The Sights and Delights of San Fran

Oh San Fran, if only we had longer to take you all in! We had only scheduled in one day in the foggy city so we woke up early and packed in as much as we could! We headed down to the waterfront...

By was loving this contraption made from skateboards!

There was a pretty good view out to Alcatraz...

and down at Fisherman's Wharf it was blue skies all the way!

I was loving how well I remembered my way around the city...despite it being 9 years since I was here last! We headed to Ghiradelli Square...

to check out this cute little cupcakery, Kara's Cupcakes.

S'mores and key lime pie! Two of my fave ever flavours!

Since it was still a little too early for cupcake indulging, even for me, we got our cakes to go!

and headed over to Ghiradelli! We bought some of their amazing bars of toasted coconut chocolate...

and watched these huge vats churning out chocolate in action!

No visit to San Fran is complete without spotting the cable cars!

Pier 39 was buzzing...but unfortunately the sea lions were nowhere in sight! They had left their little wooden platforms empty!

You can't get more California than some palm trees and pure blue skies!

We headed over to the Ferry building because I'd heard such good things about it!

It was a haven for foodies with delightful delicacies everywhere you turned! Really the problem with San Fran is it just has too much delicious food that it was impossible to consume it all within 24 hours!!

I had to stop at Miette, everything looked so beautiful!

and we picked up some french macarons for the road!

We stopped for a spot of lunch at this cute diner called Gott's Roadside...

because when somewhere has mint Oreo milkshakes on the menu it would be rude not too!

I balanced out my calorific day by having crudites as a side rather than fries!

By went all out with a malted choc shake and garlic fries with his burger.

After we got to ride on this super cute vintage cable car back to where we had parked our car...apparently it was from Liverpool or something hence why there was a British Flag flying on the back of it!

San Fran has some really beautiful old buildings...and also cool street names so I had to snap the one below!

We headed to Union Square to see my favourite hearts! We saw all 3 of the other ones first and I was determined to find the one with the Golden Gate Bridge on...hoping it would still be there 9 years after Mel and I first posed with it so I was super happy when we stumbled upon it!

I fell in love with this patriotic KitchenAid in Macy's!!

and then we headed to the enormous Converse store! I loved their display in the middle of the shop!

and their slogan behind the till! This is also where we bought baby Braithwaite's first little pair!

I had heard there were some amazing views to be had up at Buena Vista Park...so we went in search of them and certainly weren't disappointed! San Fran has an awesome skyline.

To reward ourselves for reaching the top, we chowed down on our Kara's cupcakes we had bought that morning!

Our hosts we were staying with recommended a trip to Anthony's Cookies too in the Mission...

It was the cutest little shop selling solely cookies, and decorated with jars of milk all around the shop - I don't know why I didn't take a pic!

We got some delicious cookies - their Oreo flavour was my fave! 

That evening we had planned to head to the legendary Bi-rite Creamy and check out an awesome Mexican restaurant in the Mission, but after some last minute web browsing we saw there were still tickets going for the baseball game that night!

We simply couldn't pass up the opportunity to do something so American! so we got our tickets and headed down to the ball game! 

I thought I was incredibly cool with my giant foam finger!! ready to support the Giants against the New York Mets!

Of course...being preggo I couldn't go for the obligatory hot dog! so I ventured for something slightly more healthy instead sadly!

and then the game started! I didn't really understand 100% of what was going on since I don't know the rules of baseball, but when people wearing orange cheered I joined in! and I was loving all the little chants and things going on...just like you see on T.V!

Sadly the Giants lost the game, but it was still an exciting game to see! and since it was my first ever baseball game it will always be a memorable one!

San Fran...you were amazing!

California...here we come!

  

Of course, we all know the state I was most excited about reaching was my beloved California! I had devised an awesome playlist with all the best Cali tunes and so as we approached this sign it was only appropriate that we had 'California here we come...' blasting out of the stereo! We drove by too fast and I snapped a blurry shot of the sign above so of course I made By go back so I could document our arrival to the Golden State officially!

We stopped at the road for a little spot of fresh fruit picking! to keep the pregnant me happy!

The raspberries we picked were totally delish!

and then it was on to By's favourite part of the trip - the Redwoods! We stopped and spent the day at Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park.

We hiked the Boy Scout Tree trail...

which led to some very large encounters indeed! The pic above really puts thing in proportion when you see me compared to the trees!

By snapped this awesome 360 panorama of me and all the trees!

Just when we thought we'd seen the biggest one yet, we'd keep finding even bigger ones!

It made for a pretty spectacular walk! 

Eventually we made it to the infamous tree!

Just to give you an idea of how huge it is...that's Byron and I with our arms outstretched as far as they will go and we didn't even cover nearly a 1/4 of the tree!

I'm used to Byron being so much taller than me so it's funny to see how those trees dwarfed him!

We headed on to the little town of Leggett...

especially to pay a visit to the 'drive-thru' tree!

and there's Byron driving our little hire car on through! 

It's pretty crazy that the trunk is fat enough for a whole car to fit through!

Fortunately these days there is a lot more preservation going on so nothing like this would ever be allowed these days and the Redwoods are really protected...but it was still a bit of a novelty to be able to drive through a tree!

We camped the night at another state park nearby, and headed out early the next morning.  Passing 101 road signs still bring a smile to my face! 

We drove through a lot of vineyards in the wine country, until eventually we made it to Fairfield - the home of the Jelly Belly!

My family are huge Jelly Belly fans! My sisters and I used to belong to the Jelly Belly fan club when I was like 8, and we used to get sent free samples of new flavours through the post! 

I remember 9 years ago when Mel and I were in San Fran we saw a leaflet for Jelly Belly World in the hostel we were staying at, and we were so desperate to go! but it wasn't possible to get to it by public transport...so 9 years later we made it happen! and Mel made it happen on their Californian road trip last year too.

So we stopped and had lunch first before the tour...because one thing I learnt quickly on our road trip was that hungry pregnant ladies can get angry quickly! 

and where else in the world can you get a jelly belly bean shaped burger?! 

we also tried these amazing deep fried mac and cheese bites!

and I got a jelly belly shaped pepperoni pizza!

Lunch was a hit! and then we went on our tour of the factory where we got to see exactly how Jelly Belly beans are made! It was awesome, unfortunately you weren't allowed to take pics on the tour, but I'll leave you with this one on the way out of a bear made entirely from jelly belly's! so clever!

  

After our day of Jelly Belly fun we headed to San Fran.  As we arrived it was approaching evening, and I decided we should head to Sausalito to get a good view of the San Fran skyline...because look how blue and awesome the sky was!

 but oh San Fran, how could I forget about you and your fog! so this is the best we could manage!!

We stopped off at the side of the Golden Gate, only to be surrounded by more fog! 

So I present to you not even half of the bridge!!

 but I still love it all the same!

 spooky mist and all!

We arrived into the city just as it got dark.  We had arranged to stay with a random couple through the website air b n b, and they wanted to take us to this local ice cream place down the road which was meant to be super popular!

 Clearly, this idea went down well with us! So we headed to Mitchell's...

By went for a monster waffle cone of Reese's choc pb cup ice cream...

 and I just had to try one of their delicious ice cream sandwiches! mint Oreo sandwiched between two fresh choc chip cookies! It was the perfect way to start our sugar filled 24 hours in the city!