San Francisco - Fisherman's Wharf - Summer Vacation 2016

We put Auntie Marilyn in charge of our daily itinerary as she knew San Francisco. She came armed with a map of the city, and she also snapped up the map provided by the hotel with all of the tourist places circled. It took her two days of standing around twisting her maps upside, downside, and muttering under her breath before she realized that the GPS on our Apple phones was a better solution and the reason we were getting to our planned destination.

Before we left Florida, each of us wrote down what we wanted to do, where we wanted to go, and who we wanted to see. The number one thing on my list was touring Alcatraz, but on arrival at our hotel I was told all the tickets were sold out for that tour. I checked the Internet anyway and discovered that if we got down to the pier by 4:00 am. we might get lucky enough to get several of the 100 tickets they give out each morning. While I really, really, really wanted to see Alcatraz (it's been on my bucket list) I didn't want to see it enough to stand in 50 degree weather that early in the morning. But I whined about it as much as I could as we continued on with our day.

Pier 39 - We drove the first day to hit all of the places far, far, away. Plus, we were still sore from standing all day at the Pride Parade. We went to Pier 39 where there was parking available at $40 for the entire day. Tom pretended he didn't see that parking garage because, "$40!" and instead we saw a sign for parking for half that amount. We pulled into what looked like a covered lot for 25 condo owners. Cars were parked every which way and two guys in jeans were working the lot. We followed the first guy's directions and pulled up to a ticket gate where another guy told us to leave our keys and hand over the money. Our $20 got us four hours so, without questioning these guys, we handed over the money and the keys, and walked away from our car.

Me: "Am I the only one who is wondering if our car will be there when we get back?"

Madison: "Uh, no! I'm thinking the same thing. I mean the place was sketchy with two guys not even wearing matching shirts. How do we know that place was even legitimate?" 

Tom: "What are you talking about? It's fine."

Marilyn: "Hmmmm..."

We started out walking the pier. The weather was sunny, but chilly. Auntie Marilyn was dressed appropriately having been to San Francisco, and Madison and I had brought jeans, but Tom and Darcy were in shorts. It was cold for us Floridians. Darcy whined a lot, but I still insisted we walk along the ocean. The view was incredible and we even saw some seals sunning themselves on docks. I also got many glimpses of Alcatraz.

Fisherman's Wharf - From the pier we walked to the Wharf which reminded me of most of our Florida Gulf coastline; tourists, junk for sale, and boats. The food, however, sold directly on the streets was incredible. We ate a restaurant where Darcy ordered mac n' cheese off of the kid's menu much to my dismay, but not to my surprise. My Florida born children do not eat seafood. 

We strolled the wharf and shopped for food, clothes (Darcy bought a jacket), and souvenirs. There were a lot of things with Alcatraz on it, but I didn't purchase anything because I didn't tour it. The seabirds I thought were larger than those in Florida, and while we have some tame ones, these birds were gutsy. Oh, and full of poop that they just plopped out anytime they chose to. The sidewalks were full of bird poop, but Darcy did not get hit this time like she did on the Venice Beach Boardwalk.

Ghirardelli Square - We got back to the parking lot a couple of minutes before our end time to find our car still there parked sideways in front of two other cars. We all jumped up and down and cheered and quickly jumped into it once Tom got the keys.

Tom: "You are all ridiculous."

From there we drove along the waterfront until we came to the end where we found a free parking spot. We got out and walked and came upon Ghirardelli Square. We climbed into an elevator that opened up above to an area full of shops. There was a Ghirardelli ice cream shoppe and a chocolate shoppe, and because the ice cream line was out the door, we went into the chocolate shop. An employee stood at the entrance passing out wrapped Ghirardelli chocolate squares and we all debated about entering the shop multiple times since the exit was in a different area. We decided against it after Tom purchased multiple bars of various varieties of the chocolate.

Madison stayed in the square and shopped while the rest of us took the elevator back to the street where we crossed into a nice park area. Marilyn and Tom sat on a bench and Darcy and I walked down to the water where there was a nice little beach. As I sat there looking out at the different boats and the vastness of the ocean, I realized that there were people in there swimming laps. The water had to be in the 50's and many of the swimmers were not in wet suits. I couldn't figure out where they entered and exited, but later when we walked along the shore to return to the car we found it. These were some die hard swimmers.

We left the square and drove to an area with a walking bridge used for fishing and hiking. The adults got out and hiked about halfway out on to the water where I got another view of Alcatraz, the place I would not get to visit. We also got a beautiful view of the square where we had just been too.

Golden Gate Bridge - Back into our car we headed to the Golden Gate Bridge. Originally, Marilyn wanted to walk over it, but as it was nearing dusk and high traffic time we opted out of that and instead drove across it and parked at the little tourist area at the end. It was gorgeous there.

I expected the bridge to be prettier, but it was a red, rust color. While it was beautiful in its span the color was not as beautiful as our local Sunshine Skyway Bridge. We spent considerable time taking photos and enjoying the beauty. The whole city of San Francisco reminded me of Scotland, and this area was no different; rich, breathtaking colors, crisp, cool air, and amazing architecture. We hated to leave.

Sausalito - When Auntie Marilyn told Tom it was $7 to cross back over the bridge he decided a trip to Sausalito would be nice. It was. We drove through the city, along the water, looking at houses and the view. We stopped at a little market and bought wine, cheese, and fruit for our dinner as we were still full from our lunch. Tom tried hard to avoid crossing back over the Golden Gate Bridge, but he couldn't find a way and so we headed back across the bridge and back to our hotel for the evening.