Wednesday we awoke, after a full night's sleep, to another day of beautiful clear skies and 60 degree temperatures. The kids and I got ready to hit the town while Andrew headed to work.
Stop 1. We walked from the hotel to our first stop, the Cable Car Museum. It was only about a half mile walk but it included a climb of one of San Francisco's famous hills. The kids were amazed and only complained a little. I think they were distracted somewhat with their awe over the size of the hill and impressed with themselves once they had climbed it. They couldn't wait to point it out to Andrew later on.
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| waiting for the cable car museum to open |
We all enjoyed the museum and were amazed by what it actually takes to run the cable cars but it was noisy and the kids were eager to move on to our next stop, an actual cable car stop. We had seen them the day before but today we got to ride them! And for our first ride we were incredibly lucky and had a private ride! The car was just coming into service for day and we were aboard right behind the gripman.
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| Inside the cable car headed down to the piers |
Stop 3 was an impromptu ride on a bay ferry tour. We made it to the pier just before the ferry was leaving and hopped aboard. The onboard audio tour kept un entertained for the next hour, especially and somewhat surprisingly to me, the discussion about Alcatraz Island and its history. Julia and Ben were enthralled by the Alcatraz tales and spent the next couple of days talking about "The Rock" and all they had learned!
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| "the most boring picture ever" according to Ben... but he asked to take it! lol |
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| escape from Alcatraz! |
After the ferry tour it was lunch time. I'll be honest and say that lunchtime is my least favorite meal on vacation. At home we each eat our own things - leftovers, sandwiches, etc. and can rarely agree on an acceptable meal for all. That doesn't change on vacation. It's best when we can bring picnic things and make our own meal. But that wasn't really an option for this part of the trip so I was left trying to find a compromise between two kids that never agree. Julia said "pizza", Ben said "burgers", I said "what about sushi?"(usually a favorite), nope. As I was beginning to lose my patience I just happened to look over the railing from where we standing and saw a restaurant called Wipe Out with a banner that advertised "pizza, burgers, tacos!" Thank You!! The kids are still talking about and the food was better than expected. We managed to have a great lunch and recharge a bit for the rest of our day.
Just upstairs from Wipe Out was the Aquarium of the Bay. This was truly the hit of the day. They focus on fish that are found in San Francisco bay and the surrounding waters. There were two highlights; first, the shark tunnels! Downstairs you walk through glass tunnels while sharks and rays and other fish swim around you. We listened to a lecture on sharks and all learned some new facts. Then we headed back to the upstairs where we found the touch tanks. Julia loved touching the sea anemones, leathery starfish, and sea cucumbers... mostly the anemones - they tickle your fingers! She made sure not to traumatize the sea cucumbers because we learned that their defense for predators is to puke up a portion of their guts - yuck!
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| jellies! |
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| anemone, leather sea star, and sea cucumber |
After the Aquarium of the Bay we meandered from Pier 39 back towards Fisherman's Wharf. We made a few stops to check out street performers, watch the bakers at Boudin, and buy souvenirs.
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| Julia learning the bongos |
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| bread - yum! |
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| sourdough turtle. Julia's new favorite bread! |
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| Ben morphed into a Pikachu after purchasing a souvenir hat! |
And finally there was chocolate and journaling. A perfect end to a beautiful day.
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