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July 18, 2012
After leaving Carmel, we headed north towards San Francisco, making a pit stop at Stanford so Darby
could see the campus. She loved it! It is so beautifully manicured and she loved the "beachy" feel and wonderful climate. Maybe we will have one in college in California soon???
We headed on to San Francisco and returned our rental car right across from our hotel - the Hilton in Union Square!
After catching our breath, we headed out to explore the city. We started by grabbing a cable car ride one stop north of the Union Square Station. We were able to hop right on, although we didn't initially get primo spots outside the car. Once people began getting off, Darby and Grayson were able to get outside spots so they could hang on the outside of the cable car for the best view down towards Fisherman's Wharf. It is amazing weather and awesome to feel the wind on your face riding up and down the hills of San Fran! At the end of the line, we hopped off and wandered through Fisherman's Wharf, the Cannery, and Ghiradeli Square. We were ready for some dinner so we hiked UP several blocks, stopping to check out Lombard Street - the most crooked street in the world, and then down to Columbus in Little Italy. We found a great Italian joint called Tony's Coal-Fired Pizza and Slice House to eat pizza and calzone before calling it a night. It is sure to be a busy next couple of days and we are excited to spend more time in this wonderful city!
July 19, 2012
Jonna got up super early to speak with the concierge about Alcatraz tickets. Apparently, because of all of the movies set at Alcatraz and the movies currently being filmed there, tours of "The Rock" are hard to come by and need to be booked several weeks in advance! We didn't realize that because last time we
took the tour, we just walked up and got our tickets! Thankfully, we got some help from the concierge and booked a time for Saturday! Once that was squared away, we started our day off with a great complimentary breakfast at the hotel restaurant. It is good that Mark is a Diamond Hilton member. San Fran has so many international tourists that the breakfast buffet had lots of interesting and delicious options! Yum!
Grayson was looking weak and had hardly any appetite so we were immediately alerted that something was wrong -- he can usually put away some serious amounts of food. He has been less than 100% much of the trip and complained of a sore throat and ear issues. The concierge helped us locate a local "doc in the box". Sure enough, the doc diagnosed a sinus infection and probable strep throat. With a Z-pack and some Advil in hand, we headed out of there about 20 minutes after we arrived. Fastest doctor appointment EVER! He wasn't feeling poorly enough to hang in the hotel so he and Mark booked a tour of Giants Stadium. We figured if anything could cheer him up, baseball would! Jonna and Darby decided to forgo the tour in lieu of shopping at the Ferry Building Marketplace on the Embarcadaro and then in Union Square. Mid-afternoon we all met up and caught our breath at the hotel for an hour, then we set off again for the evening.
We had purchased the three day transportation passports which gave us access to ALL forms of transportation in San Fran. For $21 this was a GREAT deal. We jumped on the Powell Cable Car and headed up to the Cable Car Museum as our first stop. It was amazing to read all the history of the cars and their near demise in 1947. Thankfully, concerned citizens of San Francisco passed a law protecting the cable cars in San Francisco, which add so much to the charm of the city. It was fascinating to see the giant wheels and cables that keep these legendary giants transporting folks all over the city!
From the museum, we headed to the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory on Ross Alley in Chinatown. It was fun to see the Chinese ladies grab the flat cookies off of what looks like an endless waffle iron-type conveyor belt and quickly wrap them around a rod while simultaneously inserting the fortune. The cookies are pliable for only a few seconds and then they harden so they have to move quickly! For $0.50 you can take a picture with the lady shaping the cookies. It was about a 5 minute experience in all, but really fun to see! We were given a free sample while there. Of course, we bought a small bag of the fresh cookies to eat as we walked through Chinatown!
After exploring Chinatown, we jumped on to Bus #71 at the Powell Street Station and headed to the Haight-Ashbury district. Darby was in HOG HEAVEN! She loved every part of that artsy area of town, especially the Amoeba Music store. We spent a few hours meandering through stores and grabbing a quick Mexican dinner at Zona Rosa on Haight Street. The climate started to get cool and foggy by 10 pm and we were ready to head back to the hotel to prepare for our early morning of biking riding tomorrow!
July 20, 2012
Today was our biking day! We grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel and then jumped on the Powell Street Cable Car and headed down to Fisherman's Wharf to Blazing Saddles Bike Rental.
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The rental facility was so well run with lots of young adults working there making sure that we had the right sized helmets and bikes. We set off heading toward the Golden Gate Bridge. It was gorgeous weather and there were a lot of people out on bikes enjoying the day. It was pretty tough getting up the hill onto the bridge itself, but once we were on the bridge, it was fairly easy going and exhilarating! We rode over the bridge and into the adorable town of Sausalito. We parked our bikes at a small park by the bay and browsed in some shops and enjoyed some ice cream at Lappert's Ice Cream. Back on the bikes we continued through Sausalito toward Tiburon. It was a total of 22 miles to the end of the trail in Tiburon. By the time we got there, muscles (especially in the hind quarters!) were aching and we were starving! We grabbed some lunch at Waypoint Pizza and the kids visited the Main Street Candy Shop! We went out to check the ferry schedule back to San Francisco and were lucky enough to jump right on! The ride back was cool (almost cold), but beautiful and we enjoyed seeing Alcatraz up close. We plan to tour it tomorrow. Back in San Fran, we returned our bikes and realized that the crowds on the cable car were overwhelming so instead we jumped on Bus #30 headed towards Union Square. That ride was a treat! Our bus driver, Beverly, was a trip! She had been driving busses in SF forever, and had been on this particular route through Chinatown for the past 6 months. She was pretty tired of it and had a lot of funny stories to share about the trip through Chinatown. We enjoyed hearing her mutter and cluck as people entered and exited the bus. She was particularly indignant about the people boarding from the back door because she said lots of them sneak on and don't pay! It was fun to listen to her. We jumped off near Union Square and headed back to the hotel for a much needed rest! At night we ventured out via cable car to Union Street, where we strolled, and window shopped. Darby bought 2 new swimsuits that she's very proud of. Once the stores began to close down, we took the cable car back to Union Square and packed up for our long final day tomorrow!
July 21, 2012
Today was our last day for Blount Adventure 2012! Originally, we planned to take a bus tour and go to
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Alcatraz today, but we decided against it because the tickets were being sold at an unreasonably high price. It used to be that you could just walk up and get tickets for the Alcatraz tour pretty much anytime - no more. Apparently since so many movies have been filmed there, the demand has risen and the national park, just like the Statue of Liberty, can't keep up. The tickets are normally $28 on the website and include the boat and the headset to listen to the tour. The only thing we could get was a combined bus tour and Alcatraz tickets for $95! Since Mark and I had been and the kids will surely be back, we decided to wait and do it next time. The bus went to places where we had already been and since Mark and I have been here numerous times, we had already filled the kids in on most of what the bus covered. Next time, we will know to reserve our Alcatraz tickets at least two weeks in advance!
Anyway, it all worked out for the best because it was a gorgeous day and we had a great time just enjoying the city. We started out by taking the Bus #30 from Powell and Market over to Golden Gate Park and getting off at Crossover Street. We meandered through the park and enjoyed seeing the landscape, boat races, bison, golf course, and Dutch Windmill. It was a good walk through the park so when we came out on the other end of the park that is adjacent to the Pacific Ocean, we decided to sit on the wall and take a break. We all ended up laying on the wall by the beach and taking a snooze. The weather was perfect the entire stay - cool enough for a light sweatshirt, but clear and warm in the sun!
After a brief siesta, we caught the Bus #5 on the corner of the park and rode back about 50 blocks to the other end of the park and transferred to the 43 bus which took us back to the corner of Masonic and Haight. Darby had wanted to go back to the Haight area since the other night it began getting late and lots of the shops she wanted to peruse had already closed. We spent another hour or so enjoying the shops and people watching. We saw a street band called the Jugtown Pirates and enjoyed them for a bit too. After a while, we jumped on the Bus #30 again and enjoyed a ride north through Presidio Park and the Wharf and up through Little Italy. Grayson had wanted to go back to a candy shop he found the first night to get some salt water taffy because this place had about 60 different barrels and lots of unique flavors! We hopped off at Green and Columbus and shopped at Z. Cioccolato in North Beach area of San Francisco. We love this particular area of San Fran. Years ago Mark and I saw the show Beach Blanket Babylon here - it is the world's longest running musical and it is hysterical. The hats and costumes that are worn in the show are phenomenal and the show is ever-changing and always fresh with current material. Unfortunately, you have to be 18 to see the show (except on Sunday when younger teens are allowed in). We weren't in San Fran on a Sunday this time or we would definitely have had BBB on our itinerary!
We hopped back on the bus and returned to the Union Square area where we had some dinner at Lori's Diner before collecting our bags and heading to the airport for our 10:30 pm flight! We had a great, relaxing day bumming around San Francisco and are looking forward to the next trip out to the "left" coast! The flight took off at 10:30 without delay and we arrived back in Atlanta at 6:10 am Sunday morning --- tired, but grateful for another fun and safe Blount Adventure!
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