I noticed the girls had a 'teacher's workday' holiday from school on Friday, March 9th. We have never been tourists in San Francisco, so I took a vacation day and we drove up Thursday night and woke up in The City By The Bay!! Here are the girls riding the great symbol of San Francisco - the Cable car...
Our hotel (The Lombard Inn) was near Fisherman's wharf, so we began Friday by walking to this tourism mecca. Along the way, Charlotte was kidnapped by Captain Hook...
Also along the way was world-famous Boudouin's Bakery - home of tempting sourdough treats...
California Sea Lions - famous denizens of the Wharf since the '87 Loma Prieta earthquake. No one knows why they took up residence here after the quake. Maybe they were timing the real estate market...
The day started off predictably chilly (mid-fifties) and overcast, but got increasingly prettier throughout the weekend. Tulips were blooming at Pier 39 and the girls were nice enough to pose with the wharf and the tulips...
In the Wharf area is the Musee Mechanique - a collection of 19th & 20th century arcade games. A signature installation is "Laughing Sal" (pictured below), for a quarter, she laughs out-loud, rocking back and forth and waving her arms in uncontrolled hysterics. As you can see from Charlotte's expression, this kind of entertainment doesn't translate well to the 21st century...
A recent addition to the San Francisco waterfront is a streetcar system (not to be confused with the cable cars). The system cleverly bought and restored cars from all over the world and uses them on the San Fran system. We rode one from the Wharf to the Ferry building. Ours was from Turin, Italy. Here is their newest car- this one's from San Diego...
The Ferry Building (I know, insert you're own gay joke here - I'm not gonna do it!) has been amazingly converted into a high-end Farmer's Market. Lesli was thrilled to see all the organic offerings...
The girls were fascinated with the live seafood offerings, especially the crabs...
taking a rest...
We bought cheese, fruits, organic beef hot dogs and had a picnic. I convinced Savannah to try a kumquat, and snapped a photo when the sour reaction kicked in...
Here Charlotte fends off my efforts to get her to try one...
Eventually she did and loved it. We took a ferry ride across the bay over to Saulsalito. It was a cheap, fun way to see the bridges, Alcatraz and other sights. Lesli on the deck of our ferryboat, with the TransAmerica spire visible in the distance...
In Saulsalito (SF skyline in the distance) Savannah and I pose with Luciano Pavarotti -er, Charlotte...
Returning to the city, we took our first cable car ride from the Ferry building to Chinatown...
In Chinatown, we used maps & some guts to twist down alleys and find the last remaining Chinese Fortune Cookie Factory in Chinatown. We were given free 'defective' cookies that hardened before they could be folded into the classic shape. Here are the girls outside the factory...
There is no lack of kitsch in Chinatown. Charlotte enjoyed taking my picture in a souvenir store while wearing an "Emperor's Hat". I didn't feel royal...
Hoping back on the cable car, we rode to the top of Lombard Street. The girls had a ball going down the sidewalk (which is actually all stairs). Here they are hopping up and down at the bottom of the "crookedest street in the world"...
And here they are at the top, with a commanding view of the bay...
Saturday began sunny and warm. We had breakfast at Mel's Diner and struck out for the Golden Gate Bridge. It was an incredibly beautiful sight on a magnificent day...
We walked partway across. One of the darker aspects of the bridge is its use as a suicide vehicle. Someone had the foresight to place a suicide hot-line phone at the beginning of the bridge walkway...
From the bridge, we headed to Alamo Square - one of many green parks in the city. This one has a commanding view of the city skyline and is encircled by the classic Victorian homes that are a hallmark of San Francisco...
We zipped over to Golden Gate Park for the afternoon where we sampled the carousel...
Which was housed in a beautiful building...
The girls enjoyed some of the outdoor sculptures...
And the fanciful Conservatory of Flowers...
Around lunchtime our friend Noam Shendar (of Noam and Rachel fame) met us. Here is Noam posing in front of his temple...er, no, actually he's posing in front of the Japanese Tea Garden
and what Japanese Tea Garden would be complete without cherry blossoms?
Once the girls found out they could harass Noam, they gave him no quarter. Here they convinced him that the van's roof was falling and they had to hold it up. Noam gamely plays along
As is my custom, I got fixated on something to photograph. This time, it was flowers in Golden Gate Park. I'll spare you the 100's of examples, but will share these heavenly California Poppies
and these tulips, teasingly close to blooming. It really is a gorgeous park...
Of course where there are tulips, windmills can't be far away. This is one of two that face the Pacific Ocean...
At our exit from the park, we crashed a wedding happening in the shadow of the windmill and these towering cypress trees....
Noam is an excellent guide and helped us navigate to the top of Twin Peaks (yeah, linguistically I know it is impossible to be on top of Twin Peaks ("pick one!")), and took this photo of the 4 of us. As if on cue, the classic San Francisco fog is rolling through the Golden Gate Bridge behind us...
click on this one and you can see the towers of the bridge succumbing to the fog...
Also from Twin Peaks...
We capped off Saturday with another cablecar ride to Chinatown for authentic Chinese dinner. Noam snapped another family photo - this was at the top of Lombard, at sunset.
While waiting for the cablecar, the girls found a new Noam-related game. They swung around this streetsign singing "...round and around and around we go/where we stop Noam knows..."). He is such a patient soul...
When we got on the cablecar, it was packed! Lesli, Noam and I got to do the classic 'stand on the fender and hold on' thing. This is my hand and Noam's head in mid-ride...
Dinner was excellent, and entertainment was provided by a puffer-fish in the restaurant's aquarium. He was very friendly...
On the cablecar ride home from dinner, SBK, now tall enough to reach the strap...
After two days of hard sightseeing, the girls slept well on our final night in San Francisco...
On Sunday we met Noam at a park near San Jose where he and Rachel keep their horses. Ever the gentleman, Noam saddled up the pair for our girls. Here is Savannah atop her new best friend, Juliette...
And Charlotte riding Lukka, a pretty Icelandic horse...
Our trip ended and one last surprise was a stretch of road from San Jose to the Central Valley called the Pacheco Pass. It looked like the Tuscan hill-country in Italy...
The ride home and Charlotte succumbs to Mr. Sandman. It was a fantastic, unforgettable trip.
Next up - Kauai in April! Until then, Aloha!
