Alright, after my hiatus of blogging, I will try this again. We’ve done so many fun things this year and I want to remember them all!
First off, a trip to San Fransisco this past February. California holds so many memories for me. Yes, there are the family trips that I loved, when we went to Disneyland and Seaworld, but it is also the state that I have traveled to most often without my family. Two high school Music Department trips, where we smoked everyone in competitions for choir, orchestra, and band; one Disneyland trip with my best friend and her brother’s family; a trip with Colton’s family for a week-long stay at the beach; and the most recent, a college trip with my Murals class. I’d already graduated this past December but the trip was set for the end of February, so it was nice to see all my classmates again in a non-school setting.
This was also the very first trip I would take without Colton since we got married. So I was excited about the trip but anxious to be without him, since he wouldn’t be there to solve my problems if any arose, and I had to be an actual adult by myself for once. Sigh. It ended up being okay though.
We had planned this trip as a class throughout the semester, and everyone had a portion they were in charge of. So we really had everything planned out, from the given day’s main attraction to which bus route to take at which time. It was pretty efficient. And only one of us missed the flight! (That was due to the new thing they do where they wipe your hands for anything bomb-related, and if the machine beeps, you have to take apart your entire suitcase and basically cancel your flight because American airports are sucky and make you feel like a terrorist for breathing the air.) Anyways, we arrived mostly with no issues, made our way to the hotel to drop off our luggage, and started touring!
Our first stop was the de Young museum located within the Golden Gate Park. I always think it’s funny when people take pictures in museums (no flash, of course! 😉 ) but I couldn’t help myself.
These details must have taken a lifetime to carve.
This is on the previous painting.
Shadows from hanging sculptures.
At the top was a really cool view of the city. This whole day made me absolutely love San Francisco and how close everything was to each other. I don’t think I’d like to live permanently in a city, but they are definitely fun to visit. Especially one as beautiful as San Fran.
Selfie, because I was by myself at first.
Some of us really wanted to go see the Japanese Tea Gardens next door, but we were short on time, so we only spent like forty minutes inside. I think it was well worth the $8, and it’s someplace I definitely want to take Colton to someday. The annoying thing about traveling separately is I want to show him all the things I saw. The upside of traveling separately is that I want to take him and show him the things I saw.
We spent a few minutes wandering the courtyard between the de Young Museum and the California Academy of Sciences museum.
It is a rare moment in which I find myself the tallest of the group. (I’m barely 5′ 2″.)
We then caught a bus and made our way over to the Legion of Honor Museum. When we arrived that morning, we had immediately all bought public transit passes and used buses and trains to get to the hotel. It was a little bit of an adventure, especially hauling all our luggage around. But I had more trips planned this year that were all going to involve public transit, so this was good practice for me. Also, Utah’s public transit is TERRIBLE and essentially non-existant. Bigger cities have got it figured out. It was incredibly nice to be able to walk everywhere or take a short bus ride at any time to any place.
The Legion of Honor was really amazing, because I was able to see a bunch of artists that I’ve been learning about for the past five years. There were also some really cool statues from ancient Egypt, which I’ve had a fascination with since second grade.
It was a bit cold while we waited for the bus. Apparently it’s a good idea to wear coats in February in San Francisco. ^
Referring to the previous painting.
I looove this style. One of my favorites.
Referring to the previous painting.
We were super tired from walking around all day with very little food by the end of all this, so we took naps while pigeons flew around us.
There was a Holocaust Memorial just across the street from the Legion of Honor, so we went to check it out, because Holocaust. 
After this we went to get food at the Beach Chalet restaurant because it had a beautiful Works Progress Administration mural downstairs. (I’m telling you, we stuffed this trip so full of art you’d be amazed.) The food was really good. We were able to watch people kite surf on the beach while we relaxed for a while. When we finished with dinner, we headed back to the hotel. Some people hit the pool and hot tub, some people went shopping, headed to China Town, or various clubs and bars near our hotel. I couldn’t help but compare this school trip to my high school trips, where we were completely monitored, and this trip we had free range, as long as no one showed up too hungover the next day.
I hung around the hotel for a while because my feet were basically dead. But because we ate dinner relatively early we were all hungry again around nine. My friend Jessye, who was also spending her first weekend away from her husband, and I found a delicious Thai restaurant close by. And no amount of Googling is helping me remember which restaurant, but all Thai food is good. 🙂 We also stopped by a CVS grocery store (it was a cross between a small grocery and convenience store) to buy some snacks and breakfast foods. That was about it for the day, it was a looooong day of walking.
I was going to try and make this into one long post, but I think Alcatraz is going to need its own post, so this is all for now!
