San Francisco

We spent the third day of our vacation driving to and touring San Francisco. As we crossed the Oakland Bay, Bridge Brian told the children the cars headed the other direction were underneath us. As we drove out of the city later that evening, I couldn't help thinking about the earthquake that caused the upper level to partially collapse onto the lower level.


Our first destination was Lombard Street. It is referred to as "the crookedest street in the world" with its 8 switchbacks. The picture I took as we drove down didn't give an accurate portrayal, so instead I'm posting a hilly street. We learned cable cars were invented after Andrew Smith Hallidie witnessed horses stumbling while trying to pull horsecars up the hilly streets.

We drove across the Golden Gate Bridge and then went to Muir Woods. We enjoyed Muir Woods so much that I'm going to give it a separate post.

We spent Thursday at Fisherman's Wharf. There we took a boat tour of San Francisco Bay. We had the option of wearing headphones for a narrated tour. I was impressed that the boys listened intently the whole time. Among the sites we saw were Alcatraz Island and Angel Island (the Ellis Island of the west coast). The picture above is of Alcatraz.

After our tour we stopped by Boudin's for some San Francisco-style sourdough bread. Most of the children liked it. We then ate lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. We heard elephants stampede and saw gorillas thump their chests. We even experienced a thunderstorm without getting wet. After lunch we walked down Pier 39 to see the sea lions. They were loud and quite smelly!