Every visit to San Francisco gets better!

Instead of living the Sydney autumn here, I was back in San Francisco for a couple weeks. But I managed to fit in a 48 hour visit home, so that made up for all I missed in Australia!

My trip was mostly work, but I got lucky and managed to fit in some fun times in the city. First on deck was a great weekend with my cousin and her boyfriend. Lucky for us, he's local and had planned a picture-perfect agenda for our weekend!

I seem to get really lucky with my weekend weather in San Francisco, and this weekend was no different: it was sunny (and warm for SF!).

Slotted around great meals at fun places, we did checked some things off the tourism list: we rented bikes on Saturday morning for a bike ride across the bridge and an afternoon in Sausalito.

This little guy was ready to ride!

Chilling before the bike ride

Before riding across the bridge, we stopped at Fort Point. This is an old fort right at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge. It was built to help secure the bay, but didn't ever see any military action. It's a pretty cool structure, and the bridge was built to go right over the fort so it wouldn't have be destroyed.

Fort Point

Inside Fort Point

View of the bridge from the Fort

View of the city from the Fort

Right under the bridge!

After the fort visit, we carried on with our ride across the bridge. It was a bit intense: there are lots of really serious bikers on the bridge (which I am not). So they tend to fly past all the tourists. It's also extremely windy and loud on the bridge, so I would classify this as a more arenaline-filled activity rather than relaxing! But once safely crossed, we got to coast down the hill and on to some lovely views of the bridge and city.

This dog also rode across the bridge 

Across the bridge, we discovered Cavollo Point. Turns out it's a really beautiful resort with views of the bay and bridge. It also had a lovely, big green yard, which was perfect to give us all a break from the biking for a little bit.

Then it was on to Sausalito! Sausalito is a little bay-side town where all the wealthiest of San Franciscans live. It's also quite the tourist activity, as everyone in the city seems to descend on the little town when it's sunny. The little town has a few restaurants and lots of little boutiques, so it was a great way to spend a warm Saturday!

After finding out it would be a 2 hour wait to take the ferry back with our bikes (as the original plan called for), we decided to splurge on a taxi ride. I think it was worth every penny!

The next day was a short one, as Megan was heading back after lunchtime. But we managed to fit in breakfast and a walk to beautiful Dolores Park. Even though it was sort of early, the park was already buzzing with people excited for the beautiful weather.

And then the rest of my Sunday was filled with actual work and a trip to a colorful local laundromat!

To cap off my San Francisco time, I got a bonus visit from another family member! I got to go back out to Sausalito for a dinner visit with Aunt Kaye, who'd been visiting friends a little up North. I left work early enough to have a few minutes for walking around in the now-tourist-free little town. And I could really appreciate the charm of it!

Cute little houses built over the water

Every yacht needs its own room, right? 

I got so lucky with my trip that it just so happened to coincide with a Tennessee celebration for my grandfather's 90th birthday. So two red-eye flights later, I arrived in Knoxville for a quick 2 day stay.  The time went by too quickly for many pictures, but it goes without saying that it was chaotic, fun, and so worth the flight times!

Now I plan to keep my two feed on the ground in Sydney for a good long while!