Celebrating our 35th anniversary- day one

35 years ago on March 15th we were married. It was spring break from college so it was the only time available if we wanted a honeymoon. We had to wait for elementary school spring break before we could celebrate our anniversary this year. This was a week and a half after the actual date. We went to San Francisco which is where we went on our honeymoon. A few things have change over those years. When we first went we had to borrow Cindy's Dad's car, the red Ford Pinto, because I did not trust the car I had to make it there and back. (This is a picture when it was new. As you can see Cindy was a little younger then.)
35 years later we flew to the bay area at $210 a piece and it only took an hour and a half. 

Back then we were a little younger; now we are more "mature".

We flew into Oakland and then rented a car and drove over to Sausalito.
We were going to stay the night in Mill Valley and thought it would be better to take the ferry over to San Francisco and avoid driving and trying to find parking. Also that day they started a cashless crossing over the Golden Gate Bridge. I had to get on line to register the car we were in to drive over the bridge and I had not done that yet. You think it would be simple to park the car but they had an automated parking area that would not take my credit card. When we called they said the machine was broke and would just take coins but I did not have $20 of coins on me so then we had to do a phone registration which I had to do about three times to get it completed. Finally we got to the ferry and then headed across the bay.










Once we crossed the bay we came to the Ferry Building.

Inside there were various shops that we visited. We then took the street car to Pier 39 and watched the sea lions that have been at this pier for 24 years.

 From there it was over to Fisherman's Wharf for a crab cocktail and also sour dough bread.

We went to a art gallery that was displaying original Dr. Seuss artwork and some of his hats.
















Since we now needed dessert we went over to Ghirardelli Square for a sundae."You wanted me to share?"

We then stood in line for 35 minutes to take a cable car and watched many cars come to the end of the line, get turned around, and leave without us.

Finally we made it on the car and rode up to California Avenue and switched cars and then went down to China Town. On the way the buildings made a great frame for a Bay Bridge Tower.









 We then walked over to China Town and looked around. We remembered years ago when we were here with the family and decided to eat meals in China Town and had some interesting experiences with greasy carpets and ducks hanging in the window.

We then continued to the end of the cable car line and walked around, over and through the water feature at the plaza.

It was dinner time and we went back to Pier 39 for dinner before then going back to the ferry building to catch the last ferry home. 

 The ferry was delayed coming over so it gave us extra time to watch the sky get darker and the Bay Bridge light up. There is a two year art display that is happening on the bridge. It is lined with LED lights that make different patterns. At first all we could see is one tower and we thought the lights were interesting.

 It was only after we walked a little further on the pier that we noticed how all the bridge started to display a whole picture that went the mile length of this portion of the bridge. Pictures of fishes swimming from tower to tower or clouds moving. It was very interesting.
 

 Finally the ferry arrived and we left the city. The fog was rolling in and created a haze. We left the city and now were in dense fog . The ferry kept blasting its horn and not a light could be seen. What a dramatic change. We finally arrived on the other side of the bay and our first day was done.