Honeymoon? Pfffft! After Ghirardelli Square, It Shall Henceforth Be Known As Our Chocolatemoon. So Says I.

The second day of our honeymoon chocolatemoon in San Francisco was insanely busy. Scope and I were all over the city, here and there and there and here, devouring as many of the sights (and Ghirardelli chocolates) as we could.

*burp*

‘Scuse me.

At the end of the day I had a billion pictures on my cameras (yes, plural) documenting almost every move we made. ‘Cuz I’m Cora. And that’s what I do.

Now, obviously, I can’t show you ALL my pictures, but I can show you some of my favorites. Ready?…. ‘Kay:

We started off walking through Union Square, brandishing Scope’s ever-trusty map….


We posed with more heart-shaped sculptures….


….and stumbled upon some splendiferous Tim Burton-esque sculptures by Ugo Rondinone titled “Moonrise” (which celebrate the faces of the moon) on Mission Street….




This one is my favorite!….


After ogling the Moonrise sculptures for awhile, we made our way to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where we saw gems like this stunner, which made me realize I, too, could be an artist one day….


It’s like The Emperor’s New Clothes, but with paint, isn’t it? Seriously. It’s a white canvas. Nothing on it. Totally blank. And that dude was absorbing it like a freaking sponge!!!!

Wow.

Just wow.

Then again, I much preferred the blank canvas to this atrocity….


Yep. It’s Michael. And Bubbles. And up close it was really quite creepy….


*shudder*

*cringe*

*backing away*

I think we only took in one floor of SFMOMA before we’d had enough and bailed. After Mikey there, who could dare blame us, right?!

We took a street car to The Cannery, where we had lunch at Las Margaritas….




The food was superb, but the women’s bathroom left something to be desired. Like toilet paper. And it was urgent, people!!

*undignified potty dance*

So, with Scope standing guard outside the door, I used the men’s room. And I have never peed as fast in my life. In fact, I may have broken the Guinness World Record for pee speed, but I can’t be certain because I was too busy peeing as fast as I could to time it properly.

After peeing and fleeing the men’s room, trying not to look guilty, Scope and I walked to Ghirardelli Square….


….where I drooled all over the chocolate displays….


….and, in addition to all the many, many deliciously free chocolates (YAY!!!!) the shop keepers kept handing us every time we set food in a store there, I had the best brownie sundae I’ve ever tasted….


And. I. Was. Happy….


Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Feeling a little guilty about our gluttonous adventures in Ghirardelli Square (and in a valiant quest to make sure our pants would still fit us the next day! *fingers crossed*) Scope and I then hiked up Hyde Street, which was such a STEEEEEEEEP hill, it was almost vertical. But I loved it. It’s unnatural and satanic, I know, I know, but I like walking up hills for some odd reason. It’s walking downhill that kills me.

Once we were done scaling Mt. Hyde Street, we found ourselves standing atop the famous Lombard Street, which is “The Crookedest Street in the World,” according to—well—everyone. I stood up on a big cement block to try to get a good picture of the street winding down the hill….


We walked down Lombard Street, faster than the cars were driving it, and as I stood at the bottom of it taking pictures, my legs were shaking so hard that my knees were actually knocking together! I told you that walking downhill kills me….


Once my legs felt like legs again, we walked to Washington Square Park to get a look at Saints Peter and Paul Church….


….and after that, we took a bus up to Coit Tower. Or, almost up to Coit Tower, I should say. We made the slight booboo of getting off the bus a few stops prematurely, which meant we had to hike the rest of the way up the hill to the tower….


We didn’t bother going up in the tower. The line was long and we’d had enough climbing for one day anyway. So, instead, we hung around outside taking pictures with the brand spanking new sparkly glorious telephoto lens Scope got me for my birthday (SQUEEEEEEEEEEE!!)….




Then Scope and I waited at the bus stop for the bus to take us back down the hill….


….and while we waited, we happily entertained ourselves by quietly mocking various dudes who looks like ladies.

*snarky snicker*

Once down the hill, we walked our way through Chinatown….




….and frolicked with brass monkeys (those funky monkeys)….




And then we crashed in our hotel room, utterly exhausted. Scope took a nap, while I looked through the plethora of pictures I’d taken, and then had a phone call with my daughter who had been sentenced by court order to two weeks hard emotional labor in the company of someone she didn't want to be with and was NOT happy about it.

At.

All.

:-(

After calming my hysterically upset child down (and wrestling down my gargantuan guilt at living it up on vacation while my daughter was living in misery. *sniffle*), Scope and I walked over to Les Joulins Jazz Bistro for dinner….


I’m not sure what I had for dinner there. Possibly the kebabs. (????) I was so tired by this point that I have no idea what I even ate. I was in zombie mode. All I know for sure is that after dinner we were going to take a nighttime stroll around the block to get some good night shots with my camera, but it was sooooooooo cold and windy that my teeth were chattering.

BrrRRrrRRrr.

So, instead we went back to the hotel to get some sleep. Only, sleep was evading me that night. I just wasn’t feeling quite right.

In fact, I was feeling quite…. wrong.

Uh-oh.

[….to be continued….]

© Coracabana

38

Today is my birthday, which means there’s a high probability of cake.

YEEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!


’Nuff said.

© Coracabana

Have Camera (and a Brand New Telephoto Lens From My Sweet Husband!!) Will Travel

The day after the wedding was the 4th of July. Due to rain, we didn’t bother with fireworks or anything like that. Instead, I had to drop my daughter off at her dad’s house (*sniffle* *sob*) and Scope and I went out to dinner with some relatives at the Yankee Grill, where I got mistaken for Miss Washington.

Mm-hmm.

*patting self on back*

Okay, fine, I was mistaken as part of Miss Washington’s posse over the phone when I called to make reservations. Happy now?

It seems that Miss WA had reserved the entire restaurant at 8pm. Yes. The ENTIRE restaurant. And the rest of us riffraff had to get out before then.

What.

Ever.

It’s not like we were planning to linger late into the night there anyway. I mean, Scope and I had some bags to pack because we were flying down to San Francisco the next morning.

Monday, July 5th, Scope and I boarded a plane together for the very first time. I know. Crazy, huh?! With all the travelling the two of us have done back and forth across the country over the last year and a half, we’ve never actually flown anywhere together before!

We flew from Seattle to Oakland (because the plane tickets to Oakland were waaaaayyyyyyyyyyy cheaper than the tickets to San Francisco were ~ and hefty prices give me hives!!) and we watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall on Scope’s netbook during the flight.

*snicker*

Once in Oakland, we took the BART transit into San Francisco and walked through Union Square to our hotel, Sir Francis Drake….


Now, I don’t know exactly what I was expecting our hotel to be. Maybe like a Holiday Inn or something….? I dunno. When we booked the hotel online, it was definitely one of the more affordable ones, so I certainly wasn’t anticipating any frills and whatnot. So, when I saw the dude in the snazzy Beefeater outfit hanging out outside our hotel, I was a wee bit surprised! And definitely delighted.

And then we walked in….


According to Scope, I gasped when we walked into the lobby and my face lit up with a look that plainly squealed, “is this all for ME?!”

*giggle*

We stayed on the 14th floor, which was really the 13th floor, only someone was too spooked and superstitious to get up the guts actually call it the 13th floor. *cough chicken cough*….


(I’ve heard of old buildings like this, where there’s no 13th floor, but I’ve never actually seen one until now. So, they really exist, huh? How funny!)

This is what our room looked like….


….and, shh, because my handsome husband is taking a very important phone call! ;-)

After dropping our bags off in our room, Scope and I went out on a sightseeing walk around the city, where we saw artsy fartsy sculptures….


(No, I didn’t cut my hair, it was just very windy.)


….and gorgeous buildings….


….this cool clock….


….a nearly life-sized Sally doll I kinda wished I could bring home for Gwen as a souvenir…. but for $200? Ummm, no thanks….


….a “Fashionista Ken”! (Really, Mattel? Really????)….


….and, of course, lots of cable cars….


We ended up strolling through Yerba Buena Gardens….

For dinner, I had “bangers and mash” (sooooooooooo good) at Foley’s Irish House….


Then for dessert, we stopped by a cute little bakery….


….where they had a window full of tempting cupcakes….


Scope got a red velvet cupcake and I got a coconut chocolate one….


Mm-mm-mmmmmmmm. :-)

Up next: day two of our honeymoon!

© Coracabana

Let’s Get This Party Started!

The reception, I must say, was an uberblast.

Absofreakinglutely.

It started with dorky, funny pictures staged by my splendiferous step-mom, where my dad couldn’t wait to get rid of me….


….and Scope’s parents couldn’t wait to get rid of him….


….and Scope’s mom and I had a big ol’ tug-o-war over him (“leggo—he’s MINE!!!!”)….


*snicker*

Our Best Man, Tony, gave a spectacular speech….
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….and we cut the cake, with a special surprise for my brother’s girlfriend sneakily delivered first (hee hee hee)….
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We got our cake at Safeway.

(Yes, the grocery store!)

(Yes, really!!)

Despite the store bakery staff’s complete and utter lack of confidence that they could actually do a wedding cake any sort of justice whatsoever (they were sooooooooooooooooooooooo jittery and radiating pure panic over it, I almost felt mean for asking them to do it) (almost), the cake turned out beautiful, elegant and extremely delicious….


Yummmmm.

I threw my bouquet…. and clocked the poor girl who caught it right on the nose with it (whoopsie! My bad)….


I don’t really have any good pictures of the bouquet toss. Yet. But I do have it on video….
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And Scope threw my garter. After removing it with his teeth. *wink wink*….


We have all that fun caught on video too (heh heh heh)….
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And then with our fabulous DJ/Master of Ceremonies, Kenny, pulling the strings, we danced the night away….








We even danced the Hokey Pokey (this was our Father/Daughter Dance, by the way. *snicker*)….


If you live in Western Washington and you need a DJ for anything, YOU WANT KENNY from Action Entertainment. No, no arguing—YOU WANT KENNY!! You DO. You JUST DO. Kenny is absolutely amazing! We had sooooooooooo much fun!!!! :-)

We hung out with great friends….






There were kisses….


There were hugs….


(Awwwwwwwwwwwwww.)

And in a flash, it seemed, the night came to an end and Scope and I left the party and hit Seattle to get a shot of ourselves by the Space Needle….


Then we headed for our hotel. And the rest of it is nunnaya bidness.


Up next: the honeymoon in San Francisco!

© Coracabana