Instagram Explained Pt.2

Since this trip was a whopping 9 days and I barely posted anything from Yosemite, I thought I'd split up how I recapped. If you missed part one, catch up by clicking here. If not, I believe we left off while my family and I were still in Yosemite...

 

After a four hour drive back to the city, we hit up Chinatown. We went to a back alley fortune cookie factory, and then went to this lovely Chinese restaurant. My dad just told the waitress that we wanted calamari and sesame chicken for sure and then she said "oh ok well I'll bring you a shrimp and a beef dish too". Everything was delicious and 100% authentic which was so cool. Afterwards, we walked up Lombard street then called it a night. 

This outfit...
I wore these cutoff mom jeans countless times. This was the original outfit I had planned them with, but I would put them on to do homework at the Awahnee, as a cover-up, whatever. They're my new most versatile and favorite shorts and I don't even care that they're "mom shorts"...goodwill is my new best friend.

The next morning, we headed out to Alcatraz island. Despite it being known for mystery and imprisonment, it was actually quite beautiful there. The views were to die for and there were blooming flowers everywhere. I was able to learn so much about the history of the jail. Did you know there was a Native American seizure of the island in 1969 that lasted for 19 months? I didn't! On the water tower, there's still a message in red lettering that says something along the lines of "Home of the Free Indians".
Not mention, the escape attempts are fascinating. I always think "why couldn't they just swim?" but once you're on the island, it's obvious. The water is freezing and there's sharks and it's actually quite a long way to shore.
Ps the jail's color scheme is mint and light pink #toocute #jk

In one of the industrial buildings away from the cell-house, there's an art exhibit (up until April 26) by Chinese artist and human rights advocate Ai Weiwei. The caption on Instagram was pretty accurate so I'll just copy and paste it for all who don't follow us: 

This art exhibit was done by a Chinese artist who was imprisoned for speaking out against those in power in his country. He created multiple pieces of art to be displayed in Alcatraz, a universal symbol of imprisonment, without being able to leave his country. This portion is 6 different squares composed entirely of Legos portraying various political prisoners who Ai Weiwei (the artist) believes were wrongly imprisoned. His goal was to fill this warehouse and various other parts of the prison with brightness and beauty (for example, filling the hospital sinks and bathtubs with porcelain flowers). Seeing this was such a cool experience. I loved his message and for anyone who can easily access Alcatraz, I suggest visiting before it gets taken down on April 26th.

I wore this to Alcatraz and it served me well. I was overjoyed that it was warm enough for sandals/summer blouses, but I was not overjoyed by the sunburn that I earned myself. Anyways, I refer to these sandals (from Old Navy) as my Jesus sandals...because they look like the ones you always see Ll the biblical people wearing. Real Talk: they're the comfiest and served me well walking around the city. After Alcatraz, we watched the sea lions down at fisherman's wharf for a good amount of time and then ate a quality seafood lunch. We stopped by the bay aquarium then went to Ghiradelli square where we bought 4 chocolate bars and saw the studio where the Big Eyes artist works (SO COOL). We jumped on a cable car and checked out the cable car museum and finished up with an insanely delicious Italian meal and gelato.

We spent the day at the California Academy of Science which is like the Baltimore Science center on steroids. I think the highlights were the super colorful and cool aquarium as well as the earthquake simulator. We got to feel what it was like to be in both major San Francisco earthquakes!!
That morning we dipped our feet into the freezing pacific ocean and that evening we ate authentic Japanese sushi (I ate a fried shrimp head gahhhh)

The next morning we ate a DELICIOUS breakfast at the Palace Garden Court. As soon as you walk inside this hotel, you're met with this stunning dining room...It's hard to describe, but wow. What a perfect start to the day. 

Because breakfast was so fancy, I chose to wear a dress (bad choice). This meant I had to sit on most of the cable car rides we took, but that's ok. We went and saw another beautiful Cathedral, we explored a Fisherman's Wharf farmers market, and we hit up a science museum known as the Exploratorium. Inside said museum were 600 interactive science exhibits, all of which were fascinating. Some of which we had done in my physics class! My favorite part, though, was this dome in the middle of the museum called the Tactile dome. You navigated a path in complete darkness, only able to feel the different materials inside. My brother and I had so much fun but my parents opted out (tee hee).

HEY LOOK AN ARTSY SELFIE
Yes, I decided an angsty selfie would be a proper way to say goodbye to the lovely city where I hope to visit again soon, if not settle down there. Honestly, if you can, go. It's amazing and I loved every second of this trip. The hardest part was re-integrating back into reality.

Geeky as it is, my dad made an itinerary for us to follow. If you'd like a copy to see exactly what we did or to gather inspiration from, click here. 

I promise I'll start writing about style again soon!

xoxo

Hannah