Fisherman's wharf/pier 39/Ghirardelli Square

The ballet program is so intense for me because I'm not used to so much pointe work! Its fantastic and I feel like I've already gotten a lot out of the program.

But I've been too tired/lazy to post anything so I'm behind on my posting- here's some cool, touristy stuff I did last weekend that I thought was worth sharing.

We took a "bay cruise" tour that took us around all the famous landmarks- the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island, Angel Island...It was a rare sunny day so it was really beautiful.  I never understood why the GOLDEN Gate Bridge was red...but seeing Alcatraz made me want to go back and check it out! I know it's kind of creepy that some torture chamber prison is now a huge tourist attraction, but its so cool!

Afterwards we wandered around the Pier 39/ Fisherman's Wharf area. Even thought it's really crowded, the area is actually really charming.  And there's a Boudin bakery that smells AMAZING...I think sourdough is a San Francisco thing??? I actually got lunch at this cute little shack called "Tish's Dishes" - huge sourdough bread bowl and clam chowder that I devoured...yummy.

oh yeah artsy shot from my cameraphone

And to finish off the busy Sunday, we walked to Ghirardelli Square.  It's only a couple blocks away from the Fisherman's Wharf area.  Definitely worth visiting! Firstly because the whole place smells like chocolate.  Theres a couple big Ghirardelli gift shops full of those little chocolate squares, and they hand out whole squares as samples (free samples are always fun).  And theres a really delicious ice cream parlor where they make all these super fancy sundaes and stuff that are 500 calories a lick (100 if you look at it)...but REALLY expensive! I shared a single scoop of chocolate ice cream with my sister and it cost me almost 4 dollars! It was worth it though- so rich and chocolatey.  As you can see I had a whole day of eating last Sunday...

cool mermaid fountain in ghiradelli square

doesnt sound too authentic japanese does it?

 Here's a couple pictures from Fisherman's Wharf- I'm obsessed with mermaids so I thought the mermaid bar sign was really cool and the "flying ninja sushi" just needed to be documented...

chinatown

sorry my phone was out of battery and i didnt take any pictures this is from the internet its the chinatown gate we saw

After ballet class last Saturday I got to go to chinatown! Asians are VERY good at taking advantage of tourists. Chinatowns are generally packed with cheap, touristy junk, but they have great food and you can usually find some interesting stuff.  The Chinatown in San Fran is definitely the largest and most picturesque that I've seen.  New York Chinatown/Canal street is great for finding knockoffs, and LA Chinatown has some fun shops , but its easy to see why the one is San Fran is so famous.  Sure it's a little run down and dusty looking (and not a great place to be at night) but for some reason it has this charm to it.  Something about the banners hanging over the busy streets and the carts of exotic vegetables mixed in with bins of plastic toys...it has a really interesting atmosphere.  There's actually a lot of cool buildings that imitate asian stye roofs.  Even though its all plaster and show, there's an ironically authentic feel to the San Fran Chinatown, just because it is so old. It's where so many Chinese immigrants made their home in the United States.  I loved it and since I'm going through a cut-up shirt phase, I bought a couple cool T-shirts.  I won't worry about ruining it if it only cost a couple bucks right?  It's so funny- I saw this really awesome vintage looking "Port of San Francisco" shirt on display under a bunch of newer shirts and I asked the lady if she still was selling it.  She kept telling me that it was not for sale and there was no more, so I asked her if I could just buy the display (it was taped on the edge of a table).  She thought I was crazy and tried to convince me that it was too dirty until I begged her to let me have it for 2 dollars.  I should have just asked for it for free.  She obviously didn't want it and look she got 2 dollars off of me for an old T-shirt no one else was going to buy.  Lesson learned- next time bid lower.