Vacation 2010 San Francisco

There's a reason the kids have not ever been to San Francisco. It is the filthiest, hobo infested, no parking places city I know. However, it is a super fun place to visit.... for a tourist. So we put on our tourist faces and enjoyed the city for what it is.



The next leg of our vacation was in San Francisco. We started out our day with a stop in the ghetto, trying to find a bathroom for Mike. (Evidently the rubber bands were not holding and he was willing to risk his life, the lives of his family, and the lives of his friends in order to find a bathroom ; ) We then ascended onto the Bay Bridge and were happily surprised that our Fastrak responder for the toll roads down here, worked for the bay bridge as well. We drove across it as fast as possible, knowing that if there was an earthquake... we would likely end up on top of the cars under us.
We drove around and found steal-of-a-deal parking for $20/a day instead of $30/a day. (sarcastic) Then we made a mad dash for the Alcatraz tour we had booked ahead of time. (Word to the wise....the tours can fill up weeks in advance.)
I didnt think that the kids would enjoy the headphone tour that much...and quite frankly thought they would be bored out of their minds... but I was mistaken. The girls LOVED the tour and Reed was interested the majority of the time.

After we arrived back to the wharf... we were starving... so we ate the traditional clam chowder bowls at Fisherman's Wharf. MMMMMmmmmmm. We then met up with Mike & Erin and explored the shops on our way to Ghiradelli Square.


At Ghiradelli Square, we went to the packed Ice Cream shop and ordered assorted desserts. (oh yes, if I forgot to mention it, San Francisco is notoriously expensive too.) To take the family to ice cream it was $45. So we wanted to enjoy the ambiance we paid for to the fullest. Taking advantage of a foreign tourist packed room (standing room only) we started to sing "Happy Birthday" to Mike at the top of our lungs. The entire restaurant joined in and, lucky for us, an Asian tourist caught it all on video. Mike says its up there in his most embarrassing moments. (By the way it was not Mike's birthday)Erin & I then retrieved the cars.... mingled with shopping on the way back..... And we headed to the golden gate. Dan made a few suicide attempts since there is one off of the bridge almost every day..... but he never succeeded.
The entire trip Reed was mimicking Heidi's over-the-top picture posing, so we shot some pictures of both of them. (All poses were selected by Heidi, of course)

We shot some pictures and headed to Sausalito in search of Fish-n-chips. After a diligent search and finding nothing, we settled for a Mexican restaurant. We said our good-byes to The Johnsons and headed for our hotel. In the morning we stopped in China Town to get some pastries and I got a 4 foot long baguette. (simply for the fun of it.) As I was getting pastries, Dan turned the car off. And since it had a volatile battery the entire trip.... it wouldn't start when we got back in. Theres nothing funner than trying to get a jump-start on a one way street in the middle of china town. This picture is of a china man that simply walked up to the car and stared at the engine for at least 10 minutes.... he never said a word to us or looked at us. (I don't think he could have fixed it since a Honda is Japanese and he was clearly Chinese.)
Eventually we got a jump-start and headed to Lombard street. We went down the street, lined with tourists at the top and bottom, and once we were at the bottom Dan announced as loud as he could to at least 50 tourists......."Boy...That street sure is crooked!". There were a few chuckles and a few blank stares. We then drove through the city looking for hobos to poke with our 4 foot long baguette ;) We found one screaming preacher but after we circled around the block to actually poke him, (or offer him the baguette) but he had left. So we ate the baguette.