We woke up early and walked (up, up, up) to Lombard Street to see the “crookedest” street in the world. The girls enjoyed running down it after our long walk up and I enjoyed the smell of all the fragrant flowers.
We then headed to Fisherman’s Wharf to take a trip to see Alcatraz and explore the bay. The boat ride was great and extremely informative. Norah settled right in and helped herself to a comfy seat where the boat wouldn't "blow her hair" and was lost in her audio tour. Where the other girls were interested in changing the channels to hear all of the different languages spoken, she stayed on channel 66 and pointed out all of the sights that they were discussing and really absorbed a lot of information.
At the end of our trip, however, the girls quickly learned they would never like to become movie stars. As the only Caucasians on the boat (most every passenger was of Asian decent) and the only family with children, everyone seemed to stop us and ask to take our pictures. It was nearly impossible to have a conversation on the way back as people kept trying to jump behind us and squeeze us together to look at their camera. It was really creepy.
We loaded at Pier 41 and took a trip out under the Golden Gate Bridge learning all about its construction. We couldn't believe that it is continually being painted. As soon as they reach the other side, the start over repainting again!
We learned all about Alcatraz Island, its only 3 escapees and how the Rock was too expensive to run so they shut it down and the Indians took control of it until the federal government took them to court for illegal occupation. You can still see all the graffiti from when they occupied the island. With no potable water source due to it being all rock, water is still shipped to the island for tourism.
The prison on top, ruins from housing on the left of where guards (and their families) used to stay. The girls were amazed that the children of the guards were born and raised on Alcatraz and took the ferry across to school each day, sometimes returning from school in the afternoon with new prisoners to Alcatraz! They didn't think that would be much fun!
After our bay trip, we followed the call of the sea lions to Pier 39 to catch them sun bathing. Then over to Musee Mecanique to see some of the oldest coin operated machines and games at their arcade (and play a little air hockey) and then to the USS Pampanito that made six patrols in the Pacific during WWII and is being restored to its 1945 state.
Check out this big boy...he was so LOUD!
Anybody down there?
Some of the old time games were so scary, we didn't stay here long!
Then down to Hyde St. Pier to the Maritime Historical Park to walk among the historic boats and dip our toes in the Bay. We also got to watch the Bay swimmers, who swim out into the 57 degree bay each morning for their swim.
Hunger got the best of us and though we were up for a little more clam chowder the fishy smell of the Bay wasn’t as alluring to the girls as it was to us, so we settled on trying out In-N-Out Burger. Though a burger joint, it technically didn’t break the rules of eating somewhere we can’t eat at home, and our tummies thanked us after their incredible milk shakes! J After lunch we headed to Ghirardelli Square to walk off our lunch in the park and watch them make their famous chocolate.
We were hopeful that our full bellies would ensure that we behaved ourselves while we were there and didn’t sample everything in sight! It smelled so amazing! Since we had a long walk back up the hilly streets we decided to indulge and let the cable cars to some of the work for us.
We jumped on for a fun ride up and down the hills and headed over to Union Square so we could walk under the Chinatown Gate and get a feel for China.
The colorful shops helped the uphills pass quickly under our feet and then we started the trek back down to our hotel. Luckily, we only had a few huge hills and 13 of our blocks were spent going down instead of up! When you fear the hills, you count your blessings…literally.
Of course, we had to take a slight detour to ensure we could check out Grace Cathedral. They had another spirtual labrynth inside (similar to the one we fell in love with at the Grotto in Portland) so we enjoyed a quiet (flat) walk around that before we headed back out for the hilly streets.
We arrived back to our car and headed out of the city to Sacramento to get a little jump on our looong drive across Nevada. Getting out of the city proved a bit difficult with the back up on Bay Bridge making us very thankful for Midwest “traffic.”
Finally moving on Bay Bridge.
"Old Sacramento"
In Sacramento, we checked out “Old Sacramento” with its western feel and historic museums and then headed to the hotel for a quick dip in the pool. It was 95 when we arrived, so the cool water was a great welcome to Sacramento. Handstand contest, anyone?! Emma won this round, check out those pointy toes! :)
*love*
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