San Francisco in a day

San Francisco in a day was fun but I wish we could have taken a couple of days there.  (Honestly I wish we could have taken a couple of days every place that we stayed.)

We unhitched the trailer and left it at our site in Half Moon Bay and drove into San Fran.  I didn't know it at the time but Tyran was very nervous about driving in the city.  We had found a reasonably priced garage to park the Durango but it was pretty much right in the middle of everything.  Thank goodness for GPS we got to the garage safely and then began our journey on foot.

We walked a couple of blocks to Union square where we knew we could purchase trolley tickets.  We had to wait in line for a good 15 or 20 minutes to buy them and we bought an all day ticket which, it turns out, we didn't need.

Jilli and McKenna in front of one of the hearts
located in Union Square.

Once we got the tickets we realized that the trolley's were jam packed and that if we wanted to get anywhere quickly we would need to keep hoofing it around the city and hope to catch a trolley that was less crowded as we meandered around.

McKenna really wanted to see "Chinatown" so we check the GPS and headed out.  On our way we  saw a huge Cathedral so we decided to stop and check it out.  It was Grace Cathedral and it is Episcopalian.  I always thought that only Catholics had cathedrals.  Learned something new.

Kids on the steps of The Grace Cathedral

It was a beautiful building I would love to go back and take pictures of the inside.  Seriously, the stained glass windows were incredible.

There is a labyrinth that is outside in the courtyard (and I guess there is one just inside the cathedral as well and they do yoga there.).  So Ty and the kids decided to take some time and walk the outside labyrinth.  If you are wondering about why people walk labyrinths you can go HERE

Walking the labyrinth

Once we were done there we made our way into Chinatown.  It was very cool.  Listening to people speaking in another language and seeing a slice of a different culture was very neat.

George was impressed by the graffiti.
It was pretty cool.

A lovely shop that was selling a myriad of different things.
Can you see the dragon heads in the window? 

An alleyway in Chinatown.
I could have spent all day just in this area
taking pictures and I would have been
content.  The kids?
Not so much.

Cool statue

It was in Chinatown that we caught the trolley so that we could make it down to Fisherman's Wharf.  It was still pretty crowded and we had to sit on the inside of the trolley but that was okay. At least they can say that they rode one!

We made it down to the wharf.  We were heading there to go to the aquarium (which will be a post by itself).  It is a really fun place full of people to watch and shops to buy from.

Here is where we decided to have lunch.
Delicious food.

Jona tried his hand at eating a half of a Dungeness crab.

The carousel on the pier.

And the famous sea lions

A golden cowboy.  This was one of those guys that if you put
money in the bucket he would move.  We didn't put money
in his bucket.

 After our trip to the aquarium it was time to head back to get the car.  We had to be out of the garage by a certain time or we would end up paying more.  When we went to find a trolley to take us back up the hills we found the line to be probably an hour to two hours long!  It was crazy.  So we hiked the hills of San Francisco.

Which was cool.  I got this shot of a trolley coming up the street with Alcatraz out in the Bay.  My cousin actually was able to get the photographer out of this shot for me but I didn't have time to find that picture so you get the one that has the guy in silhouette.

It was actually the next day that we drove across the bridge but I figured I would put the pictures in this post.   This was another time that was not one of the best moments on the trip.  The kids wanted to see if they could hold their breath as we drove across.  Well Tyran almost made it but the kids, of course, didn't.

Jillian kept on insisting that she had held her breath the whole time and when her brothers and sister refused to believe her she went into a funk.  She did not want to get out of the car to have her picture taken at all.

Driving across the bridge

On the bridge

This was as close to the bridge as she would get.
So we told the kids to get back in the car and Ty and I
walked over closer so I could take some other pictures.

Goodbye San Francisco.