Sunny San Francisco

As I have shared with many of you, San Francisco is not the sunny beacon of warmth that most people envision when they come here between the months of June and September. In fact, these are usually the most fog ridden and chilly days of the year and leave a lot to be desired in the way of true summer weather. I would actually rather take the humidity of the East Coast/Midwest summers to this. Because this is also tourist season and most tourists are unaware of this reality, Dan and I get a pretty good kick out of seeing the clothing choices of people who come here for their summer sun. Tell-tale sign of a tourist: A girl or guy walking around in shorts and sandals and an obviously brand-new I Love San Francisco/Giants/Alcatraz hoodied sweatshirt. For those of you who do end up deciding to come to San Francisco in the summer be advised: prepare for some 40-50 degree weather, pack a winter jacket and scarf, and bring ONE pair of shorts that you may, if you are lucky, have the grand opportunity to wear....once.

With all that said, I am generally stoked about the days when I can leave the apartment with only a sweater, let alone shorts and a tanktop. Enter Monday and Tuesday of this week. San Francisco was graced with extremely rare summer weather: 85-90 degrees, SUN, and hardly a cloud in the sky. It was absolutely glorious, though I will admit a little challenging because very few businesses or buildings have air-conditioning in the city. But, I could spend the day in my shorts and tank, enjoying the heat and drinking cool liquids while relaxing after the weekend - awesome.

This heat wave was admittedly short lived - and I kid you not, the temperature dropped from 80-70 degrees in an hour on Wednesday(accompanied by an incredible rush of fog that clouded the city almost instantly!), went down to the mid 60s on Thursday, topped off at 60 degrees today, and tomorrow will be reaching nearly 55 degrees. Sad. But, I am hoping this means our fall will bring with it some warm weather (as it usually does) and some gorgeous, fog free days.

On Tuesday night, Dan came home and we decided that with this crystal clear evening (a rarity even during the rest of the year) and the warm temperatures, we needed to head to the beaches near the Golden Gate Bridge to watch the sunset. We've been trying to do regular date nights every week since I can be a home-body or we both get so excited about hanging out with our friends in the city that a week goes by and we realize we've barely spent any good quality time together. This was the perfect, spontaneous date night!

So, we called in for some gyros, hopped in the car, and took the drive out to the Bridge. After that, we headed to one of the tallest points in the city (Twin Peaks) to get a view of the city at night. Apparently that was everyone's idea as the look out points were packed, but boy was the view worth it. We ended the trip with a jaunt down to the Mission District and one of the most famous ice cream places in the city: Mitchell's Ice Cream. Usually the wait is long...so we were expecting to need some patience in this heat. But, when we arrived, they were serving number 58 and I pulled number 24. Now, I love ice cream, and Mitchell's especially, but waiting for 60 customers to be served seemed like a bit too much. So instead, we headed back to our corner store, grabbed some Mint Chocolate Hagan Daas, and ate it while watching the sci-fi movie "Serenity" (thanks for the recommendation Joe!). Here are some pictures from the evening. Again, sorry about the out of orderness -this blog isn't that great about formatting.

Dan's picture of the city from Twin Peaks - one of my favorites!

Dan and the Golden Gate Bridge. We were sitting on an old WWII bunker as we ate our gyros and watched the sun go down.

My pic of a flower near the Golden Gate Bridge - we're trying to get better at our photography skills without using too much editing. I really like how this one turned out.

Sunset over the Pacific and a HUGE ship. We weren't sure what the ship was carrying, though our guess was containers. Just looks a lot different than the barges and other container ships we see out here.

Me, getting ready to feast on a gyro! YUM

A self-portrait of Dan and I (and random person) at the Golden Gate Bridge.

Me, sporting my shorts, tank top, THIN sweater, and baby belly at the Golden Gate Bridge =)