Sisters in the NYC: San Francisco

Shelby and I recently took a cross country flight from NYC to San Fransisco. We met up with our parents with plans to explore the city for a couple days. None of us had ever been there before so we made our rounds to all of the typical tourist destinations. San Fran is a beautiful city and what struck us most is almost everywhere you looked was a photo perfect scene. We walked almost everywhere which I also loved as that's one of my favorite elements about NYC. Although, with all those hills it was definitely more exhausting.

Of course we had to make a stop at Ghirardelli. Don't ask how much chocolate we walked away with...

We also took a ride on the famous cable cars. FYI standing along the outer platform holding on to the rail is not near as glamorous as it appears in Full House. Actually, it was very hard to hold on over all the hills and a little scary...

But the views from the cable car were great and it was really cool to see part of the city from this vantage point.

We stopped off at Lombard Street which claims to be the world's curviest street with 8 hairpin turns in the one block section. This photo doesn't really do the steep curvy hill justice but after walking down it I can attest that it is pretty darn curvy.

Later in the day we took an evening tour of Alcatraz. Keep in mind this was Halloween night so it was extra spooky. Alcatraz was a former high security prison which is housed on an island 1.5 miles offshore from San Fransisco. It was open from 1934 to 1963 and housed some of America's most notorious criminals such as Al Capone and Robert Franklin Stroud (aka The Birdman).

The audio tour of the prison was very interesting and did a great job explaining all of the elements and intricacies of the prison.

The cells were pretty tiny. Each one held a sink, toilet, and had just enough room for a single cot.

The island did offer a beautiful view of the city!

In 1962 there was an escape and 3 prisoners dug out of their cells and swam away from the island. To this day they have never been found. It is not known if their escape was successful or if they drowned in the attempt.