San Francisco!

The CAS annual meeting was held in San Francisco this year. I was going there to be officially recognized as a new Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society so Donna and I took the opportunity to go a few days earlier and get in a weekend mini-trip. We only had the weekend together before she had to fly back but we still got in a lot of sightseeing.

We were so tired the first morning because my flight didn't get in until 2am. Donna's friends Kevin and Melissa had picked her up from the Oakland airport and she waited up for me until 3am. Kevin was nice enough to let us stay at his place on a comfortable but constantly deflating air mattress.

First thing the next morning, Kevin drove us to Twin Peaks where we had amazing panoramic views of the city. Too bad the weather was a little gloomy.


We then went to Powell station to grab some visitors maps and the MUNI bus passes. We were hoping to catch a ride on the cable car but the line was always so long that we eventually gave up. Along a busy section of Market Street, a poorly-attended Veterans' Day Parade caused a lot of traffice jams but we eventually made it out to Fisherman's Wharf for my first ever In-N-Out Burger. As with any of our trips, this one came down to being all about food.

We saw some seals at Pier 39 and wandered around the Fisherman's Wharf area where we saw this guy soliciting people for a $10 boat tour aboard what looked to be a regular fishing boat. It looked a little sketchy at first, but the Wacky Jacky took us under the Golden Gate Bridge

and around Alcatraz

all in just the right amount of time (under an hour) and the tour guide was very funny, politically incorrect, and informative. We had a much better time on that than we would have on a "real" tour boat at more than twice the price, twice the length.

Back at the wharf, we saw the Boudin Bakery museum where they bake their famous sourdough bread into crazy shapes.


Lombard street, the so claimed "world's crookedest street" was a short hike away so we went to check that out.


Although Lombard street was not that far, the problem with San Fran of course, is that everywhere you go, it always seems like you're hiking uphill at ridiculously steep slopes. We were pretty wiped out so we decided to stuff ourselves with seafood and call it a night. Cioppino, seafood platter, and clam chowder in sourdough bread bowl. Excellent.


Sunday, we only went to a couple of places and walked a lot in the process (but *less* uphill). We went through the Marina area, beach, and up to the Golden Gate Bridge.


Then found our way to Postcard Row, a very famous scene for all you closet Full House fans.


While we were sitting around waiting for Donna's relatives to pick us up at Alamo Square, we spotted a hummingbird flying around in front of us so we took out the big lens and caught our first ever hummingbird picture.


We met up with Donna's relatives who invited us over to their house and served us some homemade soup (as well as repeatedly offering us ice cream).

I'm glad Donna got to catch up with her relatives before they dropped us off at the Hyatt Regency where the CAS Meeting was held.

Donna went to eat in Chinatown with her relatives the next day before they were so kind enough to drive her to Oakland to catch her flight back to Chicago.

Here are all the photos!

San Francisco Day 1

San Francisco Day 2

San Francisco Day 3