fireworks and more

I had never been to San Francisco. And despite months of living here in California I haven't so much as stepped foot out of the apartment complex. Seriously. The only time I leave is for date nights, grocery shopping, running, trips to Aunt Paige's house and the occasional girls day out with Catherine. It is sad and pathetic but there isn't much you can do without a car and constantly waiting for shipments. So, I was beyond excited to spend the holiday weekend in San Francisco.

Saturday night after what Tristan deems as the 'best chinese food he has ever eaten' with a bunch of the guys, we drove the two hour drive to our hotel in Brisbane. Brisbane is just outside of San Francisco and away from the hustle and bustle of city life. Our hotel was on the water, no beach, but a gorgeous view.

The city is pristine. Perfectly aligned streets with colorful houses side by side. In some places it was quaint while downtown there were the tallest buildings I have ever seen and never ending traffic.

 A beautiful, relaxing day at Bakers Beach.

We laid out, played in the water (by 'played in' I mean got up to our calves in the ice cold water, the waves were huge, it was too bad the water wasn't warmer!) and took walks along the beach. Apparently the closer you get to the Golden Gate Bridge the more nudity there is so we quickly turned around and walked to the other side of the beach by the cliffs.

And of course we stayed to watch the sunset on the beach. It was beautiful.

The mall was amazing and gigantic! It was super tall and the escalators were curved!

When we were planning our trip I told Tristan that the only thing I really wanted to do was ride a tandem bike through the city and across the Golden Gate Bridge. It was on my bucket list. And it was every bit as fun as I thought it would be! 

There was a lot of fog that day but apparently that is pretty normal for San Francisco in the summer...

Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf, and...

Ghiradelli Square!! My personal favorite. 100 chocolate squares is my heaven for sure :) Don't worry, I had Tristan hide them so I can't go crazy and eat them all in one day.

And finally, fireworks across the water. It was amazing! Probably the best firework show I have ever seen! I don't know if there were better fireworks or if it was just because they were shot off over the water but either way it was perfect!

My camera struggles with taking pictures of fireworks apparently, or maybe I just struggle. Who knows. 

It was a fun weekend and despite having to drive back late at night and get up early in the morning the next day to catch up on work it was worth it.

On Tuesday, Tristan and four of his guys decided to drive to Redding to sell. Apparently there was incredible area there and the company is having a competition, Linx Madness, so they wanted the best area possible. The only problem was, Redding is over two and a half hours away which means they left for the week and are staying in a hotel there. It is the first time I have been away from Tristan since we got married, and the first time I have ever had to stay in an apartment by myself. I hate it. I can't wait for him to get home on Saturday and I keep selfishly hoping they don't decide to go back next week.