Seriously.
I was pretty exhausted fromt he drive the day before, so we got off to a slow start on Saturday. While I'm glad we took it easy, I wish I had planned a little better, because we ended up spinning our wheels a bit because I was so tired.
We knew we wanted to head down to the pier, so we drove into S.F. and began to look for parking. We searched and we searched and we finally pulled into a parking garage that charged.... wait for it....
$2.25 per 20 minutes! WHAT?!
Excuse me, but it's San Francisco, not Paris. (I probably wouldn't pay anything to park in Paris anyway!)
We were sort of overcome with shock at the price tag. As many of you know, Matt and I are sort of penny pinchers- we are NOT fans of wasting money at all. Especially Matt. Okay, Mostly Matt. I'm just kidding, we are a relatively united front on money... We don't like wasting it. And that's that.
Once we got out of the car, we sort of just wandered around, dazed at the amount we just agreed to pay for parking in this liberal cesspool of decaying moral values. Oooops. Did I type that out loud??
We first stopped at the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory:
And got some samples that were, remarkably, free! Yum!
And then we checked out how they make their famous chocolate.
I definitely regret not buying one of the chocolate sundaes they were selling. They looked fabulous, but it was still morning and I had just sold my soul to park, so I wasn't really in the mood at the time. But I bet they were heavenly.
After that, we headed down to the pier...
This was their first glimpse of the ocean, so they were pretty excited!
Then we backtracked to find a trolley:
It looks like a gorgeous day, doesn't it? Well, don't let that sunshine fool you. It was incredibly windy, and once you walked toward the water, the wind was bitterly cold! Not exactly what I wass expecting, but I hadn't really planned for that, either. I knew Northern California wasn't as warm as Southern Cali, but Matt said that on teh forecasts, San Franscisco was consistently ten degrees cooler than San Jose (where we were staying).
We headed back down toward the pier and stopped at In N Out for some yummy burgers!
The wind kept blowing away our food, so we were trying to eat and hold our elbows down on our napkins at the same time:
After some food cleared our heads, we were able to shake off the parking extortion and finally made our way to the pier.
Did I mention it was windy? And cold?
Yeah.
Not so fun.
But we made the best of it and I tried hard not to complain... (Matt may have a different way of seeing it, but I really did try!)
We stopped by the famous Sourdough Bakery, which has a name... I just can't remember it!
They make the coolest stuff out of sourdough and the kids had fun watching for a while!
Little Turtles:
Victoria's favortie was the Koala Bear:
Snakes and Crocodiles
While Dad tried to find out about a tour of Alcatraz, we stopped to smell the roses, er ...whatever those are.I told Tori she could smell them and just after I snapped this picture ... she pulled the flower right out! Ooops!
After we vandalized the flower beds, we headed over to the wharf to watch the Sea Lions... the wind cause Tori to have a little Marilyn Monroe moment on her way. Thank Goodness for leggings!
This was easily the cheapest, smelliest and most fun part of our day. The kids LOVED watching the Sea Lions. We could have stayed there for hours if it hadn't been so dang cold!
The wind strikes again:
Sorry. If I were a more savvy blogger, I could put all these Sea Lion pics in a collage, but that would take me four times as long and I am behind as it is...
I love this one- you can see Coit tower in the background:
After we vandalized the flower beds, we headed over to the wharf to watch the Sea Lions... the wind cause Tori to have a little Marilyn Monroe moment on her way. Thank Goodness for leggings!
This was easily the cheapest, smelliest and most fun part of our day. The kids LOVED watching the Sea Lions. We could have stayed there for hours if it hadn't been so dang cold!
The wind strikes again:
Sorry. If I were a more savvy blogger, I could put all these Sea Lion pics in a collage, but that would take me four times as long and I am behind as it is...The kids particularly enjoyed watching these two, who were frolicking and rolling around and kissing eachother's snouts. Too cute!
After hanging with the Sea animals, it was time to head over to get a closer view of Alcatraz!
After hanging with the Sea animals, it was time to head over to get a closer view of Alcatraz!
Matt and I are huge fans of the movie So I Married An Axe Murderer, so we really wanted to tour Alcatraz. But apparently, you have to set those up several months in advance, and since planning was clearly not part of my day, we just took a boat tour around the Prison. That's just as cool, right?
Okay, maybe not, but really, what can you do at that point?!
I was super tired at this point and Tori was also, so we mostly hung out in the cabin while Matt and the kids braved the wind and got some good photo ops:
The building with the dome top over there is called The Presidio. Apparently the Spanish built it as a military fortress and never used it. Now it is a comples for the arts. Random Useless Info...
Approaching the Golden Gate Bridge!!
How cute are they?!
Once we got closer to Alcatraz Tori and I tried to brave the wind I was kinda hoping we might see Vicky wandering around giving tours, but there was no sign of him. Bummer.
There's something about boys and prisons... Matt and Isaac were super excited to get up close to this place and hear all about it.
After our jaunt along the pier, we headed back to our car to pay our ridiculous parking garage fee. The total price tag? $38 for five hours of parking. We had pretty much come to terms with it at that point, so we headed up to the "crookedest" street : Lombard
I tried to capture the crookedness of it, but once again my photography skills were a little lacking... Daphne, apparently, was terrified by the crooked street:
You can kinda see the crookedness here:
But you can really see it in this one. After driving down Lombard, we headed up to Coit tower, and from there you can get a good view of the crooked street, right in the middle of this pic:
To be completely honest, I was a little too hecked out to find out why Coit tower is important. I just know it is a San Franciscan Landmark and we checked it out!
Okay, maybe not, but really, what can you do at that point?!
I was super tired at this point and Tori was also, so we mostly hung out in the cabin while Matt and the kids braved the wind and got some good photo ops:Who says Chicago is the windy city? I think San Fran could give them a run for their money.
The building with the dome top over there is called The Presidio. Apparently the Spanish built it as a military fortress and never used it. Now it is a comples for the arts. Random Useless Info...
Approaching the Golden Gate Bridge!!
How cute are they?!
Once we got closer to Alcatraz Tori and I tried to brave the wind I was kinda hoping we might see Vicky wandering around giving tours, but there was no sign of him. Bummer.
There's something about boys and prisons... Matt and Isaac were super excited to get up close to this place and hear all about it.
After our jaunt along the pier, we headed back to our car to pay our ridiculous parking garage fee. The total price tag? $38 for five hours of parking. We had pretty much come to terms with it at that point, so we headed up to the "crookedest" street : Lombard
I tried to capture the crookedness of it, but once again my photography skills were a little lacking... Daphne, apparently, was terrified by the crooked street:
You can kinda see the crookedness here:
But you can really see it in this one. After driving down Lombard, we headed up to Coit tower, and from there you can get a good view of the crooked street, right in the middle of this pic:
To be completely honest, I was a little too hecked out to find out why Coit tower is important. I just know it is a San Franciscan Landmark and we checked it out!Our little Daffodil:
The aforementioned Coit Tower:
The aforementioned Coit Tower:
More of the city....
And that was about it for Day 1 in California! We made the 45 minute drive back to San Jose, found us an Arby's and got our tired little bums in bed. Don't worry... I get my energy back and I'm a little nicer for the rest of the trip!
And that was about it for Day 1 in California! We made the 45 minute drive back to San Jose, found us an Arby's and got our tired little bums in bed. Don't worry... I get my energy back and I'm a little nicer for the rest of the trip!
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