We celebrated my birthday Monday night by eating at McDonalds with the kids before we dropped them off at the Stuart's house for three nights. Then at 9:30PM we flew to Oakland and made our way on public transportation (The BART - an adventure for sure) to Fisherman Wharf at the northern end of San Francisco. We stayed at the Marriot there and it was wonderful.
On Valentines morning we woke up early and headed out for breakfast at Boudin, the bakery on the wharf.
After wandering around the pier for a while we went to Pier 33 to catch the ferry to Alcatraz. It was at that point that I got the dreaded call from Mia saying that she was SICK! And over the course of two days all the kids ended up getting sick. It was a little stressful but our sweet friend Kristen insisted we stay and not worry about it. It worked out OK, but that was the hardest part of the whole trip. Kristen... WE LOVE YOU!
Anyway, back to the trip...
This is the picture they took before we rode the ferry over.
This building held the workers of Alcatraz and their families... YUP - Kids lived here and had to take a ferry everyday to school. Crazy!
The island was originally an Army prison, and was converted to the first Super Max prison in the 1930's. It stayed open until the 60's - due to the cost of running it. Native Americans moved to the island in the early 70's and lived there for about 15 months, when the US government forced them to leave. It became a tourist attraction not long after that.
The cells are crazy small.
It was so beautiful that day. We got back to San Francisco at about 12:30 and decided to rent some bikes and ride over the Golden Gate bridge. Talk about FUN!!!!! It was about an 8 mile ride from Fisherman's Wharf, over the bridge, and down into Sausalito.
Here's the map of where we went.
Looking UP...
Looking down off the bridge.
After we crossed to the other side.
We rode down the hill into Sausalito and explored that beautiful area for a little while, then hopped on the ferry back to Fisherman's Wharf. Then we had an early Valentines dinner at Fog Harbor on Pier 39. I was craving good clam chowder in a sour dough bread bowl and let me tell you... It was Incredible.
We were so exhausted from all our sightseeing that we decided to head back to the hotel for a break. A little rest and we were good to go for dessert. Ghiradelli Chocolate was around the corner from our hotel. There's nothing quite like sharing an ice cream sundae on Valentines night.
On Wednesday we got up early and went to Breakfast at Buena Vista- on the corner of Hyde and Beach. Just a block from our hotel, it is the restaurant that is in the opening scene of "When A Man Loves a Woman" with Meg Ryan. It's also a place that Joe Dimaggio and Marilyn Monroe would frequent. They had the most wonderful French Toast.
It's also the start of the Hyde street Cable Car, so after breakfast we got our all day public transportation pass and we were good to go.
I had absolutely NO knowledge about Cable cars until this trip. Here's what I learned. It's the only cable car system left in existence. Basically there's a really long cable running under the street and the cable cars grab onto the cable and it pulls them up and down the hills. They were first invented because the rich people in San Francisco wanted to live up on the hill but they didn't want to climb the steep roads and the horses couldn't do it either. So this system basically made it possible to get up and down the CRAZY hills of San Francisco. I had no idea how crazy they were. It was NUTS!
As you can see from this picture, the workers have to drive the cable car onto a big old lazy susan and push it to turn it around. Cool Stuff.
Up Hyde Street a few blocks is Lombard Street. I thought it was just a modern tourist attraction, but actually Lombard street was one of the main roads back when horses pulled carriages. The switchbacks helped the horses get up the steep hill.
We walked down the stairs by the road. I can't imagine living on that street.
You can see me standing in the middle of the road in this photo.
We went back up the hill and got back on the cable car. The next stop was to the Cable Car Museum. Totally free and really interesting.
You can see the actual cables that are running under the street, and the wheels that spin them. They are HUGE.
Here's how they work.
We jumped on another cable car and got off in Chinatown. It felt like we were in China - it was bizarre.
We did some shopping then decided to try some authentic Chinese food.
Our friend Joe recommended House of Nanking and it was great.
Any down time and Drew is playing "Words with Friends".
We wandered around the city for a while. As far as downtowns go, San Francisco is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. So clean and the buildings are gorgeous.
We stopped into the mall for a while and for some reason I thought this curved escalator was so cool. I've never seen one before.
It was my goal to ride on all the cable cars so I could see it all. I need to get my moneys worth, right? So we rode over to Union Square and saw the California line. It drives through the financial district.
Grace Cathedral is on the California line. I wanted to go inside, but it was closed when we got there.
After another break at the hotel, we went to dinner. This time we decided to ride the Street Car. The street cars have been imported from other cities and are a piece of history on the road. They were just as cool as the cable cars.
On board is a history of that particular street car. This one is of car # 1061, that we rode on the way back.
Drew's friend recommended Tadich Grill in the financial district. INCREDIBLE seafood. We sat up at the counter because it was crowded (and always is, from what we hear). The service was so great and everything was really fresh.
We were close to the kitchen and could watch them grilling the fish.
Then we just cruised around the streets one last time.
The old building at the end of Market Street.
And we couldn't end the day without one last dessert.
We flew home early Thursday morning. It was a great trip. One I will never forget.
