San Francisco, Part Two

After spending a few days at Shawn's brother's house, it was time for us to take a little anniversary trip on our own. Mid-afternoon Saturday, we went to a hotel near the San Francisco airport. It wasn't exactly prime location for visiting the city, but it was only a little over a mile to the closest BART station, so we just walked there and then took the train into the city.

On Saturday night, we explored North Beach, which is an Italian neighborhood. We found a really good Italian restaurant for dinner...they even make their own pasta right in the restaurant. We also made a little stop after dinner at Cafe Grecco for coffee and a cannoli!

On Sunday, we started out by walking through Chinatown. Then we went through part of North Beach again, since it was on our way. Our walk also took us past a few really nice churches, like Old St. Mary's Cathedral (which was originally dedicated in 1854 and partially survived the 1906 earthquake and fire), the National Shrine of St. Francis of Assissi (which, ironically, is run and taken care of by Dominicans), and Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral (which is the church that Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio had their wedding pictures taken in front of). We eventually made it down to Ghiradelli Square (where we bought some chocolate and stopped for really good cupcakes), followed by Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39. Here are a few pictures, although we realized that we didn't take very many, for some reason.
Oh, and I forgot to mention Lombard Street. Lombard Street is famous for being the "windiest" street in the country; there are 8 switchbacks in one block! Shawn's brother drove us down it on Friday morning, and here's a picture of the angle that we saw on Sunday. You might have to click on the picture to make it big enough to see the cars going back and forth at the top of the hill.