San Fran - Wednesday

Our second day in San Fran, we had so many things we wanted to see and were probably as little aggressive with everything that we did. First on the list was a cable car ride. We got to the Powell/Hyde line early enough that there wasn't a line. Lucky us! Colin and Nathan really thought it was cool riding the cable car (or train as Nathan called it).


We got off the cable car about 15 minutes before the cable car museum was suppose to open, but it didn't. So we went to Lombard Street. Walking. All the hills. With two kids in one stroller. Crazy people!

Anyway, after seeing the curviest street in America it was then off to Fisherman's Wharf. Nathan saw a giant paddle wheel (see picture) and kept saying "Wow, wow" over and over. He was very impressed. The paddle wheel was at the entrance to the historic boats that were on display so that was naturally the next stop.



I forgot to mention that this was the day the Olympic Torch relay was making it's only North American stop in San Francisco (and probably why the cable car museum was closed). I was very excited to see the torch but some annoying protesters made that impossible. The torch was supposed to go along Fisherman's Wharf right where we spent the whole day, but in order to foil the protesters, the route was changed. Really sad if you ask me. The Olympics is about the atheletes or should be. These people who use the Olympics to make a statement are just missing the point. Anyway, I'm going to get down from the soap box and get back to our day.

So next stop, and my favorite, the sea lions of Pier 39! Not as many as the last time that Bob and I were here. Must not be sea lion season. Still there were a lot. Colin and Nathan thought they were pretty neat too. Nathan really didn't want to leave the sea lions either and had one of his temper tantrums. He throws a pretty good tantrum. We were lucky with Colin, no tantrums like this but I digress.


Finally we found the Alcatraz tours sales booth, and all the tours were sold out for today. Not surprising. They did have tickets for the next day though. Now here was the problem, Colin really really really wanted to go on a boat ride. We were going to do the Alcatraz tour as the boat ride. The boat ride to Alcatraz Island was only 15 minutes or so. So I thought that we could do another boat ride before going back to the hotel for the night. Lucky for us, the Olympic Torch relay that was suppose to go through Fisherman's Wharf had all the streets blocked off so tickets sales were way down for the day, and we were able to find a boat tour of the bay easily.

The boat was a three level with the top open. Colin's choice was to ride on the bottom level where we were inside, nice and warm. I wanted to get a picture of Colin's expression when the boat start to go, he was soo excited and happy to finally be going on a boat ride. But I guess I took too many pictures because eventually Colin said, "Mom, put the camera away." I was happy to comply and just enjoy the rest of the boat ride.



Tomorrow, Alcatraz!