San Francisco

On the 3rd day of our tour we headed in to the city of San Francisco. The city by the Bay. We had decided to stay in Pleasant Hill, outside of Walnut Creek for our 2 nights in town. We bought BART (Bay Area Regional Transit) tickets and rode the trains into the city and then also bought MUNI passes to ride the Trolly's/Cable Cars all day and the city buses anytime. Mass transit with 4 kids under 9 years old is frightening. I texted Jennifer once we got on the BART (standing on a platform for 10 minutes with 4 excited children ready to board a train...the correct train, in an orderly fashion and to do so with urgency...well, you get the idea) that I now understood why urban parents limit themselves to one or two children. I imagined if I lived in the bigger cities I wouldn't be so willing to cart 4 small-ish children around all the time.

40 minutes later we exited BART at Embarcadeo Station on Market Street. We explored a street fair and then stood in line for the trolley on California Street. Remember that family we noticed the morning before 3 hours south? Well, at that very moment we were standing with about 20 people at the corner of Market and California in San Francisco and Isabella looks 3 feet across the trolley tracks and says...there's the family from the Best Western. What are the odds of that happening at that very moment?

We waited for a long time for 2 trolley cars, the first one was full, we waited for the second one. We wanted the seats that faced the road so that we could hang off the side of the trolley car (just like the Rice Rony commercial). Each of the kids took a turn with Rami hanging off the side of the trolley while we rode up to the top of the hill and down the other side. We rode back up to China Town and then exited the train to walk to Fisherman's Wharf. No, I did not hang from the trolley car. While we were on the trolley car the brakeman was chit chatting with us. He asked if all the kids were ours. That question always cracks me up. yes, they are all ours. He then made the very statement I had made in my text just one hour earlier. "Well, then you're definitely from the suburbs and not from around here". I laughed and then he decided to guess where we were from. He stood there, working the brake and staring at us. A fee moments later he announced...San Diego, most likely Carlsbad. Wow! Not a bad guess...we are 45 minutes inland from Carlsbad. He said he was looking for tan lines but we were wearing long sleeves.

We walked 20 blocks through China Town (downhill, thank goodness) and made our way to pier 45 for lunch. A wonderful lunch at Boudin's bread company. Perfect views from the semi-private dining room. The ROCK was enshrouded in fog in the Bay and the excitement for our afternoon tour of Alcatraz grew.

After lunch we walked down the Wharves to Pier 33 for our Alcatraz tour. We boarded the Ferry and stepped foot on the Alcatraz Island. Once the home of the worst of the bad guys and now a part of the US Department of Parks.

We all thoroughly enjoyed touring Alcatraz. Instead of guided tours you are given a personal headset and you follow the directions the narrator gives you. The audio tour was produced by the Discovery channel and whenever possible they used the voices of the actual guards and inmates. The sound effects were amazing and you stood their picturing it all in your mind. The kids were really paying attention too (even Q). There was a riot in 1946 at Alcatraz and some guards were killed. During that part of the tour Isabella started to cry. She was very sad looking at the picture of the guard and listening to the tape. She turned her tour off and never put it back on again after that. Ava also said she was too overwhelmed to listen anymore and she cried a little too. I had to stop and give a summary at each stopping point for the girls who didn't want to listen to the audio tour. Sophia however, wanted to hear it all. She stood and listened and concentrated on every little part. Q got about half way through the tour and he fell asleep, but when he was awake he was listening and he still talks about the "gun gallery".

Ultimately, they won't let you leave naughty kids at the ROCK, so we decided to take the Ferry back to the mainland and eat dinner on Pier 39 and see the Sea Lions.

After dinner we strolled among the shops at Pier 39. Isabella found a store for left handed people called "Lefty's", she loved it. At the end of Pier 39 we were told there are Sea Lions. I expected one or two sea lions sitting on the dock. Geez...there were hundreds of barking sea lions stacked 2 high on 22 docks anchored at the end of Pier 39. Q really loved watching the sea lions and one sea lion shook his booty fin and Q thought that was hilarious of course.

At sunset we dragged 4 tired kids to the bus station across the street and stood for 30 minutes for an already crowded bus. We wedged our way in front of about 50 people trying to get on this bus. We stood in the aisle on the cross town bus and exited at Market street. Made our way back to the BART station and after getting on the wrong train and then getting on the right train and then making a transfer we finally found our way back to Pleasant Hill 2 hours later. The kids did wonderful. They literally walked or stood for almost 12 hours that day with no complaints or crying. They had amazing stories to tell and they had fun.