sign.

 And here's me in front of a giant tree.

So then after we went to Muir Woods is the time we decided to go to the ExplOratorium.  And, like I said before, we didn't end up going.  But, they had this art palace right next door with these awesome Corinthian style columns.

Then after that we parked not too far away to go eat dinner and walk around the pier area.  This is right near pier 39 that we went to a few days ago.  In fact we ate right across from Pier 41.  First we walked through Ghirardelli Square and I was so hungry I was ready to eat just about anything.  So I immediately picked out a 50s diner called Lori's (I think).  But when we were in line dad pulled out his map and I saw another restaurant that I decided I would much rather go to.  My hunger could definitely wait!  So, we walked a couple of blocks and then got to our restaurant.

Yes, we ate at the Rainforest Cafe!!!!  I love RFC!!  This was the most amazing RFC i've ever been in.  It had three floors and was built kind of like a tree house.  I got a couple of pictures--but the lighting was bad.  We were in the under the sea room.  Dad ordered Mahi Mahi and strawberry lemonade and I ordered Maya's Mushroom Ravioli served in lobster sauce . . . so good!  And I had raspberry lemonade freeze in a cool light-up cup.

These are the stars at the top of the third floor.  I'm on the bottom floor looking up.

You can barely see the railing of the second and third floors.

Dad

Me.  These look weird because I used the flash on my cell phone camera . . . and it really doesn't work that well.

 Ok, this is from the top floor looking down.

Here's dad on the top floor.

Here's me on the top floor.

And here's me and an awesome gorilla.

We walked around a bunch of other stores after that and then it started getting really cold and windy so we headed back to Ghirardelli square. 

This is the ice cream shop we ate at.  Dad had dark chocolate and I had cookies and cream.  It was pretty good ice cream :)

This is as much of the Ghirardell sign as I could get in a picture from where I was standing.  lol and I just noticed it says "mustard" in the lower left-hand corner :p

This is a ship that I saw on the way in!

And we went down Lombard street.

We got to out hotel around 9PM.  I thought it would be weird going from the Hilton to America's Best Value.  So the Hilton was around $300 a night (dad's company paid for that) and this one is only $70.  When we got to our room we started laughing.  It was humongous!  We even had a deck and a kitchen! lol.  It was cheap so there were some downsides.  There was a teeny bit of mold on the bathroom window and there was no setting in the shower between boiling lava hot and extra freezing cold . . . so yeah that wasn't so nice.  But, it was way better than we expected!

That's it for now!  Have a great day.

Funny thing on Pier 39

So, I totally forgot to post this in the last post.  anyways this is hilarious.

Just as dad and I were headed to the car, this older guy came up and started talking to us and wanted money for his church (yeah right . . . at 10PM when no one else is on the pier??).  So he was really nice but then he said something to dad about his wife.  Well dad and I both started laughing and we're like trying to explain that I'm his daughter and not his wife lol . . . :)  The guy was a little embarrassed, but he laughed it off.  Right before we left the pier we ran into him again and he said "oh, there's that cute couple again haha" and started laughing.  Either I look 40 or dad looks 20 . . . or maybe we both look 30 lol

Pier 39

Well I'm pretty sure it was pier 39 . . . I think.  Yes, it was definitely Pier 39.

So yesterday was the first day of dad's conference so I just hung out in the hotel room and did some blogging and some emails.  I was going to go outside and walk around . . . but it's like really cold here right now.  I know it's only 10AM, but CAN IT WARM UP SOON PLEASE!!!!!  It's supposed to be 80 today, but it's only 60 right now . . . but, I feel better knowing that it's still warmer here than back at home.

I also played with the camera on my phone and found out a bunch of cool stuff . . . like that I have a panorama setting!  So here's a panorama of our messy hotel room.  It kind looks like something from Alice in Wonderland because after I figured out how to do the panorama I also figured out that I could hold the camera at weird angles to get an effect like this:


I suppose you'll want to know what we did yesterday.  Well at first I really wanted to go to the wax museum in San Francisco but then dad talked me into going to the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum instead. . . . we ended up not doing either.  Since Ripley's was open until 10PM we decided to walk around the wharf for a little, eat, then go to the museum for an hour.  But, as soon as we got to the pier we seriously had the exact same idea at the exact same time--so we just walked around the pier for a couple of hours, ate dinner, and skipped the museums (which, imo, was probably way funner).

Before we got to the parking garage I saw this ginormous bow and arrow.  I just barely had time to grab my camera and take a picture before we passed it.  There were a couple of other things like that that I wanted to get a picture of (like a rocket and this cool tower) but we passed by too quickly and the first take was . . . not good. lol

 So first we walked around the wharf for a little bit and walked into a few shops and tried to decide where to eat.  There were two amazingly awesome stores there (that i forgot to get a picture of!!!! no!! oh well, I think we might be going back there sometime this week and then I'll get a picture of them).  So there was this store called Ireland Treasures and I think the name is self explanatory.  So it had all this cool Irish jewelry and stuff like that.  And then there was this really really cool (I already said amazingly awesome) shell store.  I can't remember the name (stupid me) but I'm pretty sure it was just called The Shell Shop.  Anyways, it was pretty small, but they had an amazing selection of rare shells for sale.  My favorite was this shelf of nautilus shells--and I really want one!  Oh, and in case you didn't know, I collect shells.

So, eventually we reached the end of the pier and saw Alcatraz island and a bunch of other stuff.  Ok, so please forgive me for the poor quality of the night pictures.  We did bring my mom's nice camera, but we left it in the car so we just used my phone camera again (which is fine for during the day but at night . . . not so good.  the flash doesn't work that great).

Here's a very blurry picture of Alcatraz (it's those lights in the center of the picture.)

This is some city that I could see across the water to the right.

This is the view to the left of the pier.

 here's my dad on the pier.

and here's me on the pier.

To tell you the truth, I don't actually remember taking this picture because I remember thinking that I wanted to take a picture with the pier 39 sign . . . and apparently i did.

So there was this really cool merry-go-round with two stories!

Look in the center and there's a second level of horses and stuff to ride on!

We finally decided to eat at Neptune's Palace.  haha and it was like a really fancy restaurant.  We didn't know it at the time, but they only served wine as a drink . . . so we ended up with water.  Anyway the food was REALLY good!  And our seats looked directly out on to the water :) 

Here's my dad trying to decide what to eat.

Here's me :p

Ok, so I should have taken a picture of the food before I ate it . . . but I didn't think of it until after I finished lol.  So dad ordered the grilled swordfish and we shared that (he wasn't that hungry).  it was amazingly good.  My mom doesn't like seafood  so I never get to eat it (except for tuna and salmon . . . blech).  So, it was really fun to get fish FINALLY!  I was also afraid that I wouldn't like it because I had never had the chance to try it before, but it was soooo good.

Ok so I also ordered a side of mac n cheese.  It actually wasn't that good . . . but I thought it was hilarious that a fancy restaurant had a side of mac n cheese lol. 

I also had a cup of clam chowder.  And it was the BESTEST ever clam chowder . . . ever . . . I'm serious.  So you can see how ridiculously small the cup is and it was $6 lol!  But dad and I both agreed that it was totally worth it.  It was really the best clam chowder I've ever, ever, ever had.

 here's a picture of me outside Neptune's Palace

 We walked around for a few more minutes.  And, of course, I couldn't resist going back into the shell store and staring at the nautilus shell that was too expensive to buy . . . :( (dad said maybe we'd go back and he'd buy it for me!)

So here's a picture of the pier from the entrance

there was this weird crab statue out in front of the pier . . . and it's body is a bush cut into the shape of a heart.  So, I named it "The Crab of Love."

So my dad said he wanted to take a picture of me in front of the "crab of love."  and it's a little blurry, but it's still cool.

Remember how I said I figured out how to do the panorama earlier?  So here's a panorama of the pier.

We passed some really cool bridge on the way home and here's a pic I got through the front window.

That's it for now!