Just returned (a few days ago) from San Francisco. I booked our flights initially on Southwest....and then I got a sale message via Twitter. Virgin America was having a sale on flights for 39 dollars each way with tax and fees already included. I knew you had to pay to check bags, but I also knew that we would be taking carry on only. I quickly changed our flight plans and was so glad that I did. Virgin America ROCKS! If you ever have a chance to fly them DO IT!
We checked into our hotel that I captured on Priceline. It was a little boutique hotel. Boutique hotel means a historic building that has been updated and remodeled into a hotel. I would venture to say that this hotel was probably a hotel in it's original life as well based on the layout etc. It might have been what they referred to in days of old as "Workman's Hotel". I got a bit of a laugh as we settled into our room.
It appears as though they are on a Q-Tip rationing schedule. I figured if we each used only one side of the Q-tip per day we could get two full days of Q-tip usage, and the third day we would just have to go without.
The city was beautifully decorated for Christmas. San Francisco has such a fantastic public transit system that we did not rent a car, and had no need for a taxi. You can buy a MUNI pass from the city, and with that pass you can ride anything the city owns. For 18 a piece we rode anything with wheels, including the cable car, the buses the MUNI and the retro trolley cars.
This is the hotel lobby of the Hyatt in the financial district. It was quite breath taking.
Here is a little hint to all you travellers. If you are out and about in town while traveling and find that you need to use the "facilities" you can darn near always find a public available bathroom in a hotel lobby. Ok great, now that you know that I have to use the bathroom all the time! (I drink alot of soda and water ok)
We ventured from one end of the city to the next the very first night we were in town. Here is a view of Grace Cathedral.
Challenging to take a photo at night, in a church. I would have been a heathen and taken a photo with a flash.....however they did appear to be a couple of folks that we having a private church moment. I did the best I could, but the ceiling in the cathedral is awe inspiring. This beautiful mural was on part of the wall of the cathedral.
Like I mentioned we went from one end of town to the other. In our travels we also saw the Castro district. For those of you not familiar with the city, the Castro tends to be the part of town where folks with an alternate lifestyle socialize, live etc. There are many parts of town with their own "area name" Haight Ashbury = Hippy and Earthy, the Tenderloin, Union Square, Pacific Heights, Marina, China Town, Financial District, North Beach, etc. Anyway, you needed to know the beginning of the story to truly appreciate this nail salon.
What a play on words huh? Hey I am figuring that was a smart, enterprising individual that thought up the name.
Last but not least as we made our way through North Beach (Italian side of town) We found a small Italian restaurant that stayed open for us (though they were to close in twenty minutes) I had the absolute best lasagna of my life!

Ok, so that catches up a teeny bit. So much more to tell you! I have to get busy finishing up cleaning the house as I have house guests tomorrow for TEN DAYS!