Hey Guys!! We stayed in the Vacaville area for two weeks while we explored the San Francisco area.

Vacaville was about forty-five minutes away from San Francisco so it really suited us well. Far enough away to avoid the crush of so many people on a daily basis, but close enough that we were able to spend two days explore San Francisco.

We passed by this field every time we went toward the Bay area. Do you see the little outhouse? It’s quite the outhouse! Complete with modern plumbing…but no door…and facing a highway. Oh the things we see…

Y’all know that big cities aren’t really our thing. In fact, we usually skip them, but I wanted to see the big red bridge. Our first day in San Francisco was on a weekend and boy let me tell you…the crowds were insane! It took us quite a bit of time to find a parking space anywhere near the bridge, but we eventually did. It was cold and super windy. Apparently, that’s a typical summer day for San Francisco. By the time we walked to the bridge that famous San Francisco Bay fog had started rolling in.

We waded through the crowds to snap some pictures of the view then hightailed it back to the warmth of our car. This was as close as we got to Alcatraz. Timing and tickets weren’t on our side this trip. I’m hoping to revisit the area someday, but like I said before…big cities aren’t really our thing…so, we’ll see. We made our way down to Fisherman’s Wharf to do some more sight seeing, but the crowds were just too thick for us so we decided to leave.

We headed out in search of food and found ourselves at a place called Roam. Do you see that burger in the picture? I somehow got my mouth around it (no comments please) and promptly realized that this burger was definitely on my list of top five burgers…near the top. We got the Fry-Fecta to go along with our burgers. My favorite of the three choices was the fried zucchini/onion spirals. We left reminiscing about all of the other burgers we’ve had while trying to decide which burger is on the top of our list of favorites. We all agreed it was a green chili cheeseburger, but we’re divided as to exactly which one.

By the time we were crossing back over the bridge to head home the fog had rolled fully in. It was a little eerie crossing over the water without being able to see it.

Our second excursion into the city was during the week. We made the trip first thing in the morning to avoid as much of the crowd as we could. We found Fisherman’s Wharf much less crowded. And Guys, check out the famous San Francisco hills. It’s hard to really see how steep it is in pictures…you can see the slope of it better in the bottom picture. Driving up one of the steeper hills felt kind of like the beginning of a roller-coaster. You know…the very beginning when you’re click, click, clicking slowly to the top of the hill so you can plummet down the other side. I feel like it would definitely be more terrifying to go plummeting down one of these steep San Francisco hills.

Our first stop was the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park where we learned about the city’s seafaring past. There’s a nice little museum at the Visitor’s Center where the boys got their Junior Ranger booklets, but the best part is right across the street, over at the Hyde St. Pier where you can walk around and explore some older ships.

We walked around an old passenger ferry named Eureka. Eureka started out as a ship named Ukiah that used to transport munition filled railroad cars. We loved walking through all of the old cars and the upper level where the passengers would ride.

Years ago…I don’t remember where I first got some…I had my first taste of See’s Candies. It’s been my favorite boxed chocolate since then. So, when we saw a See’s Candies store on Fisherman’s Wharf…I had to go in. And…come out with a few…souvenirs.

We ended up at a fish-n-chips place called The Codmother Fish & Chips. There’s something about having fish just feet from the water it was caught in…so good!

Our last stop in San Francisco was the Sutro Baths. At one time, the Sutro Baths were once the world’s largest indoor swimming complex. The building itself is all but gone, but there are still remnants of what once was. This picture of what the Sutro Baths used to look like was in the Visitor Center. Adolph Sutro, a German immigrant, used the money he made as an engineer of a ventilation tunnel for the silver mines of Nevada’s Comstock Lode to purchase the real estate called Lands End and build the Sutro Baths. The swimming and bathing complex was covered in three acres of stained glass and steel and seemed to be built right into the seaside cliffs.

Confession…I’m a little bit of a sugarholic. Just a little. Well, if I’m being completely honest, I might as well tell you…I’m a huge sugarholic. Huge! Some of my friends and family have told me that sugar runs through my veins instead of blood. While I’ve made an effort to cut back on the amount of sugar I have a day…er…I mean a week. We couldn’t pass up touring through the factory of one of my favorite sugary treats. Jelly Belly!

The Goelitz family has been in the candy business since 1869. That’s a lot of candy making! At the Fairfield factory, you can take a free self-guided tour of their candy making process and see the factory in action. In the picture above you can see what Jelly Belly bean centers look like. When the centers get their shells, they’ll be 40% bigger! The center bean of a Jelly Belly is made from a slurry made of sugar, water, corn syrup, and corn starch. Every Jelly Belly bean starts with the same basic slurry and then the flavor and color is added. The Fairfield Jelly Belly factory can make around 800 Jelly Belly bean centers per second. Once the bean centers have been made they have to cure, rest and dry.

Have you ever wondered how they mix the Jelly Belly beans for the bags of mixed flavors? They pour boxes of each bean in the mix on this long conveyor belt. The belt moves and the beans work their way up to a big barrel where the beans are all mixed up together. The beans are then moved by another conveyor belt to those big white containers in the picture (top left a bit) above where they wait to go to the packaging area.

There’s a bean artist who gets to spend all of their time making these Jelly Belly bean works of art. How fun would that be?! Some fun facts:  each work of art is typically 4’x5′, each picture weighs about 100 pounds with the frame, it takes around 100 hours from start to finish, and it takes somewhere around 12,000 beans to make one masterpiece.  

One of the best things about the Jelly Belly factory…they’ve got all of the flavors! And I do mean all of them. We, of course, had to take home some samples. Just a few. **wink, wink**

We really enjoyed exploring the San Francisco area! There was so much to see and do that we didn’t even scratch the surface with two very full weeks of adventuring. Maybe someday we’ll travel through the area again so we can hit some of the things we missed…when we’re ready to face the huge crowds again.

See y’all down the road!

#westernloop2018