Francisco! Ooo, that's fun to say! Francisco.

A week ago, Cory had an interview with the University of Washington in San Francisco. And because Jen and Cory are so cool, they invited us to go with them. We had a such great time seeing all the sights in San Fran and meeting some of the Henry family that Cory and I hadn't met yet. They were absolutely hilarious, extremely kind, and happy to have us; we had such a great time visiting and laughing with them. On Friday we went to downtown San Francisco where Cory had his interview, and Jen and I shopped at H&M while Marcus reluctantly happily tagged along (Did you buy that? Yeah, I didn't think so, he was a great sport though. He managed to get through the San Fran Visitors guide TWICE while he was waiting for us).

That afternoon we checked into our sa-weet hotel (it had bathrobes and Bath&Body Coconut Lime lotion, which made it a 4star hotel in my book), and then went back downtown for dinner. Dinner ended up being Carl's Jr/Green Burrito, which was accompanied with the local bum's in the area and future druggies of America. In order to use the bathroom at Carl's Jr., you had to receive a “coin” from the order counter (apparently this helps to keep down homeless people from using their bathrooms, another way though is just to bang on the door and tell the person that's in there to “Get there bottom out, because you've gotta pee!” or to tell the person that's in there to hold the door when they get done. You'll be happy to know that we witnessed both during our short time there.) Needless to say, none of us were brave enough to use the bathroom to wash our hands before eating. We later returned our “coin” at the food counter; although maybe we should have sold it on the streets outside because apparently they are quite the hot commodity around there! After Cory made all of us nervous by reporting the possibility of getting an STD from using the salsa, we left to try our luck at winning Wicked tickets.Although we didn't win the “pre-show lottery” for Wicked on Friday night, we did go again on Saturday and all of us, including our good friends Jordan and Sunshine, were able to see the show. It. Was. Amazing. Some of the same characters (Elphaba in particular, aka the Wicked Witch) from the L.A. show (that me and Marcus saw last April) were playing in the San Francisco show. It was so cool to be able to see how much she has improved-or maybe it's because this time we were in the 15th row, I don't mean to brag, but it "was" pretty rad.

The rest of the night we spent walking over people asleep in the streets, checking out Chinatown, and driving down the “Crookedest Street in the World” also known as Lombard Street. On Saturday we headed out early to see Alcatraz. Alcatraz is the old federal prison that was used back in the 1930's to 1960's; it held the infamous “Scarface” and other gangsters from the time. It was kinda creepy, but really interesting. They say no one has ever escaped Alcatraz, but actually, three men did escape by cutting holes in their cells with spoons just big enough for them to get out of, but no one knows what happened to them (I would consider this a successful escape). They also say that Alcatraz was the worst prison because it's on an island; the inmates could see the nearby city and freedom was just within reach, and at night they could actually hear the laughing of people coming across from the bay. This would for sure have drove me crazy....that is, if I was in a prison...moving on!

Later that afternoon we strolled Fisherman's wharf, ate clam chowder out of bread bowls along the bay, and then hit up Ghiradelli Square for some dessert. Ghiradelli makes those awesome chocolate squares, but they also make wonderful sundaes too! Topped with oozing homemade chocolate sauce, are you hungry yet? Me too, I'll just leave it at that. After the ice cream, we went to Postcard Row and took pictures. (Have you ever seen the t.v. show Full House? It's the scene at the beginning where they're eating a picnic.)

This pretty much concluded our super awesome San Francisco trip; after driving 12 hours to get back, one hour playing the "Animal Game," 5 bathroom breaks, one hour of old school Mariah Carey, and one In-N-Out stop later, we were home. It was so fun to spend time with Cory and Jen and do something to get out of Provo, even if it was just for the weekend! Thanks for the great memories and good laughs.