Hello from San Fransisco!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FINALLY!!!!! Not only did I make it into the city (TWICE now!!!), I have pictures to show it :)

Here is my roommate, Diana, figuring out the train ticket machine. (I actually did better on this train ride than I did trying to buy my ticket from the airport to the hotel...except none of my debit or credit cards would work so I had to try my hand at using cash in the machine). We are headed for Pier 39.

HELLO SANFRANSISCO!!!!!! I so wanted to see the cable cars and the first thing we see when coming out of the train station is a cable car!

And a real shoe shiner.

I found this toilet to be hysterical. You have to push a button to open the door (which none ever worked). There is a 20 minute time limit~tehehehehehe!

Gateway to the piers:

There is a market going on in the middle of a Thursday! Cool!

The city skyline.

I thought this might be the Golden Gate Bridge, but it was not. By the time I found it (not very far away), the sun was shining right toward me as I faced the bridge and I could not get a picture.

Another cable car:

We are getting closer!

There are so many things to do here!

Wow, an opened topped bus!

There is the ferry that goes out to Alcatraz. We won't be going there today due to lack of time.

Of COURSE we stopped in for a sample :)

Stephanie Sullivan, Diana Mosquero and I have arrived!

Whew! Need a break after that long walk. Not really, but it was a beautiful place for a picture.

Stephanie wanted her picture taken by the boats:

The Aquarium:

...people line up for hotdogs???

I did not know that there was a REAL Bubba-Gump shrimp company!!

Imagine my delight when we happened upon this store!

This is a beautiful double decker carousel:

LOOK at the size of this ship!


There is Alcatraz!

And...

There is goes!

We ate a delicious meal at a lovely sea food restaurant and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves walking and spending time on Pier 39. To finish off our San Fransisco experience, we thought we should ride a cable car. Each of us wondered why! We were packed in like sardines and the ride is very jolty.

With no regrets in the end though, we took a quick picture of our little yellow subway and told the city good bye for a short time.

Friday morning began the actual IRDA conference with excited students raring to learn all we had to give. I'll share pictures from the conference in the next couple of days. We went into the City again on Friday night to watch a live play called "Reborning". THAT was a dramatic and theatrical event. Wow. More on that later as well.

Goodnight from eyes that now need toothpicks to hold them open...

Debbie