San Francisco, Dec. 8-10

We finally made it to San Francisco - together!




What a beautiful and exciting city. There are so many highlights to look at: one of them the Golden Gate Bridge - definitely. Although the weather wasn't the best, we enjoyed every moment.






We stayed in a hotel in the Mission disctrict: Elements Hotel (http://www.elementshotel.com/). It is a hostel style hotel with basic rooms and fairly inexpensive rates. The nice thing is that it is in midst of a trendy district with lots of cool bars. One of them was in the same building as the hotel - it was very nice (with a cool roof-top bar during nice weather nights): http://www.medjoolsf.com/.














Other highlights of the city included the Bay Bridge (and the ride over it). Here in the background with at in the foreground... who is this good-looking guy next to the statues :-)















Another highlight.... our visit at Alcatraz and the boat tour to it. Below you see the view back to Frisco from the boat. The shining lines are the steep streets in SF.

Alcatraz, San Francisco, Dec. 9

Alcatraz - what an experience.





It was strange getting a tour through this infamous and brutal prison and hearing the stories of its different inhabitants and history.









I wasn't sure, whether I should leave Susanne here.... Well I thought about it again and finally was nice :-)




















Until they locked me up in a tiny room without daylight. They didn't like Germans.




















That was the view from one of the Alcatraz cells back to Frisco... Just think about being locked up and seeing this nice city every day. No chance to escape.

Frisco Impressions, Dec. 9-10, 2006 (3. Advent)

Alcatraz... The island where only three men escaped - although nobody knows if they really made it. Well, if you found them today, they would be worth $1 million! So go ahead, this should be motivation enough.









San Francisco's skyline.















And the sea lions on Pier 39. Amazing!! You should hear the sounds they produce...















Surfer-Susel on Baker's Beach - where the water is freaking cold, the waves are fairly big and where California Dreaming begins. It was pretty frosty, so we didn't bother to rip off our clothes and jump in the water. It probably wouldn't have been too healthy anyway because the drift / current out to the pacific ocean was pretty tight and the warnings everywhere were unambigious. 

Detroit Pistons - Portland

Deeeeeeeetroooiiiiiiit Baasketbaaalll....

Sehr sehr spannend,aber leider haben sie ganz knapp verloren.


Philipp hat sich extra noch am Wochenende richtig ausgestattet.

















Eine tolle Stimmung...
... aber irgendwie hat man das Gefühl, die meisten Einheimischen gehen da nicht wegen des Spiels hin, sondern um sich selbst zu feiern, oder eine der wenigen Pizzen "for free" in der Pause abzugreifen...












Karten haben wir schon wieder für den 23.12.

Man kann es kaum glauben aber das Angebot lautet:
Vier Karten für 99 $ inclusive vier Hot Dogs und vier Getränke. 

Blue Martini Abend

Am Wochenende waren wir mal wieder in Birmingham weg. War ein sehr lustiger Abend...

Einschließlich des Hin-und Rückweges...

Wir waren außerdem auch in Sachen "Unser Dorf soll schöner werden unterwegs", die bunten Lichter sind ja kaum auszuhalten !!!


... die drei Mädels vom Grill mit einem kleinen Umtrunk ...
... und dann rein ins "blaue" Vergnügen ... 

MSU vs. Minnesota Football

MSU Football....
GO GREEEEEEN
GO WHITE!!!!

Auch wenn die Spartans gegen Minnesota verloren haben war es doch ein imposantes Erlebnis in einem der College-Hexenkessel ein Spiel mitzuerleben!