Our First Anniversary Trip to San Francisco

My husband Nate and I went to San Francisco for our first anniversary a few weekends ago. We had a wonderful trip, and enjoyed our time together. It was our first trip to San Francisco, despite the fact that we have lived nearby for 5 years!

We left for our trip on Friday, and took the Amtrak train from Reno to Emeryville, CA. It was a relaxing 7-hour trip through the Sierra Nevada mountains. We passed through many small towns, and got to see a lot of very beautiful scenery.

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency near the Ferry Building in the financial district. After we arrived at the hotel, we went to Sinbad's, a local seafood restaurant with a great view of the Bay Bridge. The food was good, but we thought it was over-priced.

The Millan's at Sinbad's - First Night in San Francisco.

On Saturday, we took the Light Rail to the SFMOMA (Museum of Modern Art) to get our city passes and see the city. We enjoyed riding the light rails and trolleys, and those got us to most of the places we wanted to see.

After touring the MOMA, we went moved on to Pier 39. We saw the cute sea lions basking in the sun, and we had some sea food and clam chowdah on the Pier.

Sea Lions on Pier 39.

Nate enjoying some clam chowdah.

While at Pier 39, we also visited the Aquarium on the Bay and went on a boat cruise under the Golden Gate Bridge and past Alcatraz. We enjoyed the cruise, but it was very foggy and cold on top of the boat! A seagull also kept on flying above our heads, and all the passengers were afraid we were going to get pooped on!

A foggy view of the Golden Gate Bridge from our cruise, and a shot of Alcatraz Island.

The highlight of our trip was on Saturday night, when we went to see the musical Wicked. I am a massive fan of the soundtrack, the book the play is based on, and the original Wizard of Oz, so I was very excited to see the show. It was fantastic! We both loved it and hada great time at the historic Orpheum Theatre.

Before the show, we went to dinner at a great local italian place in Little Italy called Firenze by Night. It was probably the best meal we had during our trip, and we met a family that was headed to Reno the next day for the Junior Olympic Volleyball Tournament. Small world....

Looking spiffy outside of the Orpheum Theatre before Wicked.

On Sunday, our anniversary and our last day in the city, we went back to Pier 39 for breakfast, then headed to the Golden Gate. We walked across the bridge and took some fantastic pictures of both the city and the bridge. After our trek across, we went to Golden Gate Park and visited the De Young Museum and The California Academy of Sciences, which featured a planetarium and a rainforest.

On the fantastic Golden Gate Bridge.

By the time we returned to our hotel on Sunday evening, we were exhausted. We were able to cram a lot of fun into our little trip. We had dinner and drinks at the hotel restaurant (we had fun talking to our server, who was from Youngstown, Ohio), and then got packed up for our trip home on the train.

We had such a wonderful first anniversary together! It was a great trip, and we hope to go back to San Francisco soon!