In my last post, I talked about one of my favorite places in San Francisco being the Saturday morning market. 

Here’s THE mystery of my trip:  Matthew actually preferred THIS (1lb pear)…

to this…
As I post these pictures, I noticed a common-theme: 
‘Why I Love Matthew’
1.  He enjoys me taking pictures of him acting like he’s hanging over a large body of water.  (If I would have taken the time to crop the grass out below his feet, this picture might be a little less-weird.)

2.  He can take a quick look at a totally confusing map in a new city and, without a second thought, have the rest of our day planned out.  (Since I have NO sense of direction, I am VERY impressed with this!) 
3.  He’s a loyal fan.  He’s been a San Francisco 49er fan as long as he can remember.  (All of his school pictures are of him wearing his 49er shirts.)  Since the team has had better years, he’s always getting the question: “Growing up in NW Arkansas, how did you ever become a ‘9er fan?” 

This was our first 49er HOME game together.  It was great to see him in his element.  Even this little guy was a huge fan…
4.  He likes carrying on our strange traditions.  We started this on our first ski trip together in Colorado.  Some of our favorite shots:  feet in the sand (honeymoon), feet at Eiffel Tower in Paris, feet together in hospital bed hours after Ross was born.   Anyways, I always seem to forget.   I love that he always remembers…. 

 5.  He tries so hard to ‘compose’ and ‘focus’ his pictures correctly.  Since it was my 30th birthday, I got to be the subject.  There were about six before this shot where the bricks were completely in focus, but I was un-recognizable.  But, he did it!
6.  As Matthew lays in my lap right now watching football, I am typing this blog and asking him, “Did people clap or yell as you drove down Lombard Street?”  Without looking away from the t.v., he says, “I think they were screaming, ‘Get out of the way!  That guy has no brakes!’ ” 

Yep.  That’s why I love going on trips with Matthew.  Most people drove about 5-12 MPH down the  “the crookedest street in the world.”  I’m so use to his driving, I didn’t think anything about how fast we were taking the turns.  Until, however, we got to the bottom and people acted like we had just broke some type of record getting down. 

Before we raced down Lombard Street, we drove our rental car down the Highway 1 coastline. 
  
I have a ton more, but I’m going to finish up with a few random details from the trip that reminds me of one of our new favorite cities…

It had been over a week since Matthew and I returned home from our trip to San Francisco to celebrate our 30th birthdays.  On that particular night, the kids had been asleep several hours when Matthew glanced across the desk and asked, “Have you even looked at our pictures from San Francisco yet?” 

Um.  Well, kind-of.  Sort-of. 

Is it just me, or does it seem like it takes FOOOOREVER to get back into the swing of things after returning from vacation?  In addition to being out of groceries and clean clothes, I had emails, orders and sessions that I had to take care of.  I’ve been looking forward to getting caught-up where I could start to share some pictures and stories from our awesome trip to San Francisco last week.  Since I can’t post all of them in one night, I’ll just make today about some of our favorite places.

The day we visited the Golden Gate Bridge, it was very foggy.  Coming from someone who wears a wetsuit in July, I couldn’t believe people were actually surfing!

Matthew called our hotel in advanced to let them know we were celebrating my 30th birthday.  They upgraded us to a suite on the top floor.  Although we were rarely in our room, I loved our morning view as we rushed to get out the door and enjoy the day… 

Best advice we received:  “Buy a cable car pass.”  
The first day, we started off as tourists, patiently waiting in line with all of the others for the next cable car.  By day three, we were literally running more than a block to jump on a cable car after it took off.  We felt sooo local (and out-of-shape). 

Although this was low on Matthew’s list for some strange reason, the Saturday morning market was one of my FAVORITE places from our entire trip. 
Let me explain.  (I’m sure you’ll side with me…)
Incredible photographers selling their prints taken from around the world.
Gorgeous colors and patterns from all the locals selling fresh fruits, vegetables, flowers, breads and herbs.
Annnnd… the most wonderful smells (will post pictures later) of chicken, beef and pork cooking on open grills by the water. 

Fresh flowers from the market…

These are the famous Victorian houses on “Postcard Row.”  It is also the home shown in Full House’s opening credits.  I’ll be honest… it was a loooong, uphill walk for this simple picture. 

If we would have eaten lunch by 2pm like most normal people, we could have hung-out at Pier 39 for hours.  However, although we loved watching the sea lions, the only thing on our mind was eating clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl.  (Picture tomorrow!)  
As we took a ride to the Golden Gate Bridge, I pulled out my San Francisco magazine and noticed “The Top 20 Things to do.”  Number 13 (“Hanging off a cable car”) was definately one of Matthew’s favorite things! 

We decided to get  just a few more hours in before our flight left.  I wanted to get a picture of Matthew on the cable car.  A government worker who was picking up trash saw me taking Matthew’s picture and instructed me to get in the picture too.  I turned my camera over to him and jumped on the cable car.  (We got a picture looking at the camera, but I love the kissing picture the best!)  That government worker must have been a photographer on the weekends because I thought he did a pretty awesome job photographing me and Matthew together. 

Stay tuned for the last batch tomorrow!