San Francisco Day 3

The Brown's left us on day three (Friday). Their daughter needed to be back in Provo for her ACT test on Saturday. So they caught an afternoon flight back. So, over the Golden Gate bridge and lunch at a cafe in Sausalito. Sarah actually ordered spaghetti with mussels. I was ready to give her credit for trying and she surprised us all and finished them all. She's such an adventurous soul. After brunch we headed to Muir Woods.

Some of the tallest redwoods known (coastal redwoods) grow along the northern coast of California. Even taller than the Sequoia's of Sequoia National Park. This particular grove has been protected since 1900. You can see behind the girls a cross section of one of the trees. Very old, but very skinny. The coastal redwood shoots straight up then begins to fill out and it's just the opposite for the Sequoia, I guess. At least that's what I got from the brochures.

Kinda hard to entertain some kids in a forest. "It's just trees, Daddy!"

Sisterly love!!!
Girl Power!!!

A bright, sunny spot in the grove of 250 foot tall trees.

Stay on the path.

Pixies in fern gully.

I just thought this was funny. I looked back and the girls were intently photographing every little twig, fern, rivulet and bug.

One of the many walk through trees.

AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Looks like a rock in the creek doesn't it? It's a log from a long time ago. We hiked probably two miles on this trip.

Back in downtown San Francisco Sarah wanted to get her picture in front of the statue dedicated to Lillie Hitchcock Coit. She's the one the Coit Tower is named after. Did I tell you her story? When she was a young girl she was recued by firefighters and she was enamored with them from then on. This is a statue dedicated to the firemen who rescued her. Sarah loves this statue. She's (Sarah not Lillie) not grumpy, she just woke up from her nap back over the GG bridge.

Back to Coit Tower. This time it was open so we went up inside to the top to look out at the city. This is looking south toward the Market District with the Transamerica Pyramid.

After Coit Tower we headed to Ghirardeli Square for dinner at McCormick & Kuleto's. It's an upscale restaurant that overlooks SF Bay and the Olympic Swim Club of San Francisco. This was the view out the window we were sitting at for our dinner.

San Francisco Day 2

Day two started out bright and early, well early for a vacation with two girls that like to sleep in. We had to be at the pier by 9am to catch a ferry out to Alcatraz Island.

Don't lean over too far, you might fall in.

That's Shari, Riley, Sarah and Janet on the top deck.

Looking back at the pier and Nob Hill.

We passed by Pier 39.


Looking south toward the Bay Bridge. Beautiful sunrise.

Looking toward our destination.

Chilly morning.

WARNING!!!

The white building in the forground is not the prison. It's the administration building and the remnants of the old gold rush and Civil War era fort. The bottom two floors were built to hold soldiers that protected the bay during the gold rush era an the top two floors were added just before and during the Civil War era. The building in the background and on top of the island is the actual prison where they started housing prisoners in 1934.

After the federal government abandoned the island in 1963 it sat empty until Native Americans occupied it for 18 month in 1969 and 1970. The Park Service is trying to keep the graffiti as part of the history of the island.

This is the old Social Hall for the staff. It was destroyed by fire during the occupation by the Native Americans.

My beautiful ladies before we headed up the hill to the prison.

The gulls are permanant residents.

This is the intake area of the prison.

They gave us headphones and an mp3 player with directions and a tour around the prison. It was kinda eerie. I paused mine one time and there wasn't anyone talking. There were hundreds of people wandering around and no one was talking.

This is a solitary confinement cell. It was in the same area as the infirmary. It had a solid door and they could close the door and turn off the light.

This is the infirmary with the solitary cells on the bottom right. They guys in the infirmary could look out the windows to the left and see the city in the distance.

This was the visiting area. No physical contact. Just the glass window.

Mandy in one of the general cells.

In the dining hall at the end of the tour. They're still working on the prison. All the walls have the same paint that was there when it was closed. Even the linoleum under our feet was the same that was there almost 50 years ago.

Back outside and on the north end of the island were the physical facilities. This is the main storage and construction facilities. They still use it. It's falling apart because of the salt air and being abandoned for so long, but it's still in use. At the far end is where they have a 1925 fire engine that's still in use. The park ranger that's in charge of it's care actually asked us in and showed it to us. He was really chatty. Full of information and wanting to share it all. Brian and I had a hard time leaving.

Enjoying time with my daughter on the ride back to SF.

Lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. Really loud, but the food was good.

What do teenage girls do at lunch while on vacation? Text! Silly question.

After lunch we got tickets for a ride on a bus converted to look like a cable car. It was the same company as the duck ride. The guy who drove this wasn't as fun as Cap'n Jeff the duck driver, but we had fun.

Along the way we saw this little motorcycle propelled thing. The kid looked like he was having fun, no?

The cable car bus took us across the Golden Gate bridge where I took this picture looking back at SF.

What a beautiful family.

The statue in the forground is in tribute to all the sailors who shipped out of SF during WWII, a lot of whom never came home.

Back in SF we went down some very steep streets. I was glad the bus had a low gear.

How would you like to live on this street. Good thing it doesn't snow there. Could you imagine a skiff of snow on that sidewalk? You'd end up in the Market District before you could stop. Beautiful architecture all around the city. At this block it was built after the 1906 earthquake.

Down in the Market District and Sharri wanted a picture of something ahead and I put my camera out the window and just shot. Hah.

Looking up (West) Lombard Street. Remember that name? The joke for the drivers was, "What's the crookedest street in the nation?" We'd all say Lombard and he'd reply, "Wall Street."

That night we finally made it to Coit Tower. It was closed but it was impressive anyway.

And so was the view from the parking lot. I love night views of cities. Reminds me of the sight from One Tree Hill in Auckland.

That night we also took in the sights and sounds of Pier 39. This is a little old lady that does a show for the crowds.

Looking toward Ghirradeli Square along the wharf.

Silly girls. Must be getting late. Time to go back to the hotel.