Honeymoon!

First, I'd just like just like to say the first week with my man was amazing and SOOOOO much fun!!!
After the luncheon on the day of our wedding, Nate and I headed to Salt Lake toward our hotel. Nate told me that we had a reservation for the Marriott in downtown Salt Lake. Little did I know, we were going to the Anniversary Inn. When he finally told me, I was so excited!
We stayed in the Kahn Mansion Suite... Complete with a fireplace, king sized bed, cable tv, complimentary cheesecake and apple cider AND a large bath with jets.

The room was gorgeous!!!!

Lol. We took a romantic bath with the jets and cider. It felt so good!! I would suggest it to anyone... HAVE A BATH WITH JETS! We grabbed some pizza and breadsticks for dinner with hot chocolate and a movie, the Time Traveler's Wife. The fire was mesmerizing and we cuddled up in front of it for awhile. Loved it! We soon went to bed after a long day.
Nate woke me up with kisses and it didn't take long before the sheets got all tangled and eventually completely detached from the mattress.... ;) At 10:00, breakfast was delivered to our door, including: ham & cheese croissants, parfaits, juice, milk with a cute little bouquet. It was soooo GOOOD!

We checked out at noon and went my parents house to chill until we could board the train. We opened gifts, ate dinner with my family, took naps and watched some of my family's home videos. My dad gave us a lift to the station around 10 pm and we were able to board around 11 pm. The supervisor over our car, Nathan, was really nice. He showed us how to work our seats, told us about meal times in the dining car, the cool views in the lounge car and where the bathrooms and showers were. We were on car 531, room 8. It was small and cozy but worth it!

Check out the views we saw from the window!

This is after we woke up that morning. Attractive, right?

Breakfast and Lunch were both pretty good, better than airplane food too. We arrived at our stop in Emeryville around 4:30. Nate's brother Jake picked us up and drove us to our hotel in the heart of downtown San Fransisco. We rested up and went to dinner at the Westbridge mall. The city had so much life and diversity at every turn, I loved it! Their food court is huge and has quality food in every stop! We ate pasta and it was delicious! Around 8:00 we headed over to Union Square to go ice skating. Nate accidentally got figure skates instead of hockey skates so...he didn't know how to skate with the toe picks. lol :) It was really fun!

We walked back to our hotel, watched a movie and went to bed.
The next day, we got up early to head to Fisherman's Wharf to see Alcatraz. This place is crazy cool. They give an audio tour which leads you around the grounds, telling you some pretty interesting stuff about the inmates that it held there.

 Very little space in each cell

Recreational Area 

3 floors high; sectioned of in B, C and D blocks depending on their behavior

Library

 San Fransisco is a 1 1/2 miles away from Alcatraz

When we got back to the dock, we ate lunch at a little fish joint called Chowders. They have the best clam chowder I've ever had. Nate got the soup and I got the crab sandwich. I love how the seafood tastes so good right off the coast!

We visited the Aquarium and it was crazy cool! We saw jellies, sharks, stingrays, bass, karp, etc. We even got to touch a shark and a stingray. Life under the sea was wonderful to watch and explore. Everything reminded me of Finding Nemo..

Afterward, we walked down the pier to Ripley's Believe It or Not and the Ghiradelli Chocolate Factory for ice cream.

Nate's best funny face...

Look! Beach St. I may be a Warburton now, but I'm a Beach by heart

Wednesday, we went a tour around the city in a GoCar GPS guided tour. Every stoplight and intersection, we were told "Welcome to San Fransisco" by people crossing the street. It was hilarious! The architecture of the city is so beautiful. It's so full of life at every turn with a variety of people, all shapes and colors. We rode through chinatown at one point and I'm not kidding when I say this... there was a market on every single block full of fresh foods and not a single white person insight, nothing but Asians everywhere :)

When we got back, Nate's brother Jake drove us around on a tour of his own before dropping us off at the Academy of Sciences and the De Young Art Museum. We saw the Full House houses! They're called the 'Painted Ladies'.

The Academy of Sciences was cool. It had a planetarium, aquarium and botanical gardens all in one. Tons of information about the earth and the species that live on it. They have a mini-rainforest in the middle of the building that you can walk into. After that, the elevator takes you down to the aquarium to see a variety of creatures.

 "Pirahna! It's a pirahna! Loook out, it's coming right at you!"

 This girl caught a butterfly on her finger and it wouldn't fly away. Jealous!

'Sideways' fish!

We walked into one part of the building and saw live.... PENGUINS! lol They looked like they were having so much fun!

The De Young museum was really cool (for me at least). It was cool to see a variety of art in different mediums and styles even if they weren't my style. One piece that I thought was incredible is called the Tooth and Spine of Santo Guerro. Look it up! It's a cathedral made out of glass, guns, bullets, shells, etc. It looked really cool. There were some advantages to taking my art classes this semester, I could give facts about historical art and architecture to Nate. Must've learn somethin'.

That night we had a reservation at the Blu Restaurant. It was quite eloquent. Nate got a meal thing with an appetizer, meal and dessert for a great deal. I instead got a salad and steak. It was delicious! Our waiter was really nice too.

Thanksgiving day, we packed up our stuff and waited for Jake to pick us up for dinner. We went to Jake and Kim's apartment in Hercules. Their apartment is actually a guest house in the biggest house on the top of the hill. Their landlords really know how to garden and make their house look nice. Everyone pitched in to make a Thanksgiving feast. It was really good. I made my dad's au gratin potatoes. Nate grilled green beans and onions. Kim and Jake made a delicious butternut squash soup, brussel sprouts, salad, sweet potatoes and ham. It was so good, I didn't have enough room in my stomach to eat it all.

We all sat down to watch the 49'ers game against the Ravens. Afterwards, we headed to see the Muppets movie at theatres. Kim really wanted to see it, she loves them! :) It was cute!

The four of us drove to the mall to see what black friday looked like this year. And oh man it was crazy! There were lines outside Macy's, Target and... Walmart! Can you say ghetto?! We even took a peek inside and it looked a little trashy. It was a nuthouse with so many people! When we got back to Jake and Kim's place, we chilled for a bit before going to bed.

Black friday arrived the following day and turned into an eventful shopping experience the whole time! :) We all did some Christmas shopping from store to store. I got some perfume samples from Seshowa's (?) beauty store and gifts for Nate. Later that night we went to a light show called A Wonderful Winter Wonderland. It was good to see, but we thought there would be more lights than wired frame light sculptures. The coolest part was the light sticks that appeared to be raining on your way into the park.

We soon went home and watched How to Train Your Dragon with Jake and Kim. The next morning we were a bit lazy, but we didn't care. We ate breakfast and were ready to head out around noon. Jake took us out to lunch at In-&-Out, then we went to see the Oakland Temple before heading to the airport to head home. It was a blast in San Fransisco and I can't wait to go back! A good break from life is needed every now and then :)