Second Day San Francisco

On the morning of the second day of being in San Francisco I didn't take a walk.  I went down to the hotel lobby and discovered that the little coffee shop was actually a Starbucks.  So, I ordered my standard, "large coffee".  On the counter was a copy of the local newspaper.  Needless to say, the cover story was the plane crash.  It was so surreal to be in San Francisco, to be on that runway yesterday, to comment on how the approach to the runway was over water and so short...

Coffee in hand, I scanned the travel brochures in the rack, considered all we had access to do from this point and made the final decision to go to Muir Woods.  I thought that the kids would get a kick out of seeing the mammoth red wood trees and I knew the grown ups were game.  So, I called the hotel's concierge and he helped to make the arrangements for the 11:00 tour.

After a harrowing bus ride (the driver must have forgotten that he was driving a giant motor coach and not a Miata), we arrived and began our walk through the giants.  Each kid posed for the perfunctory tree hugging photo.

Nicholas, the tree hugger.

Summer's giving the tree some lovin'.

How cute is this? 

A candid picture of Shawn...also very cute!

Summer has really taken to enjoying her solitude and I love "catching" her when she's not looking.

Kilroy was here, but... 

After our walk in the woods, we chose to get off the bus in Sausalito, wander around, have some lunch, and do a little shopping.  Sausalito is a town that looks and feels like being in another country.  There are tiny restaurants with sidewalk seating, funky shops, and loads of people walking and biking.  Along the seawall there were street performers and artists peddling their wares. 

Every one's favorite was the rock balancing guy.  He squatted among the seawall rip wrap, proudly displaying his art.  The picture I took of his work was useless.  It looked like rocks.  To get a good picture, you'd have to be quite low and close to get the proper perspective.  I Googled "rock balancing Sausalito" and came across:http://billdan.blogspot.com/ which is his blog.  This picture from the same site, really shows him and his amazing work!

 

                                                                                Selfie

Summer and Nicholas actually sitting next to each other and conversing!

This guy and his dog entertained us while we waited for the ferry that was to take us back across the San Francisco Bay.

This ferry line also services all of the Golden Gate Bridge bike riders who only wanted to cross the bridge one way.  The entire interior of the ship was filled with hundreds of rented bikes and their adventurous riders.

Once we were back on the San Francisco side of the bay, we made a quick pit stop in the hotel and then proceeded to get in line for the cable car.  The wait was probably about 45 minutes and we could have walked to China Town faster, but riding a cable car, hanging from the railing is a "San Francisco treat"!  We watched the workers manually operate the turntable, listened to a street performer play guitar, and used our iPhones to learn new factoids about the cable car system and history.

On one side of the gripman, Shawn stood and my dad and Nicholas sat.  Nicholas REALLY wanted to stand, but no.

On the opposite side, my mom sat and Summer and I stood.  Summer was so excited to be able to stand.  Grandma had a white knuckled grip on Summer, needless to say.

(Note my toothy grin.  If I mashed my teeth together, I figured you couldn't see the chipped section of my front tooth.)

 



 

We got off the cable car a few streets away from the main drag of China Town.  While we were walking we passed a school's play yard.  Luckily, in Florida we usually only have to write notices in English and Spanish.  I can't even imagine having to do that for all written communication.

We found a restaurant for dinner.  Sadly, they could have benefited from my proofreading skills. The "savteed terder" was delicious!

And the jellyfish was also surprisingly very good!

But the duck tongue...not so much.  Who knew ducks have a bone in their tongue?  Crunchy!  Blech.  Even after I figured out how to strip the meat off the bone, it still wasn't worth the effort.

What a great ending to an adventure filled day!