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.

So, we went to San Francisco for our Spring Break this year. Didn't want to do the same old Disneyland thing but wanted to go somewhere fun and exciting. It's been 15 years since Janet and I went, so we thought we'd take the kids and check it out. We left Tuesday the 6th after work and flew into Oakland, hopped in our rental car and drove over the Bay Bridge into downtown SF to stay at the Marriott. Wednesday morning we slept in a bit then went down to the wharf to meet our neighbors at the Aquarium of the Bay and hang out with them and take in the sites.

Street performers were everywhere. They loved having their pictures taken (for a tip).

Once in the aquarium we saw lots of the wildlife that lives in the bay. (not them...the jellyfish in the background).


Looks like either a hold up or he's sliding down the glass. All I could think of was Patrick from Sponge Bob Square Pants. That cartoon has ruined aquariums and documentaries for me forever.

Don't know if any of you have ever picked out your very own pearls, have you? These vendors guarentee that there's a pearl in every shell. They must x-ray them or something. Anyway, we did this at Disney World too. You look in the bucket and pick out the clam you want, then the helper opens it up and pulls out your pearl. Then they try to sell you the setting and all the peripherals...but that's not the story here. Sarah got a huge pearl and had it set, but Amanda had twin pearls in hers. She decided to not have hers set at that time. I took a long video of this and not too many pictures, sorry.

What trip isn't complete without your picture with the sea lions of Pier 39. They've actually sunk boats moored here. That's why they have thier own docks to lounge on.

Then it was off to ride the ducks! The old naval amphibious trucks. I caught this picture as we were walking down the Embarcadero on our way to catch one. The folks on the boat were having a blast.

Here we are about to boar our duck.

This is one of the buildings that was pointed out on our land tour. We started chuckling as the driver started to tell us the story of the building. Evidently some famous people stayed in this hotel while getting thier start in show business...Bette Middler, Barry Manilow, Robin Williams...well the driver was looking at us because of our strange reaction and we reminded him that we were from Utah. This after he'd asked our neighbor how many wives she had. Duh!

Sarah found some sunglasses that she liked. Doesn't she look cool?

We were all issued quackers when we boarded. While on the tour the driver played music to enhance the tour and we were encouraged to quack along. It was quite funny. You could tell the locals from the tourists and visitors to the city. The locals just went about their business while the visitors were looking up to see the strange site and weird noises.

Don't we have cute daughters?

Got kinda chilly when we dove into the bay and started driving around some of the piers.

But the captain (he's a captain while on the water and a driver while on land, actually has a captains license and bus driver license) let some of the folks drive the boat around the bay. We might have topped out at 3 knots.

This was the view from our duck looking back at downtown SF. Beautiful day, no? We had sunny warm weather the whole time we were there. The locals and shop owners kept telling us how lucky we were.

Back to Pier 39 for dinner after riding the duck. Just before we went into the resaurant I turned around to see this site. That's Coit Tower on the left and the Trans America Tower on the right and in the background. You can see how the flags are standing out straight. It was quite breezy, but we (or at least I) didn't even notice or care.

No tours to the top of the Trans America Tower (rats!) but we'll go to the top of Coit tower in a couple of days. Stay tuned for photos of that.

Happy kids. Waiting for dinner at Swiss Louis Italian & Seafood Restaurant. Great food.

Happy full kids. Naw. Just another photo of our beautiful daughters.

After dinner we were walking around the pier checking out the sites and shops and ran across this hall of mirrors. We had a lot of fun playing in here for more than half an hour. Notice the rubber gloves on our hands. They distributed them to us so we wouldn't smudge the mirrors as we held our hands out in front of us. Smart idea. Except it didn't work for the little girl I saw run right into a mirror, head first. Poor thing looked like one of those sparrows that runs into a plate glass window then looks around to see if anyone saw it, then runs away. I didn't get a picture of that, but I'll always remember it.

Our neighbor, Brian, trying to blow up his glove over his head. He never did quite get it all the way up. But we all had a laugh watching him try.

Just before we stepped into the hall of mirrors this container ship went by. They were going by all day, but in the fading sun and with the boats in the foreground, it just looked pretty.

News from Central Utah...

Well you haven't heard from me in a while and I get nagged by Mom all the time so I thought I'd put this on the blog.

Sarah has joined the Provo Recreation Volleyball League. She has been practicing for the past couple of weeks and she will be assigned to a team this week.

I went to some of the practices and watched. She's pretty darn good. She has a knack (sp?) for the game. With a little more practice and playing time she'll do great. We're looking forward to watching her play this next month or two.

I looked into signing her up at a club team here in the valley...NOT!!! They wanted $800-$900. Yikes!!! She's gonna try out for the freshman team at school this summer. That will give her a lot of playing time. In the mean time I'll be practicing with her in the back yard.

I'd show you some pictures but my camera walked away. I'm looking on-line right now to purchase a new one. When I get it I'll take some pics of her playing.

LONG, LONG TIME...

Okay, It's been almost a year. I've had the mistaken idea that I need to post photos with everything. Sad to say, I don't take that many photos. I'll do better.

Thought I'd catch everybody up on what happened over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Only had to work half a day on Wednesday. Got home around 2pm and decided to help Janet with a little bit of laundry. Found the clothes still wet so I turned the dryer back on and let them fluff. While we were waiting for that I mentioned that RC Willey was having a sale on beds so Janet and I went to the store to see if there was a bed we might want to buy. Janet has been putting up with my extra firm bed for years, so I thought it was time that she get a softer bed for her hip. It took a couple of hours but we found one that we both like.

Back to the laundry. Went back a couple of hours later and they're still wet. Did it once more, just in case I did something wrong. OOPS!! By this time it's almost 7pm and we've contacted the neighbors to play Nertz. Have you heard about our Nertz games? I'll tell you sometime. Anyway, I called the neighbors back and asked them if we could use their dryer to do a couple of loads. They are so nice. Well, we played cards 'til almost 11pm and I retreived our last load of clothes from their house. Thanks again Dave and Nancy.

Thanksgiving morning...I don't remember...I slept through it. Not really. Got up around 9am and watched a little tv and got ready for the day while Janet slaved away in the kitchen. Sarah and I went to the grocery store to use the "turkey bucks" that we had. It was the last day they were valid and we had $11.50 worth. Janet and Sarah and I are gonna use the turkey as the main portion of a Christmas dinner box to leave on someones doorstep here in the next couple of weeks. I heard that someone nearby lost their job just recently.

So, after getting things ready we loaded up the car and raced Eric and Britnee up the freeway to Grandma and Grandpa Schmalz's home. We had Eric and Britnee, Jessica and Josh, Sarah, DeAnn and her family and Karen and Tim there. Two long tables and lots of food. DeAnn brought stuffin' muffins. You bake the stuffing in muffin pans. I thought that was a pretty neat little trick. All the food was great and I overdid it, of course. Then while I slept it off the kids helped their mother put things away. I didn't get to say goodbye to anyone.

Friday morning we woke up and started cleaning our bedroom to make room for the new bed. Forgot all about the dryer not working. Well, I was hesitant to call out a repairman at the prices I was sure they would charge on a holiday weekend. I happened to be talking to the Bishop and asked him who he uses to fix appliances. He suggested one of our neighbors down the road and he came over to "take a look" with his tool bag in tow. We tore the thing apart and tested everything you can imagine. It came down to the heat sensor on the exhaust port. One inch long, quarter inch wide, plastic part that costs $10.00. And they had one at the parts store, in stock. I ran over and picked it up and put it in and the dryer is working great now. Could you imagine the cost of having a repairman out to do that? I figure well over a hundred dollars. We're gonna get a gift certificated for our neighbor and give it to him because he wouldn't take our money.

Saturday was the "BIG GAME." For those of you who don't live in Utah, that's the BYU vs Utah football game. Some have come to calling it the holy war. I don't subscribe to that because their are plenty of Mormons at the University of Utah. Heck, even the president of BYU is a graduate of Utah. What's even more ironic is that the president of Utah is a graduate of BYU. Huh? That's right. Anyway...The only thing that counts is that BYU won this particular game on Saturday. We went to our other neighbors house and they hosted us to a brunch and their 106 inch screen tv to watch the game. We had fun and food and plenty of it. Well, maybe not enough fun, because we wound up playing for Nertz at our house later that evening.

All in all it was a fun holiday and I'm looking forward to the Christmas season coming up. I hope all my family was happy and full of turkey. Here's wishing all of you a Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas.

Frosty Mornings at American Fork Boat Harbor

I work for American Fork City. We have a boat harbor on Utah Lake. We leave the gates open all winter for the ice fishermen to access the lake. I drive down there a few times each winter to check out the icebergs that are driven up on the jetty or skip rocks on the ice to see how far I can get one out there (it sounds really cool on thin ice.) Once or twice a winter an inversion occurs and the air just over the lake is super cold while the mountain benches are warmer. Here are some pictures that I took this morning while down at the harbor.

8:30 am and the fog is still obscuring the sun.

The fog creates a coat of frost on the twigs of bushes and trees and continues to build each day as long as the weather doesn't get too high. This morning it was 5 to 10 degrees. It probably won't get above 25 degrees today.

You can see the tracks of the ice fishermen out across the ice. They'll disappear in the next storm. The ice here is probably 10 to 12 inches thick.

This is our "lighthouse" or marker. You can see this piece of pipe for miles out on the lake. It's about 10 feet tall and 6 feet in diameter and painted yellow. The street lamp is the light part of the lighthouse.

Very beautiful frost on barbed wire.

A few weeks ago I took a picture of this elk with my camera phone. You coudn't really see him all that well. Well, he hasn't come up to the fence since then so I can get a better photo of him. You can also see the frost on the fence and bullrush in the foreground.

Christmas...FINALLY!!

Sorry it's taken so long to get photo's of Christmas on here. This is from just my camera. I need to download photo's from Janet's camera and add them. Enjoy the photo's...

Janet really enjoyed our time with G'ma and G'pa locked in the house because of the snowstorms that were pounding Utah during the holidays.

We spent most of our time playing games like domino's and...

push the dummy (thanks Donna and family.)

Christmas dinner was delicious, but it wasn't the same without Linda and her family. We were prepared and looking forward to their visits.

We had over a foot of snow by Christmas day. Add another foot a week later and we're still driving on snow packed roads today.

Sign of the times? Both G'ma and G'pa were playing with their new digital cameras.

Sarah was quite happy with all her new games and clothes...

Mandy really enjoyed her wrapping paper...

Merry Christmas little one.