What's so great about Pier 39?

Yesterday, Jordan, Brady and I took a day trip to San Francisco. We left thinking that we would go to Pier 39, see the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, and also go to the zoo. Little did we know, that is A LOT to do in one day. We parked about a mile away from Pier 39 and started to walk. It was about 11:00 A.M and we were freezing!! I didn't realize how windy and cold it would be by the water, it's always so hot in Sacramento. Luckily we brought lots of blankets for Brady and he stayed nice and warm.

I'm a little embarrassed, I honestly didn't really know what was so special about pier 39. We were walking past like pier 25 and pier 32 and I was having a negative attitude (partly attributed to the fact that I was a little chilly) and I said to Jordan, "can't we just take a picture by one of these piers instead of 39? What is so special about 39?". We kept walking and I got really excited when I started to see the flags for pier 39, we were almost there - then we could go see something else, right? ;)

So as we got closer, we saw tons of shops, places to eat and the huge aquarium! I realized why this was the pier we wanted to be at :] It was so much fun to walk around and see all the shops and vendors as we were walking up to the pier. After walking around for about 45 minutes we decided to grab a bite to eat. We had a recommendation to try Neptune's, and we were so glad we went there! It had an amazing view over the ocean and you could see Alcatraz perfectly. Oh and of course, the best clam chowder bowls you've ever tasted.

Okay the sky light made it hard to get a good picture of Jordan, but you can see our view in this picture. We were literally sitting right next to the water. It was so much fun to watch the sea lions splashing around and the sailboats going by.

Brady would only look at Jordan when I pulled out the camera... little stinker! haha

Jordan got a hamburger (of course), and I tried my very first clam chowder bowl. Yum!!

After we finished eating we stopped to watch a magic show for a few minutes and started to walk back towards the aquarium and the entrance. As we were walking back I saw one of those booths that lets you open up an oyster to find a pearl! I remembered that my mom and sister both did this when we took a trip to San Diego. They both got their pearls set into jewelry and I wanted one really bad. Jordan made me walk around for a few minutes (because he said my buying temperature was really high lol) and we looked in a few more stores. I still really wanted one so we went back to the booth :]

The woman working there told us that it is more sentimental if the husband picks out the oyster. Jordan picked out the hairiest, shortest, and fattest one in the bucket. Apparently they said the uglier the oyster, the prettier the pearl.

After he picked the oyster, we had to welcome the pearl into the world. I tapped it 3 times and we all yelled, "ALOHA" as loud as we could. 

She opened the oyster and found this beauty inside!!

All the workers were surprised by the size of the pearl. It was pretty big compared to their sample pearl that they guarantee you will get. Woot woot!! Jordan picked out the best one :] So the worker rubbed it down with salt to clean it, and then she let me be the first one to hold it with my bare hands.

I was seriously having so much fun! Jordan let me pick out a ring setting and I went home one happy girl :] 

We will definitely be going back to San Francisco again! We didn't get nearly as much done as we were planning, but we had an amazing day :] Next time we are planning on taking the tour of Alcatraz, and we can't wait to go back.