Alyson (the bride) is my half-sister. Some people say we look nothing alike, others say they can see the resemblance, but no one questions that we have the same voice (our mom's voice) as well as a few other traits we share with our common matriarch like...o I don't know....her stubbornness and her way of being too opinionated? Whatever.
Anyhoo, I've grown up thinking that her family on her dad's side is just naturally my family, though not related at all (although I have to point out that I share the Goodwin family's love of storytelling and theatrics. O and loud ruckuses. Those too). But, we've always been a close family, so it was no surprise that when Alyson's dad Randy wanted to go to San Francisco at 7 in the morning, I would want to go too. Because if I had a list of top 10 favorite people, Randy Goodwin would definitely be on that list.
Randy.
So off we all went (Me, Randy, Randy's wife Donna, Randy's mother and Randy's brothers wife and son) in the white GINORMOUS van that they rented to spend the day in San Francisco. We first stopped at the Golden Gate Bridge lookout spot where we discussed how many sharks there were under the bridge, how many people commit suicide off the bridge each year, and how ridiculously cold it was. Apparently, we weren't much of a happy bunch that morning.
The Golden Gate Bridge.
Ditto.
Remnants of the fort that used to be there, that is now used as the beyond gross public bathrooms.
O how far our history has fallen.
The Bay Bridge, that leads to Oakland, where my sister lives.
The city of San Francisco!
We headed down into the city to do some ever-important souvenir shopping, sight-seeing, trolley riding, and sea lion gawking.
Alcatraz, from far away.
One side of the famous prison, up close.
The other side. I take too many pictures of the same thing. It's a problem.
THEN we got to Pier 39 where all the sea lions are, and I had a field day.
HOW CUTE ARE THEY?!
Sea Lion Lovin.
All of the sudden, we smelt something that could only be described as a fishy fart. GROSS. How can something so cute produce something that smelly? I have yet to figure it out. Whew. The funniest thing was, after the air was polluted with this foul odor, all of the sea lions started barking. It sounded like a frat house: "Aw, come on, Joe, really? Dude!" "Hey, whoever smelt it, delt it!"
I always knew guys were another species.
"Wasnt me!"
After that, being now very wide awake, we all decided to catch a trolley ride. But not without seeing some awesome sourdough bread sculptures first. (San Francisco is famous for their sourdough bread, FYI. It's like their THING.)
Toitle!
Our cable car!
Now, I took like a million bazillion pictures of the city of San Francisco as we were zooming along in our cable car. BUT my mom deleted most of them "to save room". All but THIS one that I took in China Town.
WOW MOM. Thanks for that. WHAT would I do without that picture?! It like makes the whole blog!
Hmph.
Anyways, the wedding post is next so get ready for girlish twitterings and emotional statements. You wont be disappointed!!
*Quote of the Day*: “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable." - C.S. Lewis
